Sokcho Diary

The Fishing Trip

2.9.06

Today was a gorgeous day! After being out until the wee hours of the morning, 5:00am, with some Brits and Aussies singing and enjoying the local pub scene, I got up around nine to go on a pre planned fishing trip with my friend Matthew and a Korean teacher from the school, Chris.

We met at the kid’s school, and I was a wreck. Four hours of really rough sleep and energy drink were all I had to face the day, and it started out brutal

First we hit the local market to pick up a few supplies. Going down into the shellfish market where everything was hot and humid and full of the smells of rotting and decaying marine life was almost more than my fragile stomach could handle but we needed to pick up some scallops and horse clams for the grill.

We cruised around, hitting various stalls for our treats. Out of one tank I picked up a kilo of scallops, big, round, and fresh, caught that morning and put right into the tank. Next to the scallops were the rarest of seafood, abalone. The idea of purchasing some crossed our minds until the lady told us that they were seventy dollars a kilo, a little out of our budget

After getting the scallops we cruised past the octopus that were sitting out on slabs, trying to avoid being the ingredient in that days soup until we got to the shrimp sellers. The shrimp were placed on ice and laid out in plastic dishes for around five dollars a pound but it was not what we were looking for. Instead of big, juicy, green tiger prawns, all that was in today were regular pink shrimp, about six inches long. Acceptable but not what we wanted but they would have to do.

Along with the shrimp, scallops, and horse clams, Matthew had also picked up some good cuts of Australian beef that he planned to throw on the grill with our seafood with some onions, garlic, and scallions.

Our purchases completed, we caught good old bus number one up north to Chris’s place. Chris lives in a tiny town about ten miles north of Sokcho proper. Not much is there except a little fishing port, a breakwater, and two or three hotels fronting the beach, that’s it. It’s a pretty quiet place eleven months out of the year but it really rocks in August.

Chris’s apartment is on the top floor of a four-story building and looks out on the sea. From his window, his morning view consists of the blue green ocean and the beach with a little rocky islet just off shore. Sometimes, if the wind is right he can hear whales just off shore, he says it sounds like children calling for their parents, mournful and sad

We stopped off at the house for our gear and headed for the breakwater. It was pretty busy with crowds of fisherman out going for a Korean delicacy known as the hair tale and sardines.

My rig consisted of a heavy surf rod and thick monofilament, quite the rig for catching six-ten inch long fish. At the top of the rig was a heavy orange float connected by about a three-inch length of line to a smaller orange bobber. Coming off the bobber was another four feet of line with about an eighth ounce sinker and a tiny hook that we tried to cover with baby shrimp that fell off at various inopportune time

We crawled over the cement pilings to the water and caste out about twenty feet into about ten meters of water. The water was so clear that we could see small schools of baby hair tales and sardines striking at the chum (shrimp powder) that the fisherman used to attract the fish.

From the first cast to the last we caught fish. About twelve in two hours. A mix of hair tales and sardines. Nothing huge but delicious cut up on the breakwater and smeared with red pepper paste washed down with a huge bottle of Cass makju.

After we had fished for a while we went back to Chris’s house and fired up the grill, a Weber, believe it or not. We laid down tinfoil and through on the scallops and the horse clams along with the shrimp and beef. On the table were heaping bowls of Gimchi and plates of raw fish. We spent the rest of the afternoon drinking beer and eating seafood looking out over the ocean, not talking much just enjoying the view, the day, and the experience that is Korea.