Species hunting adventures in South Korea: Seoul, Muuido and Somuuido.

Last month Lillian and I headed to Asia for a three week long adventure. Before the pandemic we enjoyed two three week trips to Japan in 2018 and 2019. This time we’d be spending the majority of our time in South Korea with a short trip to Japan squeezed in. We were very excited to be going back to that part of the world and had four stops planned in our itinerary. Our first was the South Korean capital of Seoul, we'd then fly south for a short stay on the tropical Japanese island of Okinawa before returning to South Korea where we'd catch the train to Busan on the south coast of the mainland. We'd finish the trip on Jeju island, the “Hawaii of South Korea”. Arriving in Seoul in the evening after a full on day of travelling, we dropped our bags off at our hotel, went out to explore the area near our accommodation and found somewhere to get some tasty food.

Many of the streets near our hotel were a hive of neon lit activity.

We found somewhere to eat and tucked into some delicious bimbimbap, pickled and spicy sides and some super fizzy ginger kombucha.

After dinner, we still felt quite good, so we went for a stroll along Cheonggyecheon Stream, a long stretch of water that was restored fairly recently, having been previously covered over by transport infrastructure. I was curious if it held any fish.

A pleasant space to stroll along in the heart of the massive city. The water was crystal clear...

...which made spotting the resident carp very easy.

Rather predictably however, no fishing was permitted in the stream. I did expect this to be the case, so I wasn’t too disappointed. No fishing signs would however become a fairly common theme throughout our holiday. We carried on along the streamside paths before visiting the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, a very large modern building in the middle of a larger urban development with a curved futuristic aesthetic.

The DDP looked quite cool after dark.

By this point we'd covered a fair distance and were both pretty tired, so we walked back to our hotel and got some much needed sleep.

The following day we did some sightseeing, visiting some of the palaces near our hotel and their gardens, taking a stoll around Bukchon Hanok village, resting our feet at a cafe where we enjoyed a drink in the company of racoon dogs and in the afternoon we took some silly photos at the Ihwa Mural Village and in an optical illusion museum.

We just happened to be at the main gates of Gyeongbokgung Palace for the rather colourful guard changing ceremony.

It was quite a contrast between the beautiful palace grounds and the sprawling city around them.

This is a racoon dog. Not a racoon. Not a dog. A racoon dog.

Who needs Red Bull when Ihwa Mural Village can give you wings?.

I wish the fishing had been out of this world!

We were having a great time exploring Seoul, but by this point I was keen to try and catch some fish, so the following day we visited a tackle shop to seek advice. I asked a few questions with the aid of Google Translate and the shop owner informed me that fishing on the Han River was possible but only in designated areas. He also told me that most anglers left the city to do their fishing. I found this incredible for a city the size of Seoul! Anyway, armed with a fishing area map for the Han River, we headed north, making a stop at the nearby Lotte Tower to visit the observation deck at the top.

Lotte Tower is currently the tallest building in South Korea and the sixth tallest in the world.

Quite a bit of smog hid the city off in the distance, but the expansive Han River was there in the foreground.

Glass floors in overhanging sections of the observation deck mean it’s pretty difficult not to look down!

Soon back on solid ground, we headed to Jamsil Hangang Park, so I could do some fishing on the bank of the River Han. When we eventually reached it, we were met with dense swarms of horrible little black flies. Walking west we eventually found an area with fewer airborne insects to annoy us and I spotted some mullet cruising around. I set up my rod and a piece of bread was cast out in their vicinity. Much to my amazement, none of the mullet showed any interest in my hookbait or any of the free offerings I also threw in. Admitting defeat after a while, we continued our walk along the river and soon arrived at a spot where a tributary flowed into it. The area was very busy with anglers, so I didn’t try to fish there. Most of them seemed to be carp fishing, and we only saw one small fish being caught. Further west, I did try fishing at a quiet spot beneath the southern intersection of Seongsu Bridge, but nothing showed an interest in anything I tried.

A very popular spot with most anglers targetting carp on fairly heavy tackle from what I could see.

The next day, we caught the cable car up to N Seoul Tower, a communications and observation tower that sits atop Nam Mountain in central Seoul. It was a hazy day, so the views weren’t great, but when we came back down to the base of the tower there were a couple of interesting demonstrations happening that we sat and watched and both quite enjoyed.

N Seoul Tower. Not anywhere near as tall as Lotte Tower, but it is situated in a lovely park.

Traditional Korean musicians were first to give the gathered crowd a very energetic performance.

Next up, martial artists made short work of bamboo poles using a variety of bladed weapons.

The following day, the weather in Seoul was pretty wet, so we caught a Line 1 Metro to Wolmido Island on the coast. Wolmido has a circular monorail which we used to explore a bit and I tried to do some fishing, but the wind was horrendous, and the sea was like chocolate. Any sheltered areas were all out of bounds. All in all it was a bit of a wasted journey really. A bit frustrated, we had a look at our Naver Map pins on our way back to Seoul and decided to cheer ourselves up with a visit to the War Memorial of Korea.

One of the impressive statues outside the War Memorial of Korea.

There were also several military vehicles on display.

We'd done a fair bit of walking over the first few days of our trip, and as it had also been very frustrating on the fishing front, we treated ourselves to a burger washed down with an unusual alcoholic beverage made with tangerines.

That evening, we checked out of our hotel in central Seoul, caught the Airport Railroad Express Train and checked into a hotel close to Incheon Airport. Whilst researching the fishing possibilities for each location on our itinerary, I'd found hardly any information about fishing around Seoul, so I had suspected that the fishing there might be tough. For this reason I'd planned in a day exploring a couple of small islands, Muuido and Somuuido, both located to the south of Incheon Airport, before we flew to Okinawa. In the morning, we caught a local bus over to Muuido, where I did some fishing near the harbour on its southern coast. The fishing sadly was dreadful, so we crossed over the footbridge to nearby Somuuido to try my luck there.

Not one bite! Perhaps Somuuido in front of me would be more productive?

Over on Somuuido the fishing wasn't much better sadly. The bottom was very snaggy and the bites pretty much non exsistant. Eventually I did manage to catch a couple of tiny rockfish though. My first two fish of the trip!

A tiny Korean rockfish. This one is Sebastes koreanus I think.

A slightly bigger, but still tiny, Korean rockfish! Same common name, but I believe this one is Sebastes schlegelii.

Having spent the whole day fishing at a few different spots on the two islands, I was glad to get off the mark and was pleased I’d done so with two new species. I could have fished for longer but after another hour or so with no more bites I packed up, we walked back over the footbridge to Muuido, and we caught the bus back to our hotel for a big bowl of spicy mapo tofu. We were flying to Okinawa the following morning, and I was pretty confident that the fishing there would be much, much better!

Tight lines, Scott.

Click here for Okinawa : Part 1.