As I mentioned in the post about the school's festival day, there are many clubs in the school. One of these is the fishing club.
A few months back at a dinner gathering the Art teacher told me about this club and invited me to join them. Somehow I never did, but I was reminded of the club when I saw their presentation at the festival. Not wanting to miss my chance to go fishing in Korea, I got hold of him and asked him when they will be going again. He said that it would happen today, Saturday.
There was something else happening on today. One of the English teachers had a birthday party planned and I was invited, but people who know me know that I really have to be in the mood to go out to a club for a night's dancing. Somehow freezing my butt off next to the water seems more appealing than sweating my butt off in a club.
Anyway, I got all the needed information and here we are today.
This morning I met the teacher and the students at school at 9am. I had been looking at the weather forecast and today's weather was to be on the cold side. That proved to be true. The freezing weather is just around the corner though. Tonight the temperature will drop and it will stay down for a few days to come. If the predictions are correct then it will go down to -7 degrees in a few days.
You know, the funny thing about the temperature dropping is that I cant wait for tomorrow morning to come. I know there will be lots of frost around so I'll be able to go take photographs without the frost disappearing to quickly.
Back to today and we all hopped in the cars and headed somewhere. I have no idea where it was, but it was somewhere with a a man made pond with fish to catch. As cold as it was outside, it was stifling inside the car. The heater was set to 30 degrees. I don't even like that temperature in normal weather and I was dressed for winter.
On the way there I was staring out the window, just looking at winter arriving. The area close to the pond has lots of rice fields that have already been harvested. There were little frozen stubs everywhere and the field had turned from a dead brown to a frozen white.
The one exception to the cold outside was a large stream we crossed. Steam was rising out of it at a tremendous rate. It almost seemed like the water was boiling, but I suspect it was only a few degrees warmer than the air above it.
I noticed just one really unusual thing along the way. There was a place called Photo Design Studio. That in itself is not strange at all, but there was no Korean name anywhere, only the English name. I have never seen that and to see it out on the country side is just plain weird.
After a surprisingly short drive we arrive at our destination where everyone poured out of the cars and started setting up while the teacher arranged payment with the owners. I am ashamed to say that I forgot to ask how much I owe then. It will likely be better if I ask back at school where there is someone who can translate for me.
Two students helped me and told what everything was. It was interesting to see how the rod and everything is unfolded and set up to catch the fish just literally spitting distance in from of us. Everyone does their own setup on an assigned seat consisting of an old car seat on a little platform next to the water. My seat had a rain cover over it as well.
(What on earth! As I'm writing this it is drizzling outside! I wonder what this will do for the photographs tomorrow because I expect this water to freeze.)
I'm not exactly the king of fishermen, but I am used to people casting for fish some distance away from themselves. that doesn't happen here, however. Here we catch fish right in front of us. It feels very strange.
I am sad to report that I was unable to get the knack of it and I didn't catch one single fish. I would like to go again thought. It was nice, despite the disappointing catch.
The big outside like was basically just used by our small group. I was taken "around the corner" and in to something resembling a greenhouse. The greenhouse turned out to be an indoor pool where the more hard core fishermen were sitting. It was nice and toasty in there with a big stove like contraption to warm the whole place.
At around 1 pm we headed home and the rest of my day was spent catching up on some sleep and playing on the internet.
I include in this post a few photographs of the day. These photographs turned out to be my only catch of the day, but being me, it is something I will remember longer than the actual fishing.
A few months back at a dinner gathering the Art teacher told me about this club and invited me to join them. Somehow I never did, but I was reminded of the club when I saw their presentation at the festival. Not wanting to miss my chance to go fishing in Korea, I got hold of him and asked him when they will be going again. He said that it would happen today, Saturday.
There was something else happening on today. One of the English teachers had a birthday party planned and I was invited, but people who know me know that I really have to be in the mood to go out to a club for a night's dancing. Somehow freezing my butt off next to the water seems more appealing than sweating my butt off in a club.
Anyway, I got all the needed information and here we are today.
This morning I met the teacher and the students at school at 9am. I had been looking at the weather forecast and today's weather was to be on the cold side. That proved to be true. The freezing weather is just around the corner though. Tonight the temperature will drop and it will stay down for a few days to come. If the predictions are correct then it will go down to -7 degrees in a few days.
You know, the funny thing about the temperature dropping is that I cant wait for tomorrow morning to come. I know there will be lots of frost around so I'll be able to go take photographs without the frost disappearing to quickly.
Back to today and we all hopped in the cars and headed somewhere. I have no idea where it was, but it was somewhere with a a man made pond with fish to catch. As cold as it was outside, it was stifling inside the car. The heater was set to 30 degrees. I don't even like that temperature in normal weather and I was dressed for winter.
On the way there I was staring out the window, just looking at winter arriving. The area close to the pond has lots of rice fields that have already been harvested. There were little frozen stubs everywhere and the field had turned from a dead brown to a frozen white.
The one exception to the cold outside was a large stream we crossed. Steam was rising out of it at a tremendous rate. It almost seemed like the water was boiling, but I suspect it was only a few degrees warmer than the air above it.
I noticed just one really unusual thing along the way. There was a place called Photo Design Studio. That in itself is not strange at all, but there was no Korean name anywhere, only the English name. I have never seen that and to see it out on the country side is just plain weird.
After a surprisingly short drive we arrive at our destination where everyone poured out of the cars and started setting up while the teacher arranged payment with the owners. I am ashamed to say that I forgot to ask how much I owe then. It will likely be better if I ask back at school where there is someone who can translate for me.
Two students helped me and told what everything was. It was interesting to see how the rod and everything is unfolded and set up to catch the fish just literally spitting distance in from of us. Everyone does their own setup on an assigned seat consisting of an old car seat on a little platform next to the water. My seat had a rain cover over it as well.
(What on earth! As I'm writing this it is drizzling outside! I wonder what this will do for the photographs tomorrow because I expect this water to freeze.)
I'm not exactly the king of fishermen, but I am used to people casting for fish some distance away from themselves. that doesn't happen here, however. Here we catch fish right in front of us. It feels very strange.
I am sad to report that I was unable to get the knack of it and I didn't catch one single fish. I would like to go again thought. It was nice, despite the disappointing catch.
The big outside like was basically just used by our small group. I was taken "around the corner" and in to something resembling a greenhouse. The greenhouse turned out to be an indoor pool where the more hard core fishermen were sitting. It was nice and toasty in there with a big stove like contraption to warm the whole place.
At around 1 pm we headed home and the rest of my day was spent catching up on some sleep and playing on the internet.
I include in this post a few photographs of the day. These photographs turned out to be my only catch of the day, but being me, it is something I will remember longer than the actual fishing.
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