In Australia, Abu Garcia helped pioneer Australian tropical sportfishing with the Ambassaduer round reel being the weapon of choice for the serious angler. Backed by a global network, Abu Garcia continues to manufacture cutting edge fishing gear for serious anglers across the globe.
Abu Garcia in Australia is headed by fishing legend John Bell whose experience and knowledge guides what product is best suited to Australian conditions and developing product specific to Australian conditions.
John Bell’s passion, knowledge and experience about fishing is extensive to say the least. A passion that started at a young age catching flathead in Port Phillip Bay became an obsession in his teens with high speed spinning from the stones high on the agenda.
John entered the fishing industry in 1973 at the Compleat Angler in Melbourne as a rod builder making fly rods. His passion and knowledge for saltwater sport fishing saw him expand the shop from a fly focus to include saltwater fishing.
A move to the Compleat Angler in Sydney working with fishing legend Wayne Hanstedt saw industry opportunities open up and John moved to Penn Fenwick Australia as a rod production manager working with game fishing legend Peter Goadby.
More tackle store experience followed with stints at Pro Am Sports Dee Why making custom rods for local and overseas anglers, Bohm Bait and Tackle and iconic tackle shop Harbord Tackle Supply where he worked for 10 years.
For the last 16 years John has been with Purefishing, with time spent on the roads of Northern NSW as a sales rep before moving into product development with Abu Garcia Australia. Johns experience building fishing rods is considerable to say the least and this experience is put to good use with the majority of Abu Garcia Australias rod ranges developed specifically for our conditions including Vanguard, Velocity and Veritas.
Being fishing obsessed, living, breathing and working fishing since his teens John has amassed a huge knowledge base of all things fishing with experience in a vast amount of styles and locations. His fishing bucket list is considerably shorter than most with Grander Marlin, Tuna off the rocks, Snapper on plastics, GT’s on poppers, tournament breaming, meter barra and many more already ticked! Rest assured that when you use a Abu Garcia product it has been selected for use for Aussie anglers by Aussie anglers.