This morning a few friends and I went ocean fishing off the east coast of the South Korean penninsula. It was a super early morning as we met up at 4am, which technically was made even earlier with the fact that I went to bed at 10:30 and had barely any sleep as the excitement provoked adrenaline made sure that my thoughts didn't remain quiet. It turned out I wasn't the only one sleep deprived this morning.
We headed out with an hour or so drive time in order to reach our destination and despite the Korean roads being littered with hidden cameras, managed to get there in time to secure the prime spots at the bow of the fishing vessel. It's the 2nd time we went out on the MONSTER but this time the experience was a lot quieter. I assume that the captain limits the passenger intake on account of COVID-19.
The captain reserves booking spots for half and full day, half day's departing at 5:30am and returning at 11am,and those brave enough to stay on the entire day, get to have a short lunch break at the dock and depart once more at noon. We stayed for half a day only.
Our first stop was within the first twenty minutes, when the sun was still well below the horizon. This also turned out to be the best time for tuna as my buddy John has proven by catching these two beauties within minutes of one another.
There were a few more tunas caught by the other people on the shop. I myself wasn't as lucky as that, and only got to bring in a couple of Spanish mackrel home with me. Still it was a great day of fishing.
All in all we brough in eight fish, two tuna and six fairly sized Spanish mackrel, which my wife cooked up for dinner tonight.
The experience of seafishing here in Korea, as fas as I have experienced it, is not what you'd expect from watching the countles youtube videos of ocean fishing with privately chartered boats. What we chartered is essentially a spot on a privately owned boat, one, or in our cases five, out of twenty other spots. The fee for this excursion is 60,000 KRW which roughly equates to $55 USD. Then there is a 10,000 KRW ($8 USD) rod rental and of course the lures, spoons or whatever you think best fits your needs.
Here's me with a puffer fish, which no one keeps since no one knows how to handle these beasts once they're off the hook.
We returned to the dock precisely at 11 o'clock. Packed ourselves back into the van and headed for home. I will be posting a nice long video of our fishing trip on 3speak once I manage to find the time to edit it, so make sure to follow me to see the update.
Let me know if you've ever been ocean fishing and how different your experience was from mine!