The January 2012Accurate Fishing Products sponsored American Angler 12-day trip was another successful gathering of past and new friends on a fishing trip with all the of latest equipment for catching large tuna and Wahoo. Accurate provided 40 of the latest ATD and Boss reels, Calstar provided 20 of the latest 7ft. rail rods and Izorline provided spectra, mono and fluorocarbon. We also had the opportunity to try some of the latest Mustad Demon circle hooks (model 39943 4X strong model in the 5/0, 6/0 and 7/0 sizes).
We had many opportunities to put all of this equipment to the test when skipper/owner Brian Kiohara took us straight to Clarion Island buffer zone. We had a morning of good fishing with tuna up to 119#. Matt Salas (of the famous Salas Lures company) won the daily prize of a Calstar 770XXH rod by acing out his long time friend and swordfish fisherman Leon Bundy’s (117# YFT). Leon told me "he beat me by 2 stinking pounds, that rod was mine for sure".
With reports of tuna biting real well at the Hurricane Bank, we took the 18 hr ride and arrived the next morning where we first trolled for wahoo. After enjoying the excitement of landing approximately 70 wahoo from 10# to 50# we dropped the hook and started catching tuna over 100#. After 2 days at the Hurricane, the fish holds were almost full. Everyone had many big fish. Since the winds were going to be blowing over 25kts the next day, we decided to leave early and try to add some yellowtail at Cedros. It didn’t take long to add 200 yellowtail to the RSW fish hold.
Big fish honors goes to Ed Morrison (209#), Dave Claverie (206#) and Tom Mato(189#). Ed also won the Accurate trophy for the largest fish caught using a Accurate reel.
The fishing (catching) on this trip was exceptional. Lots of big YFT, plus wahoo and yellowtail. The fish preservation from the American Angler RSW is about the best in the fleet. Other daily prize winners were: Mark Johnson won a set of hollow rigging needles from S&S Products (Smitty Belts), James Hotchkiss won a Boss reel from Accurate and Joe Machado won a 770XXXH blank from Calstar. All the passengers received Accurate t-shirts and numerous raffle prizes: gift cards from Baja Fish Gear; upgrade reel parts from Accurate; Izorline spectra, mono and fluorocarbon; Bill Roecker’s (Fishing Videos) latest book “At the Rail” and 2012 calendars; Salas jigs; Mario (Sportsman Seafood) for the smoked and jerky tuna along with t-shirts and fish processing discounts; Maui Jim polarized sunglasses VIP coupons; plus special tools and hands-on instruction on how to make the nail knot “nub” connection.
The crew’sability to quickly “gut and gill” each tuna is unmatched by the rest of the fleet. Sushi restaurants would be envious of the quality of the fish coming off of our trip. Equally enjoyable was the camaraderie between all the passengers and crew members. The card game “31” may have something to do with this, but everyone knew something interesting about everyone else by the end of the trip. Most passengers had trouble finishing the book they brought on board because they spent a lot of time talking and bonding with the other passengers and crew.
A special thanks to Jeff Bott for assembling/editing and copying all of the photos taken by the passengers and providing a copy to all. Also for winning one of the daily prizes but giving it up to another passenger because Jeff already owned that prize.
Accurate will be sponsoring this trip again next year. Hope you can make next year's trip so I can post a photo of you having fun next year. Contact Lori at the American Angler office. Here are photos from the passengers and crew having fun this year.
