Fly fishing in South Korea

NOTICE: As of autumn 2009, James is no longer guiding fly fishing trips and no longer living in South Korea. Read below for further angling information.

James was the first and only fly-fishing guide in South Korea. He guided clients on Korea's mountain creeks, freestone rivers and lakes chasing native and non-native species of fish. Click here to read "Life as Korea's Only Fly Fishing Guide" at Field & Stream.

James pursued familiar non-native species such as largemouth bass, bluegill and rainbow trout, and went after native species of predatory carp, the bonefish-like barbel, Korean brook perch and river tarpon, and two species of trout: lenok and cherry trout.

Current Angling Outlook

Soon South Korea will hold the the some of the most ugliest and unnatural rivers in the world. The current administration is pushing forward a mega-project to gut, dredge, channelize, dam, and modify all of the major rivers systems in the country and their tributaries. South Korea has over 18,000 dams that create man-made reservoirs which means over 18,000 freestone rivers, trout streams, and upland creeks have been altered, mangled, or turned into rice paddy drainage ditches. The rapacious South Korean construction industry has run out of rivers to consume so President Lee invented the "Four Rivers Project," a greenwashed plan to alter nearly every river in the country.

The Worlds Wetland Network (WWN) issued a December 2009 letter to the political leaders in charge of the Four Rivers Project. Here's an excerpt: "While the Four Rivers project in the ROK has been described as a ‘restoration’ project by its proponents, it is clear to the WWN and to all wetland experts around the world that the construction of new dams and river dredging cannot be called restoration. Further, the construction of bicycle trails and resort areas proposed as part of the Four Rivers project will increase disturbance to sensitive species and systems. As proposed, the Four Rivers project will lead to a massive loss of biodiversity and cause enormous environmental costs, some of which will be immediate, and others which will emerge longer-term as the rivers and watersheds can no longer function in a natural way." You can read the rest of the document at Birds Korea

For an overview of the project read "Korea’s Four Rivers Project: Economic Boost or Boondoggle?" at Yale Environment 360.

The project will affect nearly all of South Korea's warm and coolwater fisheries. Expect to see many excavators and earth movers in fishing spots throughout the country. Of the handful of trout streams left surviving in Korea, some may incur some collateral damage as the Four Rivers Project is a war on nature itself. In the words of the novelist Thomas McGuane, "If the trout are lost, smash the state."

Beloved Species of Pursuit

CHERRY TROUT:Oncorhynchus masou, are native to the Korean peninsula, Japan and the Russian Far East. "Trout" is sometimes substituted with "salmon" since some populations migrate to the sea in certain rivers that are not landlocked. They grow up to around 15 inches, with sea-run trout being larger. An average size would be about nine inches. Cherry trout are arguably one of the more beautiful salmonids in the world, with dark parr marks on their sides over background hues of sage and copper dappled with black spots. They bear a slight resemblance to the Golden trout of California.

LENOK: Manchurian trout (also known as lenok from its taxonomical name, Brachymystax lenok).
Its body is olive colored and speckled with small dark spots. They grow to a maximum size of twenty-eight inches, with an average size of about ten to twelve inches.They are an ancient species of trout and considered to be the oldest member of the trout family. It is distributed throughout the coldwater rivers of Siberia, Mongolia, the Korean peninsula and northern China. The South Korean streams are its southernmost population in the world.

RAINBOW TROUT: On some of the rivers there are commercial fisheries that raise rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Rainbows were imported to South Korea in the sixties and since then, some of these rainbows have escaped from their doomed captivity after floods broke apart their aquaculture prison cells. They established fugitive populations to varying degrees on some rivers. These streams are spread over the entire province and range from small creeks to medium-sized freestone rivers.

PACIFIC REDFIN: One of Korea's most unique fish. It is in the carp family but it thinks its a salmon. It may be the only sea-run carp in the world. It behaves just like a trout and is caught just like a trout. It is fine-scaled and pewter-colored--slightly grayling-like, with fins tipped with more of an orange tint than red as its name wrongly suggests.

CREEK CHUBS: The rainbow chub (Zacco temmincki) and the pale chub (Zacco platypus), which are trout-like cyprinids that are native to the coldwater streams of Northern Asia.
Although they only grow about six to ten inches long, they are numerous and extremely aggressive on dry flies. For a beginning fly angler, they are a fantastic way to learn the basic elements of presenting dry flies on flowing water. For all anglers, the dark chubs are worth catching to view the scintillating nuptial colors--truly a gorgeous little fish.

LARGEMOUTH BASS, BLUEGILL AND SNAKEHEADS: Largemouth bass are non-native and plentiful throughout the country but will not reach large sizes because of constant overfishing. Bluegill from America are present in many watersheds and offer great light-tackle angling. They are viciously hated by sit-on-the-bank Crucian carp fishermen and are left to rot on riverbanks if accidentally caught. Native snakeheads often share the same water as bass and will make hyper-aggressive strikes on cork poppers and deerhair frog flies, however catching them requires patience. The biggest problem is shaking bass off your fly when you're trying to focus on attracting snakeheads.

THE NATIVE ROUGHFISH TRIFECTA: Here are three species that are some of Asia's finest freshwater gamefish: the aggressive minnow-eating notchmouth, the silvery river tarpon that has the appearance of a small saltwater tarpon, and the bonefish-like barbel, which is best sight-fished in shallow river flats.

OTHER SPECIES: The Mandarin fish, and its little cousin, the Korean brook perch, share the same habitat in freestone, coolwater rivers. Both are excellent gamefish but they tend to be heavily poached and their numbers are thin. The South Korean government has a chum salmon stocking program and there is a limited fishing season that is completely ignored by local poachers using gigantic snag hooks and heavy-duty rods. For an overview of salmon in Korea read "S. Korea Salmon Fest Highlights Dwindling Fish Populations" at National Geographic News.

The Seasons

SPRING and FALL: These are the best times of the year to go fishing with spring tending to have more active fish. Autumn is good, too, and especially nice when the leaves turn colors.

WINTER: You usually have the entire river to yourself and peacefulness is nearly guaranteed. Lower your expectations as the fish are not as nearly as active as other seasons. Of the various species of fish in Korea, the three trout species and barbels offer the most consistent action during cold weather conditions.

SUMMER: Fly-fishing is good in the summer but many trout streams are attacked by slob tourist urban refugees that picnic near the streamside and swim in the trout pools ruining any decent fishing experience. This time occurs around mid-July through mid-August. This is Korea's tourist season. Nearly all corporations, governmental organizations and schools all take their vacation at the exact same time. Millions of people hit the road to the scenic areas. Most go to the beaches, but many others go to the mountain valleys. All of this makes it nearly impossible to fly-fish for trout.

Fishing licenses and regulations

No fishing licenses exist in South Korea. There are places (usually stock ponds) where you pay money to fish and gain a kind of membership. There are few governmental regulations pertaining to fishing.
The regulations that do exist are usually local concerns, such as the county government banning fishing and swimming in a nearby reservoir. For anglers from other countries this may seem weird and disturbing. It certainly is.

If you fish in South Korea, practice catch-and-release fishing and follow the principles of leaving no trace to minimize impact on the ecosystem.

Where to fish:

Question: Were do you catch all these different species of fish? Answer: In the water.

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