Accurate 12-Day Red Rooster 3 Trip Report Nov 12-24, 2010

The annual 12 day Accurate Fishing Products sponsored Red Rooster 3 trip left the docks and headed south on November 12, 2010. We first loaded the 4 top tanks and 2 large slammers with prime cured sardines, in hopes that the big cows will be waiting for our offerings. Jack Nilsen was the host for Accurate Fishing Products and supplied free loaner ATD and Boss reels for the passengers to use for the duration of the trip.

Jack was supported by 3 pro staffers (Leo Reihsen, Gary Gillingham and myself). If you have not fished with Jack before, you need to check out

one of his trips. They are more like a 12 day party that includes some really good fishing. There is always music blasting from the upper deck and the drinks are flowing 24hrs from the “Del Marsh Cantina” (because it is always happy hour somewhere in the world). The major prizes were provided by Accurate (two Boss reels and a Xtreme rod) and by Calstar (770XXH rail rod blank). In addition Calstar provided 6 of their newest rail rods as demos for the passengers. Izorline provided fluorocarbon, mono and spectra, Baja Fish Gear provided gift cards to all the passengers, Salas lures provide pl-68, 7X heavy and PDQ glow jigs for night tuna fishing. Fishworks provided a couple of beanies that came in handy during bait making and for hanging around the make shift bar on the upper deck.

We started fishing at the Morgan Bank. Good for 20 mid-size tuna, but not enough to make Capt. Andy Cates happy so we moved over to the Finger Bank. We got the jackpot fish at the finger (239# by Chris Stavaridis, 204# by Ernie Osuna and 195# by Al Walbridge), but Andy was still not satisfied so he made the call to go to Puerto Vallarta. What a gutsy call but it really paid off as we boated 60 YFT per day of the 125# to 160# size. Just to spice it up, there were a couple that were in the 180# class. The weather was perfect for the trip up until the time thatmost of the passengers got off at Cabo to fly home. The weather really came up on the trip home and I think those that rode home will consider flying home next year.

Many of the passengers took

advantage of the Accurate loaner reels and had great success landing these fish. With the additional Calstar railrods aboard, several of the anglers learned how to rail fish and I noticed that they were not using their harness at the end of the trip. This collection of passengers meshed very well together and openly shared information with each other. I have to mention the crew on the Red Rooster. They are truly an experienced long range boat crew. The Rooster is probably the most proficient boat at doing the “circus act” type balloon and kite fishing. These are some of the most effective way of hooking really big tuna.

This trip was like one big happy family get together where we also caught some really nice fish. We all met new friends, learned more about long range fishing, and I expect that a lot of the passengers will be returning next year so if you want in on this action, you better give the Red Rooster 3 office a call (and tell Christina that I said Hi).

Thanks for viewing my blog and good luck on your next trip,

Gary Teraoka

American Angler 5-Day Trip (July 27 - Aug 1, 2010)

The annual Harry and Roger 5-day trip on the American Angler was skippered by Brian Kiyohara. The majority of the passengers are part of two charter groups that were combined several years ago. These guys have the reputation of the most rods in rocket launchers. We turned left at the point with a fantastic load of sardines. On the first day of fishing we were looking for tuna off shore around 130 miles south of San Diego. Our first hook-up was on a kelp paddy. It was a good luck, bad luck, good luck situation. I hooked the first fish of the trip (good luck), a miss-step due to the rough seas resulted in my rod and reel going overboard with the yellowtail on the hook (bad luck), but 2^nd ticket Ray took over Tony Contreras’ rod and snagged the line of my lost rod and reel (good luck). Besides getting my Accurate BX2-500N and custom rod back I also got the yellowtail on the boat.

For his role in retrieving my rod and reel from the lost depths of the ocean, the fish gods rewarded Tony Contreras with a first place jackpot fish. Tony hooked and landed a 126 lb Opah (moon fish). Since this was the only fish hooked at that time, Tony had a paparazzi of spectators with cameras recording his catch. Here is my photo of Tony.

The second day of fishing was at the Cedros for yellowtails. We were able to catch nice size yellows the entire day. Ben Kawata caught the largest yellowtail at 33 lbs and Gordon Toguchi got the 3^rd place 29 lb yellowtail. We had so much fun that we all

had trip limits in one day. Since the weather was bad and the tuna fishing not promising, we elected to catch a stringer of reds on the 3^rd morning. That afternoon and on the last day of fishing we looked offshore for tuna. The weather improved greatly but the albacore fishing did not. We got a couple of Albacore for our efforts. All the passengers had a great time and great service from the American Angler crew. We can’t wait for next year when we do it again.

As for the reel that went for a swim, I fished the Accurate BX2-500N for the rest of the trip with no

change in performance and took it all apart after I got home. I thoroughly cleaned the drag washers, dried out the internal parts, lubed and reassembled the reel. The reel is ready to go fishing again.

Thanks for checking out my blog,

Gary Teraoka Pro Staff for Accurate Reels and Izorline

3-Day Izorline Trip on the First String (July 11-14, 2010)

At 10pm all 25 passengers were all on board and the First String took off for a 3-days off-shore fishing. Izorline provided 2 bulk spools of its popular "First String" mono (25# and 40#) for the passengers to load onto their reels in anticipation of fishing for albacore, bluefin and yellowtail. In addition, I provided a raffle prize for each angler. These included personal spools of Izorline mono, Izorline fluorocarbon, Izorline's XXX line (new supermono), Flex Rap, Swifty line remover, jigs from Salas lures, gift certificates from Baja Fish Gear (Lomita, CA), and custom ringed Mustad 94150 hooks. The passengers were shown how to connect fluorocarbon to mono, how to connect mono to spectra and simple mono to hook knots.

We started fishing the next morning approximately 60 miles south of San Diego. The weather was up and the fish were down. After a long day of trying hard we had a handful of albacore on board. I have to give a lot of credit to Scotty for manning the crows nest all day long in the rough seas. Not only does it really rock up there, it is really tough to find fish in the choppy white cap seas. Based upon information from the long range fleet, skippers Brad and Mark decided to make the long run down to 190 miles. The next morning we started looking for the tuna. Although the fishing was slow, the highlight of the day was a 4 fish jig strike.

On the way home, the crew was cutting the albacore that was kept in the very cold brine spray (not frozen). Passenger Victoria Tamblyn was on her first multiday fishing trip and helped out the crew. Check out Victoria in the orange slickers along with crew members Sal and Patrick.

Izorline honors the largest fish caught using Izorline. On this trip, the First String uses 80# Izorline mono so all troll fish were eligible. Koji Tanaka from Japan was the winner of the lunker award trophy. Charlie Need had the second biggest fish and received a Izorline hat. Victoria received a hat for being the inspirational angler (and honorary crew member).

I want to thank the First String for allowing Izorline on board for this

trip. I want to thank the passengers who were in great spirts all trip long and always ready to get their bait into the water. Izorline will be running two more trips on the First String in 2010. I hope you can join Izorline on the First String on either Aug 1 and/or Aug 31.

Gary Teraoka

Pro Staff for Izorline and Accurate Reels

December 2009 10-Day Red Rooster 3 Trip Sponsored by Izorline, CalStar and Accurate

The trip left with 23 anxious anglers trying to anticipate what lies ahead at the “big fish area” along the beach just above Cabo San Lucas. As the Rooster headed south, generous amounts of prizes were given away to the passengers from Izorline, CalStar, Accurate, Salsa Lures, Eagle Claw hooks, Smitty Belt Rigging Needles, Maui Jim Sunglasses, and more.

Pro-staffer Norm Fujimoto represented Izroline and CalStar while I took care of the Accurate loaner reels.

We spent 2 and half days anchored up at the big fish area picking at the numerous tuna around the boat. With the wind and the sea acting like it was mad at us, it was a slow pick bite with a lot of fish around the boat. Bill Falls easily landed a 237# kite fish on the boat’s ATD-80 reel, CalStar rod and Izorline spectra and mono (photo of Bill standing up the cow). The other big fish was a 332# super cow landed by Dana Sterling flylining a sardine (photo with fish too big to pick up). Bob Michener pulled the hook on a really good one. With the hooking and catching very slow, Andy decided that we needed to make a change and so we pulled the hook and headed for Alijos Rocks.

After we had enough YFT, we headed to Cedros for yellowtail. We looked for home guard big yellows but could only find the small to mid size units. We had fun with the 2 oz sinker rigs and surface & heavy jigs. (Photo of Joe D'Acquisto and Norm Fujimoto with a CalStar jig stick, new Accurate BX2-500 and a Tady surface iron) Now that the weather settled down we had a very smooth leisurely cruise back to the barn.In one and a half days, we filled one RSW fish hold with mid grade YFT, a wahoo and a few yellowtails. Everyone had a great time yanking and cranking on these filler fish. The kite was wide open. We went through the full rotation more than two times in one day.

Besides having a good time and catching all the fish we needed to take home and share with family and friends, we all made new friends and acquaintances. We shared fishing stories and non-fishing stories. I have to include the Rooster crew in these story-sharing episodes, as they were all very personable and participated in some of the playful pranks. The long distance award goes to David Nunez who traveled from Tokyo, Japan to be on this trip. (Photo of David testing out an Accurate reel and a CalStar Graphiter rod.)

The last photo is a group shot of most of the happy anglers with Cedros Island in the background.

This trip is on the Red Rooster 3 schedule again next year. In addition, Izorline, CalStar and Accurate run other trips on the Red Rooster 3 throughout the season. Check the Red Rooster 3 schedule on the web (www.redrooster3.com) and call Linda or Christina at the Rooster office to sign up (619) 224-3857. You can leave me comments or questions on this blog.

Hope to see you on one of these future trips,

Gary Teraoka

Pro-Staff for Accurate Reels and Izorline

Nail Knot "Nub" Connection Status, October 2009

It is time to get ready for the 2009/2010 long range trips. I hope the COWs show up in big number soon. (The Q-105 got some at the Hurricane and Rooster is heading there right now.) In case some of you are thinking about mono to spectra connections to use on these trip, here is the latest data on my “nub” connection that uses spectra nail knots (see my earlier posting for the concept of my “nub” and nail knot connection.)

I have spent over 6 months developing the strongest way to install the nub on the mono. The final result is that you can put 174# of tension on Izorline 135# First String mono before the nub will start to slip on the mono. This is key to an effective nub and it is also the reason that you can use my connection multiple times.

More testing at Izoline showed me that my nub connection is a 100% connection without the Chinese finger trap. To test this on a real fish, I asked Brian Sims from the Royal Star (April 2009 tagging trip) to test some special connections that had virtually no Chinese finger trap insertion of the mono into the hollow spectra. Brian (and the Royal Star crew) landed 6 tuna in the 100# to 150# class as well as 15 sharks on the same connection. The connection started out with 45 ft of Izorline 135# mono and Brian fished and re-fished it until there was 4 ft of mono left. He had similar results with two other special wind-ons with no Chinese finger trap. This on ocean testing validated to me that my Izorline lab testing results were correct. Bottom line is that I can make a nail knot nub connection that is 100% strong and can be used multiple times without the Chinese finger trap holding mechanism.

Please keep in mind that using my nail knots alone is a very risky situation, as it has no room for error. (Like a flying trapeze act without a safety net.) If any part of the nail knots were not installed exactly right, the connection may slip. If anything damages a critical part of the nail knot while fighting the fish, the connection will probably fail. Knowing how each part of my connection behaves under all conditions is necessary to design a very effective connection system. My design approach is to know what the contribution of each part is and whether it is a primary or secondary contribution.

So what does this mean to my connection? It means that the insertion of the mono into the spectra is for margin of safety. I have previously found that between 6 and 12 inches of insertion (for 135# Izorline mono into 200H Izorline spectra) is a 100% connection. The problem with only inserting 12 inches is that with most other connection techniques, the loading and re-loading of the line will induce a small amount of slippage from each re-loading of the line. This is one reason why you may end up having less than the required 12 inches of insertion and that is why most riggers use between 3ft and 5 ft of insertion. With my “nub”, I preclude all creep type of slippage on re-loading and so if I start out with 12 inches, I end up with 12 inches. Sorry to get carried away with my microscopic observations but this observation was what drove me to come up with the nub. I still recommend that everyone use between 2 ft and 3 ft of insertion to provide 200% to 300% margin of safety.

Right now I am working on how to reduce some of the excess margin of safety so that my connection can be made quicker. Sorry, but this is not just the simple act of shorter insertion length. I am evaluating some faster nail knot installation techniques.

Come join me on one of my long range trips and your can ask questions, ask about my latest findings and try out one of these connection that I can custom make for you. (You tell me how you fish and whether you plan on re-using the connections more than once.) I am running the Accurate Reel sponsored 10.5-day trip on the American Angler (Jan 5, 2010). I am trying to clear my calendar at work so that I can be on December 11, 2009 Izorline Red Rooster 3 trip. Check with the Red Rooster office.

Thanks for reading about the latest on my nail knot nub connection,

Gary Teraoka

American Angler 5-Day (July 27 - Aug 1, 2009)

I was on the annual Harry Yamada/Roger Kuramoto 5-day trip (July 27 – Aug 1, 2009) on the American Angler, skippered by co-owner Brian Kiyohara. This trip is made up mostly of passengers from a charter group that formed many years ago. These guys really know how to fish and the results reflects the skill of the anglers combined with the skill of the American Angler crew to locate the fish.

We went straight to the southern end of Guadalupe Island and fished for the larger yellowfin tuna. We were able to put 100 of the 40# to 70# YFT in the RSW that first afternoon. Pretty good for a half day of fishing. Each of these large YFT were gutted and gilled before being placed into the 29 deg. RSW. My parents, family, and friends continue to comment on how Sushi quality the tuna was.

On the second day at Lupe we put another 100 YFT on the boat by noon. With plenty of the big YFT in the RSW we left the southern end and fished for yellowtail near Latitude bay. We were able to land 100 yellowtails in under 2 hours. The biggest yellowtail was 34# and landed by our chef Paul.

On the way to the southern end of Guadalupe, Kub Ito was trolling with the right stuff (wired mediun black and purple Yo Zuri). Kub landed a big wahoo (60# class) and graciously donated it to the galley for dinner. Thanks Kub, it was delicious.

After the successful YFT and yellowtail catching at Guadalupe, we wanted to try for bluefin tuna. At our evening family meeting we found out that we were going to fish off-shore tomorrow for bluefin and albacore.

Andy Cates (Red Rooster3) shared a school of YFT and BFT with us. We landed around 20 of the 30# - 40# BFT. On the last day of fishing, most of us were not looking to keepanything, but you know how that goes. We had a mix of small YFT, good size BFT, small yellows, and some dorados. (Photos of Roger in the orange slickers with his BFT; Dr. Ben Kawata, John Liu and Dr. Mike Uyeki with nice tuna.)

The jackpot fish were all caught at Lupe. I was fortunate to have a 105# YFT bite my bait while using the newest Accurate boss reel (BX2-500). I used 65# Izorline spectra and 25 ft of Izroline 40# fluorocarbon. Tony (the Harley ridding big boy) Contreras had a 71# YFT for second and John Liu was a close third with a 70# YFT.

This annual trip is always fun to be on due to the fishermen playing jokes on each other but always working together to land every fish hooked. We had very few hooked fish lost due to tangles and attribute this to the effectiveness of the “controlled free spool” that is used on the American Angler (no tension, no cut off lines). The crew has always been very good at locating fish so it is not surprising that we had such a great fish count. This trip is on the American Angler schedule next year at the end of July 2010. Thank you to Harry Yamada and Roger Kuramoto for doing a great job organizing this trip every year (All photos were taken by the American Angler camera.)

American Angler Long Range Trip

The 2009 Accurate sponsored American Angler trip left Point Loma at 6 PM on Jan 5 for 10.5 days of the most beautiful weather that I have ever experienced on a long range fishing trip. By leaving in the evening the logistic of the traveling time works out that we get to fish 6 days at the lower banks above Cabo San Lucas, in search of the large Yellowfin tuna. Accurate Fishing Products supplied 40 ATD and Boss two speed reels along with Cal Star and Seeker rods for all passengers to use during the trip. All reels have either Izorline, Blackwater or JB spectra so the passengers are only responsible for the top shot on the outfit(s) that they borrow.

With generous prizes provided by Accurate, Izorline, Pelagic, Smitty Belts, Baja Fish Gear, Yo’s Custom Rods, Salas Lures and Fishing Videos, I started giving away prizes to all passengers from the very first night. These included 6X Jr Salas Jigs for all, 2009 Calenders from Fishing Videos for all, Accurate T-shirts for all and gift cards from Baja Fish Gear for all. Izorline provided a 2KG spool of 135# blue First String mono for all the passengers to use and is the perfect mono to make top shots for the 2-speed Accurate reels. This is the line you want to be using for the best chance of successfully landing the 200# plus yellowfin tuna. In addition, we held drawings for Pelagic hats and shirts, Izorline spectra and XXX line, Accurate upgrade reel handles, and some very special mono/spectra rigging tools.

I usually have a Daily Derby prize for the biggest fish, but I wanted the passengers to be able to use some of the prizes on this trip so I awarded some Daily Derby prizes before the fishing began. Jim Stein won a set of hollow splicing needles donated by Smitty Belts. Dr. Corey, Burak, Feliz Weaver, Jim Hart, Joe Gigliotti and Ted Williams were the lucky winners of Pelagic gloves.

On the morning of the 3rd day, we arrive at the upper end of the 300# bank. It didn’t take long for the crew to spot “blackies” that were holding big tuna. Skipper Brian Kiohara put the boat in position and the rest was up to us. The big fish results for the first day was Ted Windham 232#, Jeff Price 240#, Jim Hart 196# on a Accurate 30, Harvey Rosen 124# on a Accurate 50, and Jim Stein 185#. We also boated two wahoo (one with a pink Salas 6X jr).

On the 2nd day of fishing, we woke up with fish under the boat. Randy Rich landed the first tuna before sunup. Dr. Corey Burak landed the big fish for the day, which was 267#. Corey also landed a 182# YFT using a Blue/White Salas 6X jig and 60# Izorline mono. Thanks to crew member Bobby (aka Bubbles) for giving Corey a hand with the less than minimum standard equipment on that fish. Ray Coombs landed a 137# kite tuna and Fred Best had a 140# kite fish.

The next day skipper Brian put us on a lot of fish but it was real tough to get a bite. Dan Spiegel landed the biggest fish of the day (126#) and won the Daily Derby prize of a Accurate Boss reel. Fred Best landed a 114# for second best of the day.

On the 4th fishing day, we anchored up on the Morgan Bank to try for some of the more nominal size tuna. We all hooked and landed several of the 30# to 100# tunas and had a great time. Jeff Price had the big fish for the day (100# YFT) and won the Daily Derby of a $50 certificate towads a custom rod from Yo’s. Dan Speigle used a dropper loop to land several Tan Grouper and a outstanding 43# yellowtail.

On the 5th fishing day, it was back to Lucitania bank looking for the giants. Now we were fishing with the Royal Star. Together both boats were able to get on schools of Cows that were blowing completely out of the water. Unfortunately they were chasing schools of squid and did not pay much attention to our choice sardines or mackeral. We did manage to get a few Cows to make a mistake. Joe Gigliotti 180#, Joe El-Deiry 227#, Joe Cribben 174#, (at this point I was going to change my name to Joe) Dan Spiegle 208# and Felix Weaver 279 (the largest fish of the trip). Since you can only win on Daily Derby prize for the trip, Joe El-Deiry was the winner of a 2-speed Boss reel. Boy was Joe a happy camper.

On the last day of fishing, we decide to spend one more day trying to catch a fish of a lifetime. We saw Cows jumping out of the water all over the place. Even as close as 10 ft from the boat. At one stop, we all dropped in as Captain Brian slid the boat to a stop with a big heard of Cows jumping out of the water on the port side and crossing right over our baits. The two lucky anglers were Ron Volmer and Randy Rich. Scott Wolf hook the last fish after the smoke cleared. Large fish for the day went to Scott Wolf where he won Pelagic wear for the Daily Derby.

In summary, we landed 6 Cows and 9 big fish between 100# and 196#. The biggest fish for the trip was landed by Felix Weaver using a ATD-50W that was one of the loaner gear provided free on this trip. Everyone learned something new about fishing for the big tuna and the cooperation between the passengers was phenomenal. Many passengers that signed up by themselves had new friends when they walked off the American Angler 10.5 days later. We all had a great vacation and caught some big fish. I have to commend the American Angler staff for the fantastic job they did on; finding fish, line untangling, individualized big fish mentoring and delicious meals/snacks. Hope to see many of this years passengers next year as well as new passengers looking for a good time and a chance to use Accurate fishing products to land a fish of a lifetime.

Gary Teraoka
Accurate Pro-Staff