Fishing in the Yellow / West Sea

Last weekend I went out on a fishing trip Brian Wiscombe (WEC resident) and a two guys from Doosan. We left from Changwon around 10pm Saturday night to make the drive up to a port by Taean.

It took about 4 hours to drive there, and that was with rather empty roads (since it was late and all). Once we got into town we had breakfast at a local place (soup / rice) and then slept for a few hours till we could check in with the boating office. Around 4am we checked in, got any extra equipment that we had forgotten / needed (poles, hooks, bait, ponchos, etc) and then moved all of our stuff onto the boat. Around 5am we left the harbor and traveled out to the first fishing spot, a trip that took about 3 hours. We started fishing / battling the rain around 8am and kept fishing around 6pm that night. After that we came back to the harbor, packed up our gear and fish and made the trek home. All in all a really long, kind of cold / rainy day, but we ended up catching a lot of fish (as you'll see in the pictures) so it was a pretty good time.

Also I found out that I do get a bit seasick, mostly when we were at low idle and the boat was really kicking around. I was ok traveling out (except for when we throttled down b/c of waves) and fishing for the morning, but it really hit me in the afternoon. I'm not sure what all it was (the long day, the waves, maybe not eating enough, or a combination of everything) but I was really sick / tired all afternoon so I mostly slept.

We ended up catching 20-25 fish on the day (between the 4 of us). I caught 3-4 in the morning and then another one during lunch, but that was it. One of the Doosan guys with us also got a little sick and he sat most all of the day out (he did catch a fish though). Most of the fish were 12ish inches but Brian caught the biggest one on the boat probably around 16-18". You can see in the pictures below and then take a guess if you like.

We were mostly fishing off the bottom of the Sea about 30-50m down (100-170 ft), so we had extra weighting on the lines and we also used two hooks with different bait at different heights. Most all of the fish that I caught was off of the lower hook / bait. You can see that a few guys were able to catch two fish at once (first picture in the album below) because of the two hooks. The boat was pretty good sized (you'll see in the pictures) and had space for 22 fishers at once.

These pictures are from the boating company itself, a rather neat service that they provide. The deckhand was running around snapping pictures as we hauled fish in, so he had a pretty busy day. It should be pretty easy to pick out Brian and I since we're the only Americans, Mr. Kim (also with us) is in the third picture and then about 7 more... he had a pretty good day. We guessed that the average person caught 4-5 fish, but that might not have been the case.

And these pictures are what Brian and I took throughout the day. I've added more comments on each of those pictures too, so be sure to check them out.

Slacking off

Well it appears that I've been a bit lazy in updating this blog during this month. I'll try to remedy it in the coming weeks.

First things first I'll be back in the US from September 19th through the 29th visiting a combination of Erie/McKean, Pittsburgh, and New Orleans. It should be a lot of fun and I'm excited to get to see everyone. Its hard to believe that I've been away for over 3 months already or that I'm over half way done. If you're going to be in any of those places let me know so that I can be sure to come visit.

Work has been a little hectic lately (and probably the reason for the lack of posts). Our residents from China rotated again (every three months) so we have new guys in here which means ... they need broken in. They're getting there, but its going to take some time. It's also harder because our last residents spoke English very well and these guys aren't quite as good. Mr. Chen was also a lot of fun because he was around my age (26) and we could relate on a lot of things.

We've also had a few visitors from our US customers too, so we've been showing them around setting them at ease about the area / company and generally working a lot with them. Which can make for some pretty long hectic days.

Life outside of work has been pretty good too. I haven't been doing too much on the weekends, just tooling around the city taking it easy. I think that I'll travel more once I get back from this break because the weather will be less hot and/or rainy than it currently is. I'm also expecting fall to be very good with all the mountains and trees everywhere, so I'll try to take a lot of pictures to share with everyone.

Photo Blog - Masan

Here is the last batch of photos from my week off. I traveled out to Masan (near by city) to take in the sights there and to try to get a feel for that city.

Masan is about 16 Km (10 miles) from Changwon, center to center. Masan is about 1/3rd the size of Changwon (pop. 200,000) and is a significantly older city than Changwon. It does have the feel of older Korea and that is also represented well in the architecture and structure of the buildings. Most are 3-5 stories tall and there aren't many of the apartment complexes that you see in Changwon (though they are building a lot). The town has a more "country" feel compared to Changwon's "urban" sort of feel. I can only imagine what Seoul (pop 20 million) and Busan (pop 7 million) are like, however I feel one word would be "cramped" ...

http://s621.photobucket.com/albums/tt294/brown-pitt/Photo%20Blog%20-%20Masan/

I traveled to Masan mostly by public transportation and I have to say that its a lot better than what I've experienced in the US. The buses were on time and most of the bus stops had a computer screen in them telling you what the next bus was and how long it would take to get to you. I know that would be convenient in Pittsburgh (save playing the "well maybe something will come along" game). The only major downfall that I found with the public transport was that the buses were all manual transmission; while they are great for fuel economy, you also get shift shock (especially first to second) coupled with people standing. Lets just say that people get thrown about a bit so you really need to pay attention.

Photo blog - Changwon City

Today's lot of pictures (from earlier in the week....) are taken around the city and some of the areas that I visit when I am not in my apartment or the City 7. I'll try to upload the pictures from my trip to Masan later tonight or tomorrow.

http://s621.photobucket.com/albums/tt294/brown-pitt/Photo%20Blog%20-%20Changwon/

Picture Blog - Day 1

So I'm onto my week off and I really don't feel like traveling much (I've been running around a lot these last two months) so I figured that I would do a picture blog sort of thing to give everyone a better idea of what I see in and around my life and apartment. I'm planning on featuring my apartment, the city and places that I go around it, work (I need to stop in a for a few days anyways), and maybe a nearby city or two. This is all rather informal but I will try my best to update each day.

I've also uploaded comments to each of the pictures to try to describe them and/or help you get a sense of the navigation so you can put it all together. As always feel free to contact me (whatever method you prefer) for more information about anything.

Day one is my apartment and the shops in the City 7 complex.
http://s621.photobucket.com/albums/tt294/brown-pitt/Photo%20Blog%20-%20Apartment/