The River of Life

I watch this video on my phone before I go to sleep. It makes me sleep well, the images of the feeding trout swimming in my thoughts. It's more about living than fishing.

New Generation of Fly Fishing

I like this kid...

Officially homesick...

I miss the Midwest.  A lot. Especially the lakes and pace of it all.

We got some snow in Seoul...

Glad I brought my extended arm snow remover for the car...

The Gambler

Oldie but Goodie.

The Dream Stream

A nice video of the steam and area that we fished together. Also proof that if you want to catch trophy wild fish on tiny flies in the middle of the winter, going with a guide at the top of the food chain is tantamount. Let's all go again someday.

I want one of these...

Google now offering North Korea on maps! Start dreaming of finding hidden trout.


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Favorite fish of the day

A hold over from last year? Found this fish outside of the nets on the reservoir side. Nice rosy cheeks.

Floating fishing shanty

Throughout lakes/ponds in Korea, they have these floating fishing shanties called 수상좌대 (jwha-dae). One can rent one of these shacks for about $70-$100 per day and there are various sizes and levels of facility. They are primarily used for carp fishing (a particular type of carp is target, not the regular carp we commonly see) and they typically have the still water rod set up (without reel). Once you rent one, a boat takes you to your shanty and the shanty does not have a motor attached so you're going to remain where you are. With a phone call, a hot meal or drinks are conveniently delivered to your shanty by boat. I've never actually rented one myself but I am going to as soon as the water breaks from the winter. Unfortunately they are not used for ice fishing (perhaps because of safety issues?) so I'll have to wait till spring. If nothing, it looks like a great place to hang and get drunk.

Streamer Fishing...Continued...

Since my last streamer fishing which was a disaster, I've been occupied with streamer fishing to the point I've dreamed about it a few times.  

 Today was a beautiful sunny day.  The temperature went up to 45 degree. Figured it will be a great day to pick up where I left off.

 This underbite brown was caught with a dry fly.

  Last fish I caught before I switched to a streamer.

 I pulled out about 5 trouts from this pool with a streamer.  I found out that weighted streamer was easier for me to time proper retrieval speed.

 Even a small pool which I will usually ignore produced a hit.

 Rest of the trip was a blast as many more fish was released.  I couldn't believe how effective streamer fishing can be even in small mountain creeks.  I am sure I will have more streamer patterns in my fly box going forward...

New Zealand Rainbows

Dr. Shin and Prof. Huh are down in New Zealand for a week and just sent me some photos on my phone. Nice fat rainbows... I wish I was there.

 

(more photos from rainbowfly site)

streamer (killing tool)

Here are some of the flies I've been tying...

Killing a trout... or two...

Didn't take much to get myself motivated to go fishing last Sunday. I've been thinking about getting myself into streamer fishing.  Particularly on small creeks.  I've tied some flies that resemble small creek minnows for quite some time but was too greedy to try them out once I started catching trout with my usual suspect flies. On the way to the creek, I was rehearsing in my head how I was going to fish the fly...

Based on rehearsed scenario, rigged the gear once I got to the creek and off I went thinking that I will catch the biggest trout in every pool...

 

Off the bet, I've realized that it's not going to be an easy task to be flinging heavy streamer with my 6 feet, 3 wt rod in heavily branched creek so I only fished leass canopied sections of the creek.  Cast, retrieve, retrieve, retrieve...Cast, retrieve, retrieve, retrieve.. and then I felt a tug at the end of the line.  Thought to myself that "Finally! I've learned how to fish with streamer in a small mountain creek!".  However, the struggle from the fish felt somewhat unusual.  Just felt like I was lugging a small branch with my rod.  Due to ill timing of some sort, I've managed to hook dorsal fin of the fish.  Obviously, I never felt the bite, just some dumb luck snagging...  I've released the poor brownie as gentle as I can...

With somewhat mixed feeling about the last performance, I've relocated to a better looking pool for that huge trout I am certain that I will catch with my shiny black nose dace fly.  However, I did manage to "hook" yet another brownie, except I've hooked the poor bastard on the eye socket... In my somewhat long both saltwater and freshwater fishing career, Ihave yet to hook a fish in the eye until yesterday.  Thought about taking a picture of the massacre but didn't have the nerve to take a snapshot of my crime.  I release the brownie as gentle as I can...only to see it floating away with it's belly pointing straight up in the air...

I immediately switch over to a beaded prince fly and managed to hook a few browns (in the mouth). Obviously, I did grab their attention with the streamer but couldn't manage the line properly to feel their take and when I did, I somehow foul hooked them with image you will see in a horror flick.

Now, should I continue to kill these fish in the name of betterment? Or should I stick to the safe method (at least for the fish)? any suggestions?

I miss this...

Winter Sticking - 2

I did a little winter sticking myself today...or should I say winter dipping.  Dipping the fly in the paid trout pond that is.  It was freezing cold but there were more than a few people out.  Yoojung pond has been aggressively marketing themselves lately, stocking fresh fish almost weekly.  I did good today, hooked more than 10 fish...that's good for me since I tend to do bad at these places.  I saw one guy pull up a fish that looked easily over 20"...they call these the super jumbos or something like that.  They stock a few of these big boys each year.  Towards the end I even took out the lure rod to throw a few micro spoons and they worked just as I imagined.  My head hurt from the cold and hands still feel tingly but it was nice way to spend the last morning of the year.

Happy New Years guys.

Winter Sticking

First of all, hope everyone enjoy their Christmas and wish you happy new year.

Ever since I've got into small creek fishing, I have been neglecting larger body of water.  Ken Lock Gorge is one of the finest winter season fishing spot I used to fish during the winter season. So I took my 11' nymphing rod and decided to do some high-sticking yesterday.

 I fished the river slowly working every possible resting spots since the water level is a lot higher than usual.

 Solitude is why I enjoy this particular water.  Only handful of anglers were trying their luck on this day.

 This particular brown went after my fly a several times before I was able to set the hook.  Golden flash it displayed while it was chasing my fly was good enough for me to freeze my toe in one spot for almost 10 minutes...

 A healthy looking stocker who took my fly without any reservation.

Most likely, this will be my last trip of the year. On the way back home,  I've thought about all the things that happened to me this year (mostly bad memories) and how being out on water such as what I've just fished gave me some sort of comforting feeling and clarity.
Hope all of you can find more time to fish in new year as I am certain will.