The transition from winter to spring is a great time to fly fish for cherry trout in Korea. The nearest cherry trout streams are about two and a half hours by car from Seoul. Generally, the streams can only handle a couple of anglers fishing at a time. I wouldn’t recommend fishing with groups of three or four. There just isn’t enough real estate. With that being said, the streams and locations are held close to the vest. All of the places I fish have come from seasoned anglers who wouldn’t appreciate me sharing their spots. So don’t ask. Instead, I would recommend visiting one of Seoul’s fly shops. Yes, Seoul does have fly shops, but they too are often hard to find. One of my favorites is Trutta in Eastern Seoul. It is run by Mr. Lee, who is friendly and speaks English well. He has a full line of tying materials and always has a small gift ready for me when I visit the shop. His email address is tuna2001@naver.com.
Back to the fishing. I started the day walking 3 km downstream, as I wanted to fish upstream. This is an interesting point. Many Korean anglers like to fish downstream with both wets and dries. I feel more comfortable fishing upstream and letting the current carry my fly down to me, but it is practical to be skilled at both. I was told to fish nymphs in the morning and switch to dries after 2 pm. I didn’t get any on the nymphs, but the dry fly fishing was superb. A size 16 CDC midge was the hot pattern. One of the trickiest parts of fishing is keeping the non-trout from hitting your fly. The stream was full of pale chubbs that kept attacking my fly before it could reach any trout. But it made for consistent action all day.
Check out my go to glass rod for Cherry Trout
Moonlit Glass Rods