Accurate visits Norway the land of the Goliaths.

Hey everyone, sorry for the late post but been on planes all over and just got home to share the adventure of our Norway expedition.
We have a Pro Staff guy in Tromso Norway Per Jonasson, who has told me for a while about stories of giant halibut over 400 pounds being caught up in the north land so with an invite from a friend we traveled up to see what we could catch. My crew included Doug Olander and his beautiful wife, and John Beath, noted outdoor writer.
My adventure started at LAX and after flying accross the United States and into Oslo (13 hours) with a 8 hour delay in Oslo, ended two hours later in Tromso, Norway.
I was greeted by Per at the airport and driven to his fish hide away, some forty minutes north.
Remember in Norway this time of year there is no night time, its light 24 / 7 and can play tricks on your body. Per had a couple other writers / friends staying with him, Peder and Soren who were very hardcore fishing from 6 am to 11 or 12am everynight catching a lot of fish between 100 and 200 pounds.
My first day on the boat with the guys was very slow with me hooking one nice fish that came unbuttoned quickly. The bait of choice was a savage swim bait baby calico color (brown, gold, and black) on a 6 oz lead head. All the fishing was done in 50 to 75 feet which was completely different than my Alaska fishing. The key to the fishing was you could use smaller reels with braid because the fish coul not spool you in deep water.
My personal experience with big Halibut is they don't pull really hard and if you keep constant, even pressure on them they swim to the boat rather easily. This wasn't the case here, these fish would smoke an initial run like a Bluefin and you couldn't control them unless you put the drag up, and I mean up around 18 to 20 lbs. This was a real workout but it gave the tackle the test that I like to see.
We caught a few nice halibut over the five days but to watch Per on one that taped over 200 pounds with all the drag and land the fish within 15 to 20 minutes was amazing.
I truly learned what kind of drag it took to stop a fish like that and how our little B-197XC could handle it. He has been doing this for a few years with lots of fish between 100 to 200 pounds under his belt, and his reel of choice, a single speed B-197 with a 6:1 gear ratio.
Besides the Halibut we also caught Atlantic Cod and the ugly Wolf fish that looks like a monkey's head on an eels body.
The weather was unseasonably warm with 70 to 75 degrees during the warmer days and maybe 50 degrees in the morning as we ran out to the fishing grounds.
We all got our chance at the bigger fish and we caught some decent ones but this trip turned into the "One that got away" with that happening to all of us at least once.
I had one fish light me up for several minutes, as we started to follow him with the boat he feel off but he pulled as hard as anything I have hooked throughout my years of fishing.
A real stud, like a pitbull on steroids chasing the local mail man.
All said in done, this was one of the most unique trips I have every taken with a great group of people to share it with.
I would definitely get back to Tromso to chase that Goliath Halibut hoping to land the trophy of a lifetime.
Thanks to Per for his guidance, it was much appreciated.
I hope we are able to get back there and give it another shot some day.

Till the next trip, hope your time on the water is productive.

Ben

A Day on the Ohinemuri River

At Accurate they really keep us hopping either looking for new ideas or spending time traveling to far away places doing shows or better, spending time on the water. I recently returned from the Auckland Boat show in New Zealand and had the pleasure of spending a day trout fishing with Brett Tapper, father of our distributor, Kane Tapper of Decoro Fishing.
I spent all night flying from LAX and upon arrival at a early bird 4:45am Wednesday morning (left on Monday and lost a day in the air)was greeted by Brett who had everything ready to go.
Sun was coming up to a rather brisk day, maybe 51 degrees with a little rain and we were off. If you have a dream of rolling farm lands with the coolest green color intermixed with cattle and flowing rivers, this is the place.
After a couple hours on the road we reached our destination, the Ohinemuri river, which reminded me of the days I spent fishing the west Walker river with my dad as a young boy. The morning was rather slow with a few fish caught but as the sun heated up the water in between rain showers the fishing started to get good. The river itself is full of solid riffs with a lot of larger rocks casting shadows. As we worked our spinners down through these riffs and into the shadows we ended up catching a lot of 12" fish with a few larger models but the brown trout eluded us.
Mid day Brett fired up his portable stove and brewed up some fresh coffee and made the best corn beef sandwiches possible followed by home made cake and cookies. Then he set off to find the old Brown trout hole on some private land he knew. As we walked through the pastures to get to these hidden holes I opted to go North and he went south on the stretch. Unfortunately for me he landed the nice brown we where looking for and I ended up with one more rainbow.
As luck has it, after the last fish the skies opened up and poured on us. I could not have had a better day knowing I had to stay awake to get on there time zone and trust me with fishing like that it was hard to remember I was tired. I want to say thanks to Brett and Kane for their time and this for sure will not be the last time I fish the Ohinemuri in pursuit of those legendary big browns.
Hope all is well with you and your upcoming fishing is off the hook.
Cheers Ben.

In Search of the Golden Lady

Wednesday I got a call from a friend, Brandon Hayward, and he wanted to fish the beach looking for a large Calico bass, hopefully getting a bruiser for a photo. We met up at 5:00 am at my house, hooking up the skiff and getting down to the launch ramp around 5:30 am with coffee in hand.
We were greeted with flat calm seas, over cast skies and an air temp around 50 degrees.
Once launched we set our course up the beach to a few stones I have fished over the years which in the hay day would produce the fat ones. We fished diligently through the first hour without a bite then Brandon caught our first keeper around 2.5 pounds on a swimbait. As the tide started its way down from a 7 + foot high(highest of the year) with a 61 degree water tempature, we were in position to get a big bite.
Brandon started off getting smoked without getting a solid hookset with the fish coming unbuttoned. I had the same happen after one them doubled my heavy Lamiglass rod and took line off a REVO 50 with new AccuBraid line on it. I was starting to wonder if we had our chances when I got bit again, this time getting a solid hook set and the fish dogging deep. At first with the head shakes I thought we were going to see a nice sea bass until I saw a brown shadow below the boat. It dogged me for a minute or so until I was able to get it close to the boat. It was a solid fish that felt pretty hefty. It had been awhile since I had caught a fish as nice as this one so I really enjoyed it. We took a round of pictures and I released her back into her stones. I was really happy to have the deep teeth marks in the palm of my hand, knowing she was the biggest fish I had caught in a couple years for sure. It was nice to see that with all the pounding our local stuff takes there are still a few goods one to catch.
I had a nice morning until about noon when the wind started blowing out of the south and I knew I had to go straight into it on the way home.
I love fishing the Calicos and really appreciate the chance to test our new products(AccuBraid) to see what they are made of. I appreciate the time on the water with friends, sharing stories and creating new ones of the fish either lost or the ones caught. However I look at it, I am definitely blessed and couldn't ask for a better life. I hope your Holidays are good ones and you spend some time on the water. Until our next outing, I hope all your fish are big ones.

Ben

Fishing Flamingo with "Hitman" Eddy Carmen

I arrived in Florida Saturday night to spend some time with my good friend Ed Carmen of the Biscayne Rod Legacy. I have known Ed for over twenty years, sharing many fishing adventures with him and his brothers and we planned to head off to Flamingo (Florida State Park) first thing Sunday morning. After a great dinner with the family we hit the hay and were up at 5 am ready for the hour drive south. For those of you who have not heard of Flamingo, it is the state park located right across from the keys near Florida City that has a myriad of fish living in its shallow waters. The species include tarpon, bonefish, redfish, seatrout, and the elusive snook. We have had many good trips catching all the species but this trip we are heading down with 40 mph winds and the first cold snap they have seen this year in Florida.
Our day started out with Ed's son Zach pushing for position on the front deck, I knew the competition was on and here used his local knowledge to slam dunk me in the morning with two snook and two redfish to my one lady fish. As the afternoon wore on I finally put a red in the boat myself but was well aware that the conditions had us beat.
I really appreciate the few good friends I have, Ed is truly one of them. Their are a lot of people that move through your life over the years but the ones that linger are usually the true friends.
I had a great time with Ed and his son Zach. I really enjoy staying with him and revisiting the old fishing trips, they live on in our minds which I plan on enjoying for years to come.
I hope you are able to spend time fishing with friends over the Holidays catching some fish that pull drag.
Until next, good fishing to you.

Ben

Our final day on the reef: Swimming with the Sharks

Our final day on the reef starts with the same weather we have seen for the last couple days, wind and swell. We got up nice and early to get a start on the reef chasing the dream of catching a grander but the twins opted for a dive first thing. We had anchored by a balmy (Coral Head) and the water was maybe 30 feet with great visibility all around the head and on top was maybe four feet deep. As they got into the water myself and the deckies didn't feel adventurous so we declined the invitation for the morning dive.
I sat patiently watching the twins swim around the coral head looking at the abundant sea life and snapping pictures when Dave's head popped up and said there was a big shark to the side of them.
They grouped together and started to swim back at the boat when in their words the 6 foot Black tip shark charged them never getting more that 6 feet from them but very agitated.
After hanging with the twins for several years they are very daring and when they told me the entire story I believed it 100%. For me I will stay land based or on top of the water surfing.
After their thrilling swim we headed off to fish bait for a while than off to the grounds outside the reef. We got our baits out and put the laser down the middle for any additional by catch that might be available. Within an hour we saw the laser rig go off and Dave landed a nice forty pound Yellow fin tuna, this was followed by a nice Dorado, then another Yellow fin in the same size range.
We fish towards afternoon knowing we had to get into Cook town by 4:00 pm and as luck has it we had a nice one up and actually had him on for a short time before losing him. This was our last shot for Bill fish and the reef adventure was coming to an end.
We raced to get into Cook town to catch our 5:05 pm flight and made it in with time to waste. If you are talking going back in time, this place hasn't see the changes that today's society brings.
John Cook used this port to fix his boat after he ran aground on the reef. He was there several months before the boat was ready to sail. The airport and plane reminded me of the earlier days of flying to the Bahamas on the east coast. It was definitely a roller coaster ride with some unique Carney operators. Once we landed in Cairns it was like being back in the home lands and we were off for a good pizza and some rest for our 16 hour flight home.
We visited the local stores and saw a couple friends prior to hitting the hay.
Its been a great trip and the opportunity to travel with some friends sharing the same interests has been really enjoyable. I look forward to visiting Australia next year.
Till my next blog. Hope all your fish are feisty ones.

Ben

Day Three on Ribbon Reef Number Four

Day three saw another day of 4 to 6 foot seas and 25 knots of wind. After a quick dive behind the reef we got to catching bait behind the reef. Our daily usage of bait is around 4 scads and usually a couple scaly mackerel or a tuna. The bait is abundant behind the reef which is caught on Halco Laser lures (rapala like lure) on a 665 loaded with 65 lb braid on a fairly stiff rod. Why the such a big set up for smaller bait fish? We learned why on the third day with several as they call them "Long Tail Tuna" which to us is a blue fin tuna. These fish were between 20 to 50 pounds and would smoke us on a regular bait rod with 30 lb. We ended catching a few on morning three and we used them for skip baits for our big bait. The boys run two rods on the outriggers, one with the small scad that is rigged to swim down and looks like its very much alive. The other rod is rigged with a bigger bait usually a scaly mackerel of 10 to 15 pounds or a long tail tuna up to 25 pounds. The Blacks do not have a problem eating the bigger baits, even a small male will get in and give it a try.
After the bait fishing we headed straight out to the reef where we find fish right on the outside of the reef to the outside fathom curves. Laurie was fired up on the #4 ribbon reef with many stories on thousand pound fish caught here and it didn't take long before we saw a small male in the baits that ate a bait and spit it before we even got to the rod. This was the beginning of a frustrating day of bites with no fish hooked. We saw one more bite on the scad and then had a couple fish in the baits just checking things out but no action. Interesting fact with the Black marlin is they turn black when they get charged up to bite versus the neon colors the Stripe or Blue marlin turn when they are excited.
David also caught a fifty plus pound Wahoo on the laser rig down the middle we troll for tunas or other type of baits swimming in the action zone. It was a beautiful fish but they are let go normally because there are tastier fish to eat. After a full day of fishing we ended up camping behind number 4 reef and busted out the gentleman jack and bundy for a great ending to our day of fishing. We ate a great dinner and cap it off with a good cigar ready to give our best effort for the last day.
I will fill you in on that outcome tomorrow.

Ben

Day Two on Australia's Great Barrier Reef

Dave, Doug, and I had a phenomenal first day on the Lyndon Bank to start our Great Barrier fishing adventure catching a fish each and seeing other boats near by catching fish in the 900 and over range. We set up camp behind the reef that night and had a fantastic Laurie Wright dinner of Coral trout caught jigging in the afternoon by "Mr. Jigger" Douglas Nilsen. After dinner we shared some fish stories, imagine that, and hit the hay knowing the hunt for big fish was on.
Day two saw a different face on the Lyndon Bank with solid 4 to 8 foot seas and 20 knots of wind. After several passes over the bank we started heading north towards the ribbon reefs fishing opal and number one seeing two fish all day that followed the baits for a long period of time, never lighting up or charging the baits. For me it was a dream come true, spending all day sitting next to Laurie who has had hero status in my eyes as well as some of the top skippers in the world.
He was very thorough with his electronics as he fished all the high spots, focusing a majority of the time fishing the deeper troughs leading to the shallow water. If he saw a fish or we got a bite he focused on the area and boxed it in to see if there was more than one fish.
We spoke a lot about tackle and he was a major proponent for circle hooks with the health of the fish in mind, but so far we are 3 for 3 but I am still not sold. The bait rigging was very interesting and I spent a lot of time watching Dingo and Davo rig the scads and scaly mackerels with final outcome being the most realistic swimming dead baits I have seen.
The highlight of the day for me was Laurie's stories about the beginning of his career on the reef and his exploits in Hawaii, Mexico, and Bimini. Laurie is a wealth of knowledge with a variety of species targeted and caught throughout the world. Laurie and Peter B Wright are the last of the old time skippers on the reef and I feel very honored to being able to say that I know them and have shared time on the water with them. It will be interesting to see the next generation of skippers who are presently sharpening their teeth on the reef learning the ins and outs of catching granders plus innovating new bait rigging techniques.
I look forward to seeing what tomorrow brings for us on the reef.

Ben