Connection Glue

I have received a number of questions on what glue I use for making my nub connections (see earlier posting on this blog). I use the INSTA-FLEX model from Bob Smith Industries. INSTA-FLEX is a cyanoacrylate (super glue) with just the right amount of flexibility additive to penetrate the spectra weave and bend around the reel spool without cracking. It is only available in a 1 oz bottle and retails for $5.95 (what a deal). The turquoise label color and cap color is unique for INSTA-FLEX (other versions have different names and different color labels).

An additional feature is that BSI also sells a 1/2 oz empty bottle as well as extra nozzles. I pour the amount of glue I need for the trip into the smaller bottle and store the larger bottle in the refrigerator (prolongs the shelf life). The shelf life (un-refrigerated is approximately 2 years). To deal with clogged nozzles, I buy extra cap/nozzles and always seal the bottle of glue with an nozzle that has not had it's tip cut open (acts as an air tight cap). If you examine the design of the cap/nozzle, it has a compression fitting which prevents the glue from getting on the threads and gluing the nozzle/cap to the bottle. One other feature is the cap is made of a material that can be soaked in Acetone. Acetone will release the glue and clean out the nozzle (if you soak it soon after use) so you can re-use the nozzle many times.

I suggest that you check out this glue yourself (at $5.95 for a 1 oz bottle) it will be the most inexpensive connection glue that you will probably buy and you will probably find that it is one of the best performing. With the extra nozzles and smaller empty bottle you will be able to actually use all of the glue.

I included a photo of the glue, 1/2 oz bottle and spare nozzles.

You can find INSTA-FLEX glue at many hobby shops. If you are in the Lomita, CA 90717 area, I have made arrangements with Pacific Coast Hobbies to stock sufficient supplies of INSTA-FLEX, spare nozzles and empty 1/2 oz bottles for your long range connection application. Just ask for the fishing glue that Gary uses. They will mail order this glue to you, as they are doing this for some of the long range boats. Their address and phone is:

Pacific Coast Hobbies

1747 Pacific Coast Hwy

Lomita, CA 90717

310.530-7127

If you happen to visit Pacific Coast Hobbies, I want to encourage you to visit Baja Fish Gear tackle shop. They have a tremendous shop with an impressive amount of inventory. They really understand the San Diego long range type of fishing. The owner Ed and

his employees fish on these trips so they have first hand knowledge. They also sell lots of Accurate reels, in several special order colors, and I have taught them how to make my nub connection for you. They have several great sales and seminars throughout the year. You can usually find me at these events to answer questions on connections, Accurate reels, Calstar rail rods and Izorline spectra/mono/fluorocarbon.

Baja Fish Gear

24603 Narbone Ave

Lomita, CA 90717

310.517-9899

Thanks for checking out my blog,

Gary Teraoka

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.)