Fishing Report Accurate 18 Day Royal Polaris 2008

**branman** · Feb-26-2008, 03:56 PM

Day 1 02/07/2008
Departure day, a few of us had loaded our gear the day before so for me all I had to do was show up. It is always great to see friend from other trips and from last year. Spirits are high and everyone is anxious to get underway. We start to load around 7:30 and we are underway shortly there after. We load up with some beautiful bait and head south. After our safety seminar Jack from Accurate Fishing products explains our daily derbies and hands out some tee shirts. We are also collecting for a raffle to raise money to help fight the MLPA. The Raffle prize will be a 870 B2 Narrow. We have many great prizes to fish for this trip, more on that as we go. Now it’s time to get settled and start the relaxation.

Day 2 02/08/2008
Today is our first travel day and we are greeted with beautiful weather and clear sunny skies. It is nice to get away from the cold. We have our first fishing seminar after breakfast which is just an over view of what we will need and how and where we will be fishing. We are headed for the buffer zone outside Clarion Island. Reports from the bank are ok so we have plenty of options and plenty of time to fish. We stop at Benitos after lunch for some reds, our first derby prize is a Royal Polaris jacket for the biggest Red Rock Cod and the lucky winner was Gwen with a nice one.Larry from St. Louis won a Black Water Sweatshirt for the first Bait on board.

Some nice Reds

Nice Ling

Day 3 02/09/2008
The Royal Polaris has starting doing more “hands on” seminars along with the standard in the galley type. Today we had a seminar at the bait tank on how to hook a bait and even a few ways to lob it out or cast a bait correctly. The anglers would bring a rod all rigged and get to pin on a bait with some tips and tricks from the crew. Then we moved to the corner for the fish fighting work on how the use the rail then up to the bow to work on the different way to use the rail on the bow. These are voluntary seminars and had a great showing, Afterwards I talked to a few that participated and they said it really helped ease their mind and removed the worry about not knowing what to do. Along with a few more seasoned anglers that learned a few tricks on picking and hooking baits. I think this hand-on type of training is really a good thing and is very well received. The rest of the day was spent getting our gear setup.

After our seminars Blackwater gave away some nice Hats and Shirts. Blackwater also has some nice Sweatshirts available for our daily derby prizes. SDLongerange also gave out tee shirts too everyone.

Bait tank seminar

How to use the rail seminar

Day 4 02/10/2008
Last day of travel, weather is awesome, today’s seminar was just a recap of what we need and included the do's and don’ts of Wahoo fishing. We should be arriving Clarion Island around 2:00am. The plan is to shut down and drift and at sun up start looking around, maybe we will get lucky and have some fish gather on the boat.After dinner we had the MLPA drawing for the 870-B2 Accurate Boss Reel, Gary was the lucky angler to win the reel. Thanks to all who donated to the fight against the MLPA. Thanks to Accurate Fishing for donating the prize we raised over 900 dollars.

The tools

Day 5 02/11/2008
Lots of birds but no biters, we get the call to check in at 8:30am so we start making our way over towards the camp. Check in goes smooth and only takes 45 minutes or so. After all checks out we head off shore to continue looking for tuna outside the 6 mile ring. We stop on a few bird schools but no biters. Just after lunch we get a blind troll strike that turns into 22 Wahoo for the boat. I get 1 and lose 4; it was a really good window of biters which lifted everyone’s spirits after a long day of looking for tuna. We are now headed towards Hurricane Bank and should arrive around 9:00am.

Day 6 02/12/2008
There is something about arriving at the bank. There is nothing to see no land marks but as you approach it you get the sense you have been here before. It is hard to explain. We had a beautiful sunrise and flat calm seas with the American Angler on the horizon. The plan is to troll around a see what we see before getting the anchor down. We troll up a Wahoo, no biters on the iron or bombs. We get on the pick and start soaking baits and get the kites out. I pick off a nice Wahoo on the tuna gear. The kites start to go and we have a steady pick on the sardine, looking good so far. We end up with 2 Wahoo for the day along with 24 nice Tuna. François wins the WFO Tackle Bag for the first bait fish over 150 pounds. Gwen has a nice tuna going and it get hung up in the gear, even after Aaron jumps in to clear it, he can do nothing as the mono slides through his hands. I get 2 nice tuna for the day. We all know why it is called Hurricane Bank but for now it is greasy flat.

Nascar

The Twinspin in action

Bob with a nice one

Day 7 02/13/2008
As we awake the great weather continues however hat has its problems as well, there no wind for the kites even with the helium balloons the just go straight up. The morning bite consisted of just small fish but as the morning wore on we started to get a fewer nice fish on the chunk with 3 going over 200, Jeff, Roger and Chris were the lucky anglers today and Jeff’s 200 pound tuna won him a new Boss 2 speed reel. Gwen got a nice one winning a Blackwater sweatshirt. I was lucky enough to land a nice one around 90 pounds on the sardine.

Jeff hooked up

Gwen gets one on the chunk

Kathy scores early

Day 8 02/14/2008
Another day in the doldrums, absolutely no wind, we have fish boiling all around the boat but no biters to speak of. The kites are still grounded. The skip jig provided some entertainment for an hour or so as I picked off a few. This is always fun when you have the gallery up on the beach as the boat erupts when you get boiled on, fun stuff. We did manage 9 big tuna with 2 over the 200 pound mark. Both cows came on the chunk. Bob won a 2 speed Accurate Boss reel for his efforts; the other persistent angler was Jeff with another cow.

Stas at the office

Day 9 02/15/2008
Weather continues to be beautiful, we even had some wind for the kite but this would only produce 4 biters for the day. The only bait that would produce on the kite was squid; the flyers were a no go so far. We decided to make a troll around the bank looking for some Wahoo. The made a great showing today, this might even be a new batch of fish. We ended up with 32 for the day on four troll stops with plenty of action on the iron. I was the big loser today; I lost 9 Wahoo that were on and another 3 jigs on the sink that is 12 bites in 4 stops and none in the tank. You have to laugh when it goes like this. I even reeled 7 of the 9 all the way to the boat to have them just drop it. At least I got to experience the best part of Wahoo fishing which I consider the bite on the iron, there is nothing like the thump and stopping of your jig. The weather is starting to pick up as the day wore on, it is even getting cold. Maybe tomorrow will be a better day with the kites and the tuna we really need to get something going.

Day 10 02/16/2008
He weather today is cloudy and windy. Maybe today is the day that it all gets going. We have nothing going as of 8:00am but hey how bad can it be, it is Turnover day! Today was a grind it out at the rail to try and get something going. We ended up with 4 fish for the day. I ended the day on the kite and will be first up tomorrow with a flying fish so I am optimistic. I have never seen the bank this slow for this many days.

I managed a few

Day 11 02/17/2008
I got up early this morning knowing that Frank likes to get the first kites up in the dark which we do. After about 45 minutes and just before sunrise I feel a nice tap on the line then the line starts to go tight; got him! The fish ends up being just over 100 pounds but the fresh well is going so the boat spikes , runs the wire up the spine and gill and guts the fish in no time after a rinse and scrub of the cavity into the fresh well he goes. Maybe things are looking up, but as it would turn out we only had one more fish on the kite today, a nice one at that but a quick as things looked like they were picking up they slowed down.

Gary with yet another

Aaron jumped to to try and save one

All clear resume reeling

Day 12 02/18/2008
The fish just aren’t biting and actually today we are not even seeing any signal. So it looks like this will be the last day at the bank. Frank lets us know that we will be leaving around noon headed for the 6 mile offshore zone at Clarion Island. Despite our best efforts we would only end up with a few Tuna and 2 Wahoo for the day. Just before lunch we headed east towards Clarion.

Power

Jack takes a turn

Fred gets a beauty

Caught one in the snare

Pauls fish has to come through the gate

This one was not ready to come aboard

Day 13 02/19/2008
We arrived early in the morning with nice weather and a light breeze. We looked all day and ended up with 5 tuna to 190 pounds. These would only be one fish stops on the birds or porpoise. We did hook a few Marlins today, I threw the long rod at one and it lit up and chased the skip jig all the way to the boat. That was my high light for the day. We still have 1 Accurate 870-B2 Narrow 2 speed available and Tom would end up winning that late in the day with a nice tuna on the sinker rig.

Marlin on the braid speeder

Day 14 02/20/2008
Flat calm weather overcast skies no fish yet as of 8:00. We will fish until 5pm then be headed for the cape; this is the bottom of the ninth. As the day went on we started to see some fish but not in any numbers. We would pick off one or two per stop. The saving grace here was they were all nice ones with 2 going over 200 pounds. Stas caught the last fish of the trip, we knew this was a good one and it taped at 211 but had the fight of a much larger fish. This fish even gave Stas a run for his money.

Shauna gets her 200 pounder!

Day 15 02/21/2008
Today we awoke to a light breeze and sunny skies and a small swell. Today is tackle tear down day and many started early. I was one to start early so I could be finished with my stuff and help Jack clean and tear down all the loaner gear. If you have every wanted to try some Accurate gear in a fishing environment these are the trips to go on.

Day 16 02/22/2008
Today we arrived at the cape in the early morning. Cleared customs for those traveling home and we all went into town for a quick soda or juice courtesy of Jack Nilsen of Accurate fishing products. We departed around 11 and are headed north. The weather is perfect with sunny skies and flat seas, we all have our fingers crossed that it will stay this way all the way home.

Day 17 02/23/2008
Another travel day we were greeted with a light breeze and clear skies, a little bump but pretty comfortable. We spent the day playing cribbage and watching movies I spent most of the day working on computers and writing this report. We are making terrible time up the line with a strong current so hopefully we will make up some time tomorrow. Andy on the Rooster said they picked up some speed north of Cedros Island.

Day 18 02/24/2008
First call for breakfast! Wow it sure is flat and I come into the galley I can see why, we are in the lee of Cedros Island. On the ride home trips we have usually passed the island sometime during the night so you can see we are a few hours behind. The machine says around 11:00 but we should pick up some time as the current looks like it is letting up.

Home 02/25/2008
With the current working us all the way home we arrived at the landing at 2:00pm. Unloading went smooth as usual and there were many smiling faces at the scales as many had new personal bests and we ended up with I think 11 over 200 pounds.

Summary
First of all I would like to thanks Jack Nilsen of Accurate Fishing Products for all the great giveaways and Blackwater International as well also donating some great prizes, along with the Royal Polaris and its great crew. You can argue this boat this and that boat that but the Royal Polaris is the premier long range rig.

What worked?
Blackwater fluorocarbon was hot in the 100#size.
ATD12 filled with 100# Blackwater hollow spectra turned out to be a great setup.
The long soaks on the scratchy days.
The sinker rig works well for the finicky offshore fish.
Boss 665 Extra Narrow is a Wahoo killer.
New more flexible leader glue (more to follow on that).

Reminder we have openings on the April 20th SDLongRAnge.com / Accurate Reels - Open. We have lots of great prizes and daily giveaways lined up. Grab some sun screen and your fishing clothes we will take care of the rest!

Go get some
Brandon