Tournament Story

[Korea_Bassin]

Alright, this is a bit late in posting but here's the story anyway.

I was able to get into a Pro-Am tournament here in Korea back in early April. It wasn't an international tournament so I was actually the only American in the event. Anyway, I pair up with the league president as a team. The pro-am events here are fished as a team, not as pro and amateurs separately fishing from the same boats. So if you miss a fish or two...well, you can imagine.

Anyway, we leave out and start fishing some submerged brush. A few minutes into it, I hear my partner cast and it just didn't sound right. I turn around and notice his pole dangling from itself half into. I make a light comment about how that sucks and go back to fishing. He picks up another rod and starts using it. A few minutes later, the same thing happens. I'm thinking to myself..."how is he doing that?" but don't say anything. Anyway, he picks up another rod and on the first cast, it also breaks. He then tells me that he ran over all of his rods that morning when loading up his boat/truck. Here's the photo of what's left of his rods....

I had to loan him one of my rods in order to finish the tournament. We finished seventh and he didn't notice me snapping this picture of his rods. So all in all it was a pretty good day.

Here he is with one of our keepers...not that big but only four boats limited that day, so any keeper was a good fish. (We finished with four fish, but missed three others between us so ....oh well, it was fun).

[FishingJames]

Ouch, how did he manage to run over his rods?

[Sam]

Sorry to hear about driving over his rods.  

I hope they were not of the expensive variety.

[firefightn15]

What I don't get, is how someone runs over their rods before a tournament and then fishes them.  I would have thought that one way or another he would have replaced them.  Did he really feel that they were o.k., or was he just to embarrassed to say anything?  Too bad though.

[CJ]

How cool! Other than the rod incident it's really neat to see some oversea tournament stories! Thanks for sharing!

CJ

[garry77]

Your partner probably has a bright future with his luck.He could be the Korean version of Bill Dance.

[TheBeast]

Pretty good looking spot of water, to bad the water over there gets so much pressure.

[Korea_Bassin]

Pretty good looking spot of water, to bad the water over there gets so much pressure.

Yes, the water here is highly pressured, especially if you fish from the bank. Any place that has good access to the water from the bank is constantly fished on a daily basis.

There aren't that many boats here yet, although their numbers are increasing daily. And although carp are the primary target here, bass fishing is growing at an extremely rapid pace. The carp fishermen hate the bass because they claim that they destroy the carp population. There was a movement here a couple of years ago (and it almost made it into law) that would have made it illegal to release a bass in an attempt to eradicate the species from Korean waters. Bass aren't indigenous to Korea but were introduced here back in the '60s. They were originally put in fish farms, but escaped during floods and now they are pretty much all over the country. Some Koreans, if they catch a bass will throw it on the bank or in some cases spike them over a tree limb to demonstrate their dislike for the species.

Another problem is pollution. Anywhere you go, there is trash (LOTS) along the bank and in the water. I fished this same lake a few years ago and remember seeing about a 12" TV floating screen up beside my boat. With all the industrial development and construction going on over here, there has to be a lot of chemical contaminants in the water too.

Currently, there is very little done in the way of conservation over here either. Licenses aren't required and except for a couple of species, there are no laws on when, how many, or what sizes you can catch/keep. Although the bass fishermen are the minority, 99% of them are in touch with American/Japanese fishing customs and they usually release most everything they catch. But, the next time you are forking over the dough for that license, don't complain about it but be thankful for what it does.

Another odd thing I've noticed is that almost every trip, I see AT LEAST one soccer ball floating on the water somewhere. I think I'm going to start snapping pictures of them and maybe begin a thread here where I will post a picture of my soccer ball sightings on the water.

[TheBeast]

Talking about the lakes being trashy, I was talking this morning with a supplier about a lake in KY that we are gonna go fish this weekend.  I have been to it once with BigTom and was told it was quite trashy well I have fished lakes in 6-7 different states and never seen anything as trashy.  You see soccer balls well it is basketballs in this one, he said if had a dollar for every b-ball he has seen in that lake he could buy a new Ranger.   Had a guy in a tourny this past weekend gashed the side of his Ranger about 5' long and at the end you could reach into the dry storage from hitting a freezer in this lake.  And it is only 700 acres.

[Korea_Bassin]

Wow.  That's gotta suck.   Hopefully there were no injuries.

Be careful when you are out there.  

[TheBeast]

Supposed to go fish a tourny over there with him saturday evenin.  

[luvstofishgal]

lol!! That is too dang funny!!My name is Ashley and I live in Benton, La. I used to live in Longview. Just wanted to say hello to everyone, I am new to the forum and hope ya'll have a great day!

[roadwarrior]

Welcome aboard!

8-)

[spoonybay]

What part of Korea are you in ? Do you fish lakes and rivers or lakes alone? I was there in 64 up close to the dmz- Yong ju gol, Paju-ri, Munsan ni. Anyway we weren't too far from the Imjin and close enough to Seoul to make a day trip for fishing but I never managed to get around to fishing. I was making about 85 a month and most of that was going home for family allowance so there wasn't much left over for fishing gear. Did manage to find enough to put away a few OB's though. Back in the day---1st Cav. Geez, I smoked too and a carton of cigarettes was about 2 bucks and on dollar nite at the EM club at the end of the month I was so broke I had to borrow a couple bucks to enjoy myself. Looking back, I am glad I went there although at the time I was there you wouldn't catch me saying something like that.   Dave

[JayDub]

I had some rods sitting in a short bed of my buddies pick up once, along with a folding table.  Both were leaning against the top of the tailgate (because they were too long for the bed.)  Had a d**n brain fart and didn't think... well driving down the road the rods got underneath the table and in between it and the tailgate where they got "pinched."  Next time fishing.... Picked up one and cast... "Snap."  Picked up the other one, knowing what had happened, so I just kind of bent my rod with my hand... "CRAAACK." ...................  

Should have known better.

[Korea_Bassin]

What part of Korea are you in ? Do you fish lakes and rivers or lakes alone? I was there in 64 up close to the dmz- Yong ju gol, Paju-ri, Munsan ni. Anyway we weren't too far from the Imjin and close enough to Seoul to make a day trip for fishing but I never managed to get around to fishing. I was making about 85 a month and most of that was going home for family allowance so there wasn't much left over for fishing gear. Did manage to find enough to put away a few OB's though. Back in the day---1st Cav. Geez, I smoked too and a carton of cigarettes was about 2 bucks and on dollar nite at the EM club at the end of the month I was so broke I had to borrow a couple bucks to enjoy myself. Looking back, I am glad I went there although at the time I was there you wouldn't catch me saying something like that. Dave

I currently live just outside Osan Air Base, but I commute to Yongsan in Seoul every day to work.  I have been to all the places you mentioned before I retired from the army a couple of years ago.  I was assigned to 2ID a couple of times and was stationed in Uijongbu and Dongduchon.  US forces turned the DMZ over to the Koreans a few years ago and a lot of the military bases have shut down now.  

You probably wouldn't recognize this place now if you were last here in 64.  I first came here in 86 and have been here back and forth for about 16 years since then and I can hardly believe the changes myself even as I see them happening.  This place is developing FAST!  Any direction you look, it looks like a crane farm because of all the high rise apartments going up everywhere.  Traffic gets worse by the day too in spite of gas being $8 per gallon over here.  

As far as fishing, I fish both lakes and rivers.  Those rivers up around the area where you were statitoned are supposedly good trout waters, although I've never fished there.