South Korea: Char fly fishing

Hatcheries in KangWon/ Hwa Chun has preliminary success in reproducing the char, "Gon-Deul-Mai-Ki" (곤들매기/Salvelinus malma). The fish disappeared in South Korea during the early 1970s due to overfishing. The eggs were imported from Japan and they grow to about 20-30cm, sometimes larger. If the program continues to succeed, they will introduce the fish to such festivals as Hwa Chun Trout Festival, and create paid streams for fly fishermen.

Although the thought of a million people catching and eating these hatchery Dolly Varden Char makes me uncomfortable, I also think it takes events like this to create funding to reproduce (and reintroduce) these fish into the streams. Unfortunately, the efforts to reintroduce fish like this into the waters based on pure conservation goals alone is always underfunded and the odds of success is marginal at best. Since Korea has only limited cold water species to fly fish for, any news like this is a good one (I think.)

Our friend EuNu ( http://www.rainbowfly.co.kr/) fished near one of the hatcheries and found a few that escaped the hatchery. I can't wait to find one of these at the end of my line.