Fishing in New Zealand

Del Marsh of Calstar, and Tom Ward of Longfin Tackle and I, Jack Nilsen of Accurate; have spent 3 weeks fishing and touring New Zealand. Great country for Kingfish ( yellowtail ), marlin, snapper, grouper, tuna, trout, lobster, and more are available to catch.

We were targeting kingfish on this trip. Fishing with deep water knife type jigs and bait. The technique for fishing the knife type jigs is very interesting and effective. Lots of exercise.

We are fishing for the kingfish over deep water pinnacles that come up to about 250 feet. The jigging is worked from the panicles to about 50 feet up.
When the bit comes it is sudden and very strong. The challenge is to turn the fish and keep it out of the rocks. We have been catching kingies up to
45 pounds, they probably average around 30 to 35 pounds. These are very strong fish, especially during the initial fight.

The included picture of the young lady angler is of Nicola Ellwood. Nicola had the largest kingfish this day and showed us old salts how it should be done.

We have also been fishing for snapper while pulling lobster pots. I had an estimated 22 pound snapper, outdoing Dels’ snapper fish by several pounds, sorry Del.

Del Marsh was in heaven when he landed a trophy rainbow trout that amazed our guide and local tackle shops. An 11 pound, 10 ounce trout that is the largest rainbow trout known to be taken from this Lake Rotoiti in many years. The lake is located in central North Island and is noted for excellent trout fishing. Tom Ward is having it mounted to be displayed at his Longfin tackle shop.

We have to compliment the New Zealand sportfishing community for their catch and release attitude. One day we had approximately 40 kingfish and kept four fish to eat. Everyone is very aware that taking more fish than you need is just a waste and disrespect of the fishery resource.

New Zealand is an amazingly beautiful country. The people are the friendliest I have encountered anywhere. Driving down the highway in our motor-home people along the countryside will wave to say hello. We have made many friends here who have made us feel very welcome in New Zealand. If you ever get a chance to fish there I really would recommend going.

Vets Choose Accurate Reels

The 2008 Accurate Royal Polaris  Open Charter returned to San Diego on February 25.

Twenty-four anglers included veteran Long Rangers and new arrivals to the Accurate

Long Range

 Experience.  Accurate Pro-Staffers 

included Stas Vellonakis, Pet Heimbach,

Kathy Rounds, Brandon Kreute

l, a

nd Gary Lacroix.  

We were fortunate to have our friends from France join us.  Francios Mangeot, Claude Mangeot, and Harve Gehin are a pleasure to fish with and are certainly acc

omplished anglers.  Francois fished wahoo on the Accurate Twin Spin 30 and did very well on the 

“Skins”.  Francois was also very effective on the tuna fishing with his Accurate ATD30 and ATD12.

Stas Vallonakis 

spent most of his rail time using his Accurate ATD12.  This was a very effective combi

nation loaded with 

500 yards of Black Water 100 pound Hollow and a “top shot”  of Black Water Flourocarbon Shock Leader.  The Accurate ATD12 is a very light and comfortable reel to fish for long hours at the rail soaking live bait.  The use of 500 yards of hollow Black Water allows plenty of line for the big “cows”.  Stas was very pleased with this set up and landed several large tuna.  Stas also battled one of the toughest YFT I have see

n on his Accurate ATD30 loaded with 500 yards of 130 pound Black Water.  This fish was an absolute “br

ute”.

Stas and I would highly recom

mend the Accurate ATD12,” Long Handle”; loaded with Black Water, Jerry Brown Line One, or Izoreline Spectra.  

500 yards of 100 pound hollow is the ideal setup for long hours of soaking live bait at the rail. Excellent cast ability, light weight, powerful Twin Drag, and plenty of line 

capacity.  The 

“Long Handle” option is the set up used by Stas for “rail style” fishing.  Check out the Stas shots.

We were privilege

d to have 

four ladies aboard for this trip.  Kathy Rounds, 

Accurate Pro-Staffer, is always a pleasure to fish along side.  Kathy is a veteran “long ranger” 

 who always brings her smile and friendship al

ong with her natural ability.  Shauna Barton, Gwen Kosi and Judy Montague all fished hard and well.  They certainly landed their share of nice fish. 

The trip focused on fishing Hurricane B

ank and waters 6 

miles from Isla Clarion.

The Hurricane Bank fishing was on sardine and mackeral baits and kite fishing on fliers, squid, and “double trouble” baits.  Some very nice 100 and 200 pound + fish were landed on both kite and live bait so

aks.  The wahoo fishing was good, but not great.  We shared the

 bank and island with our friends on the Red Rooster III.

Accurate brought approximately $70,000.00 in gear for angler to use throughout the trip.

The Accurate Reels are on Calstar rods loaded with spectra type lines from Izoreline, Jerry Brown Line One, and Black Water.  All gear is provide at no charge, the angler just a

dds their own “top shot” and terminal tackle.   The “Daily Derby” prizes were Accurate Boss Reels and many “Goody” prizes throughout the days of fishing.

Accurate and the Royal Polaris have scheduled the same trip for 2009.  The format is ride down from San Diego and fly back from Cabo San Lucas, with a ride back option.

See the Royal Polaris website for dates and details.  www.royalpolaris.com.

619 226-8030