South Korea – Look Out, U.S. Bass Anglers
January 22, 2009
As many of you know, I’ve been traveling quite a bit the last 6 months promoting my rod company, Gary Dobyns Rods. It’s been an up-and-down road but I’m finally confident that we have everything straightened out and at the end of the month, we’ll have what I believe are the best rods sold in America. Getting here hasn’t been an easy haul, though.
One gem amongst this journey, aside from the new rods, is the fact that I’ve been blessed with three trips to Korea since August. Before that first trip I had no idea what Korea would be like, if they even knew what a bass was or fished at all. Let me tell you, my eyes have been opened. Wide.
The first thing that impressed me was how similar to the United States the country is - wide roads and highways, big American sized cars and even American fast-food restaurants. That’s not where the similarities end, though. Skyscrapers are the standard in and around Seoul and the bigger cities of the country while neon lights light the night sky with advertising. To even think that South Korea is anywhere near third-world in status would not only be incorrect but ignorant.
But hey, this article isn’t about South Korea’s economic power or its skyscrapers; it’s about my experience with the people in the bass fishing industry and the anglers themselves.
Carp vs. Bass
Water is all over the country in the form of rivers and reservoirs and fishing is a favorite pastime of the Koreans. Carp are, without a doubt, the most popular fish to go after as they are prolific throughout Asia. They fish 20-foot rods that have no reel and use doughballs – much in the same way that carp are targeted in Europe and other countries. But carp aren’t the only sought after species in the country.
Largemouth bass were introduced from the United States and are in many of the waters throughout the country. I don’t know when they were introduced, but the United States' favorite gamefish is giving the historically-held fish of choice, the carp, a run for its money. Anglers all over the country target these green bass exclusively and they even have two tournament circuits that draw an average of 120 boats per event. Bass fishing and the bass fishing industry is on the rise in South Korea.
The Fishermen
Korea, like Japan, has its share of professional anglers and I’ve been lucky to meet some of them on my trips over there this past year. They even have an angler that’s made the journey from Korea to the U.S., Bradley Yang, who is fishing the western circuits and who they follow like a cult figure.
Although the Korean tournament bass fishing scene is where our program in the U.S. was about 20 years ago, the anglers are easily as good technically as we are. They love structure fishing with deep cranks, jigs and spinnerbaits but are also adept at fishing shallow with just about any bait you can imagine.
Their lakes are smaller than ours but they have the same classic cover and structure and are full of bass. Because the lakes are smaller the anglers use smaller Ranger and Nitro bass boats along with aluminum Jon boats rigged with casting decks.
I was really impressed with their electronics – from top-of-the-line MinnKota trolling motors to Hummingbird sidefinders – the Koreans don’t spare anything.
I was impressed to discover how courteous the angelrs are toward each other and how much information they share – again, it was like bass fishing was here 20 or more years ago. There seems to be no arrogance or ego over there – they all just want to learn from each other.
There are also at least four bass fishing magazines in the country that the anglers can learn from and these magazines are on par with any Japanese magazine I have seen. Thick paper, great pictures and chock full of information. Not just information from their national pros, though, but interviews and articles from American anglers and the techniques we use over here. Just like us, they're information junkies looking to learn as much as they can about the sport.
Their Equipment
As I said earlier, the Koreans take great pride in owning the best equipment they can get. They all use high-dollar rods, reels, baits and lines and care for them like they’re made of gold. An example of this is they tear down their rods and reels after a days fishing and place their rods in rod socks and the reels go into cloth bags. They’re absolutely obsessed with their equipment.
The rods they use are shorter rods than we use in the U.S., on average about 6-feet 8-inches in length, and that mainly has to do with the smaller boats and the techniques they use – which differ somewhat from what we do here.
As far as baits go, they use similar equipment to the U.S. angler with the exception of the big swimbaits. I found this strange because they stock trout in a lot of the lakes. On my next trip I plan to show them how effective they are and that they can even catch a 3-pound fish on an 8-inch bait.
The Future of Bass Fishing in Korea
Bass fishing in Korea is definitely going to continue to grow. The Korean anglers see American anglers earning a living from tournaments and the industry and that’s what they want for their country. They want to send more anglers to the U.S. to gain more experience in high-level tournaments and bring that knowledge back in order to grow the sport. They’ll get there faster than we did too because they’ll learn from the mistakes we’ve made over the last 40 years of professional bass tournaments.
Although I haven’t fished a bass tournament over there yet, I have had the opportunity to fish with a number of their best anglers and I can tell you - they’re good. In the spring I plan to go back over there with a number of my sponsors and hopefully I will get to fish a tournament and help them develop their industry and tournament scene. I would love to see them succeed.
Ten years ago it was the Japanese that took our sport, made improvements to it and have shown that they too can produce top-notch anglers that can compete on the highest levels of tournament angling. Well, let me tell you, the Koreans are here and I guarantee you we will be seeing more from them in the near future. What a way to grow our sport.