Near Sejong, South Korea I visited a Crucian Carp Fishing Park to try my hand at carp fishing. This was the only chance I had to do any freshwater fishing for the whole two weeks I was in Korea. While I saw that there were no fishing licenses needed, where you are actually allowed to fish is not very clear. So wanting to play it safe a fishing park like this was the best option. I went in with some preconceptions about how this would be though. And quickly found that I was very wrong about it all. In the US when you hear carp you think of trash fish, invasive bottom feeders that suck on mud and damage the environment. That’s not the case in Asia in general though, where carp are native, and actually highly prized in a lot of circles.
The Crucian Carp Fishing Park was tucked in hills amongst a few small family farms. Besides a couple of small signs you could easily miss this from the road, it was more a locals spot. We pulled up to the parking lot to find only a couple of cars and no signage about where to go from the parking lot. There was a house there but honestly, it looked more like the owner’s house than a business. Luckily the owner came out and asked if we were here to fish, to which I replied yes. He asked if I had any gear and I showed him my travel gear. He said I can’t use that here and it wouldn’t work anyways. He also told us he had rental gear for me to use so no worries there.
We followed him in and saw that while the outside looked like a house the inside had been converted, into a rest area and a tiny tackle shop. He quickly had me set up with everything I needed, some tiny barbless hooks, dough bait mix, and a rental rod. Instead of a normal casting setup that most people are used to in the US, they use a graphite telescoping carp rod. A lot fancier than the cane poles I’ve seen back home that’s for sure. When we asked what the rod retailed for he told us 175000 won (135.44 usd). The rental rod also came with two rests that support the rod as you fish and the fanciest fishing bobber I’ve ever seen.
The total cost for all the rental gear, bait, hooks, and fishing for one was 28,000 won (21.67 USD). So not as bad as I expected it to be, especially considering how nice the rods he used for rental were. He then took us out to the pond to show us how to set everything up and how to fish the carp rod. He even showed how to mix up the dough bait so it stayed on your hook the best. While he was a bit gruff you could tell this was more of a passion than a job for him.
A problem happened at the last step though, as soon he had the rod all rigged up he noticed a couple of the segments had been cracked by a previous renter. He was pissed about it, but went to go grab me another rod instead. When he came back he started rigging the other rental rod and found again there was another problem with it, the leader and float had been messed up a bit. So he spent some time rerigging that, this time with the help of one of the regulars.
They got the leader all set and got to balancing it all out. The finesse needed to set up one of these rods properly was surprising to me. This was the total opposite of what I thought of when it came to targeting carp. Instead of a bulky Carolina rig with some dough or bread, this rig was an assortment of tiny beads, a very delicate-looking bobber, two tiny barbless hooks on a braided leader, and a tiny weight that needed to be shaved down to get just right. If the weight was too heavy the bobber wouldn’t float right and you would be missing bites according to them.
While waiting for them to get the weight to bobber balance we made some small talk and I asked some questions about the place. The owner told us about the weekend tournaments that he holds at the fishing park. He hosts 12-hour tournaments on Saturdays and just about every seat available will be filled. Where the tournament isn’t about weight but instead about how many crucian carp they can land during the tourney. The winners get cash and prizes so he says it gets very competitive. We also talked about the carp themselves. He makes sure there is plenty of carp and they are well taken care of, hence why he only allows barbless hooks.
After that little bit of small talk, the rod was ready we thanked the regular, and the owner taught me how to cast with the setup. You pinch the braided hook leaders in your left hand, the rod is in your right hand with your arm fully extended out. This put a slight bend in the tip of the rod. Then in kind of a bass-flipping motion, you release the the leader to let the baited hooks swing out smoothly. You don’t want to hit the water with the baits mid-cast though, it’ll knock off your dough bait. It took me a few tries to get it down, but once I did the fishing park owner told me to keep practicing and try to do it while sitting. After which he left to go back into the house/shop.
I tried a few more times to cast while sitting, but yeah that was a little beyond me. I just wanted to try and catch a fish. So after fumbling another cast, I got a good cast out. I was watching the bobber, if it moves up or down that is a crucian carp mouthing your bait. Once I saw my bobber start to float up I set the hook on my first carp, the crucians don’t get nearly as big as commons but on this tackle, they put up a surprisingly good fight. It took a lot more effort than expected to land this guy in the net, they get pretty squirrely up close and the long carp pole doesn’t make it easy to get them under control up close.
I spent the next couple of hours just having a blast catching these little guys on this carp rod. Like I get the appeal now, this was something very different from what I was used to but different didnt mean bad. I must have landed well over 30 of these fish that day but missed at least two times that many. The bite is surprisingly light even with these very finesse-style bobbers. I also had another problem that was due to my experience. As I kept more missing fish, more and more dough bait kept chumming the spot I was fishing. So it came to the point where I was getting strikes almost immediately but couldn’t detect them due to slack in the line as it landed in the water.
After that kept happening I took a little break just to let the carp chill out and disperse a little. After that little break, I was able to start catching them again. After catching a few more though it was about time to head out and meet up with the family for lunch. I left the rod in the holder with the hooks out of the water, the owner had said to leave all the gear there so he could pack it up properly. I hadn’t even used half of the bait granules even after all that fishing, so I gave the rest to the regular who had helped out so much earlier. I really recommend trying this sort of fishing out, it is a lot more fun then expected.
