Friends got together for pond fishing:

Leaving everyday life behind, mrlee, soboro, and I went to pond fishing past weekend. The weather got much warmer, but we still felt the bone chilling cold when we were standing for a few hours next to water. We had slow start, but with friend’s helpful tip and a cup of mrlee's warm coffee to warm up, we were able to enjoy our time catching a few healthy rainbows. As expected, soboro showed to everyone that he was a king of the pond.

Ice fishing - so this is why they do it.

Our Northern Illinois fishing buddies finally got together for some overdue hard water fishing on Niemi residence at Paddock Lake. David and I am beginners at this, and this was literally our first time ice fishing. Our guide & expert was Ross, and this was his second time ice fishing. We had several tip-ups, a couple of rods, and plenty of beer. All bundled up, we walked out onto the lake. We assumed it would be kinda tough walking through the recent 2 feet of snow, and boy were we right. There was a lot of action on the lake with the fishing derby and it was pretty exciting to see all the ice shanties and tents up…my guess is that there was at least 50+ anglers out there. Ross had some inside info from his neighbors and he guided us to the productive spot. We drilled through the 15” of ice with the augers and for a beginner like me, this was pretty exciting. Just the concept of walking to a spot, drilling a fishing hole, and kicking back on a chair & catching fish from the hole is fantastic...all with the beer can handy.

We picked up some 4” shiners at the bait shop and I had some wax worms to jig with. We walked out mid morning so the hot fishing action was over by then, but it was such a beautiful day, we were just happy to be out there. We set the tip ups here and there, and sat in a circle and cracked out the beers. There were pro fishermen around that’s been there since yesterday in their shanties and they gave us the update on the derby. A few small blue gills and perch came up on the wax worm jig, but it was kind of humiliating because our bait fish on the tip ups were bigger. After a short while, the “shot man” from the derby came by in his snow mobile to give us a shots of some good stuff. As I sat back in the chair with the warm winter sun in my face & cold brew in my hands, I thought – so this is why they do it … I should do this from time to time.

Jill, Ethan, and the family swung by to say hello and dropped off more beer. Ethan all bundled up and sitting on the carrier chair on mom’s back looked so cute. Liz helped me pull up a small blue gill and that was fun. As we sat there for a while longer, we discussed the pros and cons of a full shanty vs. a folding tent type, and where one would keep it if we got one. We didn‘t have luck on this day to hook into a big northern or a bass, but we did watch the next tip-up just to the left of us, pull out a nice northern. We finished off the day with some delicious chili & beer bread Jill cooked (thank you so much Jill!). I can’t think of any better way to spend a beautiful winter day.

"River time is the zen of fly-fishing, though you could be a bait fisherman and still achieve it. The mechanism that creates river time is one point concentration. Especially if you're nymph fishing, where you're watching the indicator on your line, or if you're watching a dry fly. It's repetitive behavior. You're casting and presenting the fly over and over and over, watching it. After a while the physical part becomes mechanical; it's not the product of conscious thought. A thousand times, the same motion. Your mind empties of other things; that single point of concentration doesn't let you think about anything else. It diverts all your thoughts to this one single point, for hours. You get out in the middle of the river and do this repetitive behavior and watch a fly or strike indicator for hours, and suddenly, without knowing it, you're on alpha wave time, river time."

-Richard Louv

I can identify with this sentiment. Becoming lost in that singular moment. Hours slipping by like minutes. No hunger, no thirst, just the anticipation of the next strike.

okay – we got some snow.

We got dumped on last night in the Midwest. Had to do a little digging out this morning to get to the car. If you live in Chicago area now, but have ever lived in other places where it gets snow, you know what an awsome job the cities do of snow clean up. The streets are all clean and driving was no problem by morning. You have to appreciate that.

휴-- 삽질은 힘들다… 일단 그냥 당장 빠져나갈 구멍만 파면 된다. 얼마전 서울에서 제설잡업을 보니, 엉망이였다. 물론 눈이 자주 오는곳이 아니라서 그런것은 이해하지만, 그래도 서울 같은 큰 국제도시는 좀더 잘할것 같았는데, 운전자들이 고생 많이 했다.

toilet paper roll art

that's pretty cool for being a toilet paper roll...

winter - how it is.

with the nasty snowstorm in town, this tells it like it is. from fishbeer. nice.

겨울...이 골때리는 마음 이해할수 있지...

Winter from fishbeer on Vimeo.

Crusin with Ksanchun

I miss this coffee house & the unfriendly waitress already. Nice shades.

Coolest Measure – Kineya

I received a cool gift from my friend Joon, a Kineya reel measure. The craftsmanship is equally amazing on this miniature version. Thank you very much Joon!

아이고, 이거 자꾸 받기만해서 어쩔줄을 모르겠습니다. 너무너무 감사합니다.

그날 배고문님, 허교수님, 신박사님, 그리고 나단형이랑 뵐수 있어 너무 반가웠습니다. 우리같이 사진이라도 한장 박을것을… 자주 열락 드리겠습니다.

FSAC Incheon Airport

Each time I passed the internet café thing at Incheon Airport, I thought of sticking a FSAC sticker there. This morning, I remembered and took a sticker there.

Trout pond at -20C.

Joon, Ksanchun, & I took a morning off to visit a local trout pond in Seoul to see some winter trout. As expected the -20C temperatures with the wind chill made fishing pretty challenging. Even with the water stirring paddle going full blast, the water was starting to freeze heavily at the edges – which kept the trout pond employees busy breaking the ice with long wooden sticks. The fishing was slow at the beginning of the morning (except for Ksanchun who had some secret fly and was pounding them) but picked up towards lunchtime. There was some big trout in this pond, a mix of rainbows, salmon, and a few palomino trout. The food always tastes super good, after standing around in freezing temperatures with friends. We quit after lunch since pounding on these big fish gets a little boring after a while. By then Joon had figured out the fly that all of these fish seemed to like (white egg with a little orange marabou). The trout pond isn’t something we enjoy a whole lot, but it sure beats sitting around in a bar talking about catching trout… which is how we ended up at the trout pond from the night before.

꽁꽁 얼어붙은 날에, 형들과 낚시터를 다녀왔다. 맛있는 소머리국밥 으로 시작된 하루… 너무 즐거운 시간 이였다. 그동안 경험이 쌓여서인지, 옷도 제대로 입고나와 추위도 잊고 (나단형은 옷을 6겹을 입었다고 한다) , 하루종일 웃다 왔다. 제준이형이 발견한 하얀에그에 주황색마라부 달린 플라이…무지하게 잘 문다. 얼음 깨느라고 열심히 일하는 아저씨들…날이 춥기는 추운가보다.

A True Blessing.

Congratulations Lee, she is beautiful. You are a lucky man. Sleep deprived, but lucky.

Winter Ice Fishing in Korea

In winter in Korea, there are a few places that they offer pond smelt fishing through ice hole. They catch these to eat raw with Korean spicy sauce. I am not big fan of eating clear water fish especially raw, but it sounds good with some good vodka or soju.

I want to be there.

check out the link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uLUjhHTSME&feature=fvw

Tang Dynasty Arts … angler’s imagination.

I was looking through a book that showed beautiful ceramics from the Tang Dynasty and imagined for a moment that the inspirations for these came from fish/ trout colors. Tang era is considered by many as the golden age of cosmopolitan culture and Chinese culture flourished during this time. Tang is also considered the greatest age for Chinese poetry. These are beautiful. I'd love to go back to Xi'an someday.