About Us
Our story
In 1990 David and Douglas Nilsen started Accurate Fishing Products in their family’s small aerospace factory in Los Angeles, California. In the span of almost 30 years they have invested time, energy and passion to build a thriving American-made fishing reel company that is pushing technology at every curve to bring innovative products to fishing enthusiasts around the world. In doing so, when you buy an Accurate reel, they are jumping on that boat with you, catching that fish of a lifetime and sharing in the fishing experience we all love. Fish Hard.
The TwinDrag Reel History
David and Douglas Nilsen are identical twins and the 3rd generation to run Accurate Grinding & Mfg. Corporation. In their younger years, they spent much of their time at the factory learning from their grandfather and father about how to operate lathes, mills and grinders. Their grandfather, Michael DeMarco, was an acclaimed fisherman. Michael achieved the Grand Slam of Billfish back in 1985 and also held the world record for a 56 pound Roosterfish. Their father Jack, is still very involved in the production of Aerospace products but more importantly tests all of the reels that David and Douglas design and develop.
Born with the ability to create things, it didn’t take long for the twins to come up with some ideas of their own to add to the family business. In the early 1990’s during the downturn in the Aerospace industry, David and Douglas started to design several products for different industries. They designed and manufactured products for mountain bikes, jet skis, golf landscape equipment, and a full line of aluminum clocks and cigar ash trays. The slow economy allowed the twins the time to design and develop their skills on the CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) machines. Eventually, Accurate Fishing Products and Nilsen Enterprises was born.
In 1990, they made their first move into the fishing industry with the innovation of Accurate Gaffs. The gaffs sold well for several years, but the Twins continued to look for other additions to the business and in 1993 they designed and marketed the popular aluminum Accurate reel conversion for Penn plastic side plate reels. This was well accepted by the fishing public and created a buzz throughout the industry.
As the evolution continued the first idea for a TwinDrag reel was conceived in 1997. Both David and Douglas knew their fathers love for fishing and thought they would design a reel for him to use on the long range boats that he frequented. After a full year of research, the first TwinDrag ATD Platinum 30 was introduced. It was a long tough haul, but their reels were continuously being improved upon and successfully catching big fish.
As time went on, both David and Douglas saw the opportunity to grow the fishing business. In 2000, the first Boss TwinDrag reels were designed and introduced. These reels were widely accepted by the inshore anglers. With pliers added in 2003, and the well known SR-series TwinDrag Spinning Reels, the once small fishing business was turning into a world renowned product line. Anglers began to look at Accurate for smooth, powerful drags that stop the biggest fish.
In 2007, Boss E-series 2 speed reels were introduced with the unique concept, small reels big fish. With the popularity of braided line, our new reels captured the angler who wanted to achieve this new type of fishing.
The whole package was completed early in 2008 with the addition of Accurate Boss and SR series of rods. These rods were designed to fish with braid and were constructed with a 6 ply construction of graphite / glass. These rods are extremely light and powerful and available in conventional, spinning, and jigging.
The Twins, David and Douglas Nilsen, have spent a majority of their young lives designing and manufacturing products. Their main passion being reels that make anglers dreams come true. Without their dedication and true love of this sport, the Accurate products being produced would not be possible.
As the old saying goes “Two Heads are Better than One”. This is definitely true when it comes to David and Douglas Nilsen, because without them Accurate TwinDrag reels would just be a dream.
Timeline
Accurate Fishing Products was launched in 1990 as a division of our parent company, Accurate Grinding and Manufacturing Corporation, in Los Angeles, California. Accurate Grinding is a family-owned operation, established in 1950, when Michael DeMarco developed specialized techniques to manufacture jet turbine engine components at a time when precision aerospace manufacturing was just beginning in Southern California.
In 1970, Michael’s son, Joe, and son-in-law, Jack, led Accurate Grinding into the CNC (computer numerical control) era of machining.
In 1990, Jack’s twin sons, having been raised around the machine shop their whole lives, started to make different products at their family’s business. Strong, unbendable gaffs were the first product. Each handle was hand turned and assembled and each gaff hook was hand ground and hand bent before heat treating. Soon after they moved into the aftermarket upgrade business of sideplates and frames for Penn Reels. This product line taught the twins a lot about production, inventory, assembly and product design.
In 1997, the twins came up with a business changing thought after kicking ideas around. Douglas asked the question to his dad: “Why are there drags on only one side of the spool?”. That was the question that led us to figure out TwinDrag technology. This new idea was not an easy task to design, prototype and ultimately bring to market, but after 3 years the first TwinDrag was born. It was the Platinum ATD-30.
Thru the late 1990’s the twins developed the full line of Platinum ATD big game reels and then in early 2000 they moved to the smaller Boss line of reels. In that decade the TwinSpin spinning reels where also developed along with Piranha pliers.
To meet increased production demands and better serve our customers, Accurate Fishing Products completed a move to Corona, California in 2002. Accurate purchased its new facility, a 30,000 square-foot building, and completed its move in late June after relocating from its former 12,000 square-foot building in downtown Los Angeles.
Around 2007, the revolutionary Boss line of reels got even better when we introduced the Boss Extreme series. This was followed by the Dauntless series and eventually a single drag series called the Fury.
2015 brought along yet another innovation in the Valiant series of TwinDrag reels. This all new design took the very popular Extreme reels and made them even lighter by the use of CVX Technology, the Twins’ idea that a curved surface allowed for thinner material walls while retaining strength. They also pulled weight out of every internal part they could. The perfect balance of light weight and power for a more enjoyable fishing experience.
In 2018, Accurate Fishing turned their eyes to a totally different, but very popular reel type; the star drag. Never going with the status quo, the twins applied their “make it better” vision and introduced the first-ever TwinStarDrag reel in the form of the Tern series. TwinStarDrag features alternating carbon fiber and stainless steel washers on both sides of the main gear for balanced pressure and more surface area for a smooth and powerful drag.
why twin drag?
Service & Support
We pride ourselves on being a family-owned company which delivers excellent product support. On site, we have a team of highly knowledgable customer service people and reel technicians who you can contact to answer questions about which reel to buy for your fishery, how to work on your Accurate reel and to provide service on your Accurate reels when you send them to us for any issues and annual service. Factory-direct servicing also allows us to monitor our reels, gauge their performance and provide feedback for future designs.
If you have any questions about our products or have used our products and would like to offer your comments, please contact us. Your feedback is very valuable to us and it helps us to make our reels better.