THE STORY BEHIND AMERICAN SEA FISHING
"Our mission is simple: help anglers catch the fish of their dreams"
The Story Behind American Sea Fishing
If you'd have wandered onto a Southern California pier in the early 00s, you might have seen a young man peering over the rails, plotting how to catch the leopard shark he was watching patrol the pilings below...
That young man was company founder Ben on his first trip to California, and in one of those circular twists that life throws at you, many years later he found himself looking at that same pier, but this time whilst working as a professional fishing guide on a nearby beach. The quarry? That famous leopard shark.
Inspired by that early encounter and with plenty of tournament and international fishing experience under his belt, Ben set up American Sea Fishing's tackle, outfitting and guiding business in 2018 to help anglers in their pursuit of surf and inshore species such as California's famous leopard shark, surf perch and corbina.
As the guiding service expanded its scope from sharks and surf perch to corbina, croaker, halibut and bass, the need for good quality tackle increased to target each species. Quickly, one big problem became apparent: it was hard and sometimes impossible to find top quality tackle for inshore, pier and surf fishing in North America.
Growing up fishing saltwater and fresh, and spending years fishing the ocean in his European homeland, Ben recognized that many of the surf fishing rigs, hooks, sinkers, leaders and setups for sale in shops and recommended online fell short of the kind of usability and quality he'd gotten used to.
Lots of tackle was just cheap, ineffective gear repurposed for pier or surf fishing - other items like certain commonly-used hooks, rigs and sinkers were hopelessly outdated. No doubt, using this kind of gear costs people fish every sessions - which is not what you want when running a guiding business.
With many of the the Old World countries offering massive amounts of fishable coastline, surf fishing culture and techniques in these areas are, on average, a little more advanced than those employed by many USA anglers.
It's like asking a European angler to fish for bass - or an American to fish for carp. It's just not been in the fishing culture for as long, so inevitably good techniques are less widespread.
So, by mixing the best of the rest of the World's inshore and surf fishing techniques and tackle, with the kind of insights into what really works you only get from being a guide and lifelong angler, Ben launched American Sea Fishing's first range of rigs and kits in 2019.
Since then, the company has helped thousands of happy customers catch their dream fish and has expanded its range to include rigs for many North American surf and shark species, premium quality tournament-grade hooks, lines, leaders, swivels, baits and terminal tackle, surf fishing sinkers and accessories – all carefully developed and picked to be a game-changer for a surf angler who wants to catch some serious fish.
American Sea Fishing's continuing mission is simple - to help people catch more fish
American Sea Fishing is owned by Ben Hervey-Murray - a professional sport fisherman with over thirty years experience of fishing around the world; from tournament success in saltwater and fresh, to dry fly fishing for Canadian Rockies trout and wrangling sharks from the surf in California.
Ben started out fishing around his hometown of Cambridge, UK in the 80s and 90s, and was a successful competition angler before turning his attention to specimen hunting and challenges abroad.
After working as a reporter for Angling Times, sub-editor and digital editor of Angler’s Mail in the UK, and media manager in the tackle industry for a decade, Ben moved to the US and set up American Sea Fishing to share the amazing fishing opportunities the ocean offers.
Recent Tournament Record
Lilly Call Tournament 2023 - 1st (corbina)
SoCal Surf Bonanza 2022 - 5th overall + 1st (croaker)
Saturday Night Bat Fight 2022 - 1st
Redondo Rod & Gun Club Surf Fishing Tournament 2022 - 2nd (corbina)
SoCal Surf Bonanza 2023 - 3rd
Ben's guiding service offers trips targeting any Pacific species found in Southern California including leopard sharks and soupfin sharks, corbina, spotfin croaker, surf perch, large rays, California halibut, saltwater bass and any other surf species. He also offers tuition sessions covering everything you need to know to get started in surf fishing.
As well as guiding clients and running the tackle business, Ben is also a writer and columnist at Western Outdoor News, where he also hosts offshore trips and charters.
Some of Ben’s angling highlights include huge specimen arapaima gigas from South America, man-sized European wels catfish, specimen pike, zander and carp, plus numerous trophy surf species to over 500 pounds. His guiding service has, in the last five years, caught record-size sharks, specimen surf perch and croaker, lots of trophy corbina plus dozens of personal bests for clients young and old.
Ben is a fully-licensed and bonded California Department of Fisheries & Wildlife fishing guide and lives in Orange County. Follow him on Instagram for the latest fishing pictures and links to recent stories.