I joined the yellowtail jigging and popping trip to a remote island in shouthern part of Korea. It took about 5 hours to Mokpo Harbor from Seoul and it took three hours ferry to the island. It is a small island with populations of only a few hundreds. We took a boat to fish for three days. The sizes were impressive. Though my biggest yellowtail I landed was 1.2 meter, but I lost much bigger monsters. The biggest one was caught by a lady angler on a jig. It was whopping 63 lb and 147 cm. I started to use DOC lure as I wanted to test the lure for yellowtail and I stayed with the lure for the whole trip as the lure was effective. I tested 11' prototype Black Hole surf rod and Penn Salmmer III 6500 high gear reel and 10' prototype economic version of Black Hole rod with IRT 500 reel combo. I don't know it was because of high gear ratio reel and i got 4 -5 hit on the first day with 11' rod/ Penn Slammer high gear reel. Unfortunately I lost all big ones except one small yellowtail. The initial run was very powerful. It was a kind of scouting trip and I am very impressed. I will be back again next year with anlgers in the US. Left Dong Mawn Shin's Shark Shop in Seoul I think Korea offer the best rest areas on highways in the world. [IM [/U we arrived at Mokpo Harbor in the evening. The town is not big, but it is clean and pretty. had a dinner with anglers and cameramen. We took a ferry to the Taedo Island next morning. my tackle my first yellowtail on a jig. I used Black Hole Cape Cod Slow Pitch jigging rod/IRT 500 filled with 40 lb Jerry Brown Hollow line. We used two boats. yellowtain on DOC. I lost several montser with 11' prototype Black Hole rod/Penn Slammer III 6500 High Gear reel. food provided by the lodge was fantastic. It was raining next day and fishing was slow in the moring We encountered big ones on the afternoon trip. I had two monster on my DOC, but lost both of them. I tried to fight by putting the rod on my belly to show the action of the rod, but the rod was too long and one big one was lost when it dove under the boat and the main line was cut when it touched the bottom of the boat. Here is Dong Man Shin's nice yellowtail on a popper. Mrs Jang, Dong Man Shin's wife, fighiting a big one. It turned out to be our biggest yellowtail with 147 cm and 63 lb. Everyone use light slow pitch jigging rod for big yellowtail. It is amazing there is a fancy logding in a remote island. we switched the boat. It is amazing Capt makes difference even we fished the same area. The new Capt doesn't use machine though they have fancy machine and consequently we had slow fishing while the other boat enjoyed fine jigging and popping. The island has small population. The houses shown in the picture is the whole town of the island. I tested very light 10' prototype economic version of Black Hole rod which are good for suzuki ( Asian sea bass) with 1/2 oz - 2 oz rating. I was afraid the rod could be snapped while fighing big yellowtail, but I decided to test the strength of the rod. As it turned out, the rod handled beautifully with a decent yellowtail. I did not catch tons of yellowtail, but big ones I lost convince me to come back next year.
Great story. Can you give us more information about the trip. Who did you book the trip with, cost, ect???
Wow! Great Report! Looks like a lot of fun... Been to Korea more than a few times and ate a lot of fish; but never fished. Awesome story and pictures - Thanks for sharing.
Which Black Hole rod was this? That yellowtail is a SLUG!! She man handled that fish with that rod and reel setup.
Outstanding, the fish looks a bit different from a California yellowtail, are there any physical difference?.
I am very envious of that fishing trip. The quality of the yellow tails I seen in your pictures were grade A+... Jigging and popping is not that easy, it takes a lot of skill and patience to land those sizes of yellow tails...great job
