serendipity

This is time for lenoks. The weather was proudly perfect for their habitat (and us anglers, too). It was an earlier Sunday morning that Ksanchun and I decided to go on a long-overdue expedition in gangwon-province. Ksanchun’s invincible “remote office” is indeed a vehicle to perform various tasks including running at 65 mph.

Destination: HJ Valley - a two-hour east of Seoul, a small creek running through villages. I’ve never been to the place but my utmost trust for Ksanchun’s animal instinct and his experience told me that this is the place we can have total fun.

We started throwing lines around 9 am and for a while there hasn’t even been a nibble. Water temperature rose to 6 deg C but still cold for lenoks being active. Ksanchun caught the first one and we both witnessed the decent sized lenoks.

Just before the lunch break, we arrived at a shallow run right next to a local bed & breakfast. Ksanchun ostentatiously threw a long cast, and holy mother of Budda, a 28 cm-long lenok was fighting at the end of the line. I couldn’t do anything but sneak to the place where he caught the big one. And I started throwing lines wishing I had the same luck. My brown caddis was gliding on the surface passing the spot. Nothing happened. “Hey, Ksanchun, what did you use for the hook? Mine doesn’t...” Even before I finished the sentence, there was a splash catching my attention. Another big one from the point - a bigger one, exactly 31 cm! It was 대박. We didn’t expect the second one from the spot!

We were ready to take off to lunch. But, you know Ksanchun, he never stops. He decided to give it another try. We heard that big ones gather together and usually you see more than one big boy in a pool. But we already met 2 relatively big ones here! I don’t think Ksanchun truly expected to catch another one there, either.

He successfully presented the line where he should. His light brown midge naturally flowed down the run and moved toward the shore. The color of water, the bottom of the water to be exact, was too light, which means there are no sizable rocks for fish to hide. But, what do you know? There was a big movement, and that time we both knew this was the biggest of the three!

A 38-cm, sepia-colored body with vivid black dots.

I called it a pure luck and Ksanchun doesn’t think it is.