Outdoors : NOTES : Anglers Can Repay Large Debt to Nott

When Bill Nott and the late Mac McClintock opened Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach in 1948, they had no idea of revolutionizing Southern California’s public sportfishing business.

But their energy and innovation lifted the standards. At their peak, they ran 32 boats, including the first all-comfort 85-footers. They promoted the sport by sponsoring their own local TV show, “Fishing Flashes”--275 of them over 10 years.

Pierpoint was swallowed up by the development of Long Beach Harbor in the 1960s, but Nott, recognizing the industry’s need for a strong lobby, organized the Sportfishing Assn. of California (SAC) and served as its president for 17 years.

“Bill was responsible for achieving regulations allowing fish filleting at sea, for making our boats bigger, more comfortable and safer . . . and for creating a multi-day fishing permit for Southern California waters,” said Bob Fletcher, Nott’s onetime protege.

Now it’s time for sportfishermen to repay Nott. In October, 1988 he had a heart attack, followed by double bypass surgery. The operation went well, but his diaphragm failed in post-polio syndrome--he had polio at 17--and the complication put him on the critical list in St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach for the next six months. The bills ran to $450,000, and when the insurance coverage ran out, Nott had to dig into his savings and sell his personal 45-foot trawler, the Aquanott.

SAC will have the Bill Nott Benefit Fund Banquet Thursday night, Feb. 1, at the Balboa Pavilion on the Balboa Peninsula. Tickets are $75.

Gov. George Deukmejian is scheduled to attend. Nott and his wife, Winn, have known him since the early ‘50s when she hosted a coffee hour to assist his campaign for the state assembly. Later, Nott recommended Fletcher to the governor for deputy director of the Department of Fish and Game. When Nott was stricken, Fletcher took over SAC.

Nott, 73, is recuperating at his home in Dominguez Hills. He moves around on a walker. Because he’s still wearing a throat shunt for a night-time respirator, he can take only liquid nutrition, but he plans to attend the banquet.

“We’re not house-bound,” he said. “I’m fine as long as I’m upright. My arms and shoulders are getting pretty strong. A little more work on the legs will bring them back to where I can get around with just a cane.”

Banquet information: (619) 226-6455.

San Diego long-range: The Royal Star out of Fisherman’s Landing returned from a 16-day trip to the Revillagigedo Islands--Clarion and Socorro--Sunday with its 15 passengers accounting for 300 yellowfin tuna, 50 wahoo, 48 grouper, 28 sargo and two amberjack.

The largest was a 163.9-pound yellowfin caught by Doug Nightingale, who traveled from the salmon-rich waters of his hometown Kenai, Alaska, for a change of pace.

Frank Matsuhara of Gardena took second- and third-place honors with his 131.9- and 130.1-pound yellowfin. Most of the tuna were in the 90- to 130-pound class.

The Royal Polaris, on an 18-day trip that began last Thursday, was headed south and expected at Clarion Island late Tuesday. On a stopover at the Alijos Rocks on Saturday the 18 passengers aboard caught 100 yellowfin tuna between 40 and 90 pounds. On Sunday they managed to land 200 yellowfin from 50 to 125 pounds by noon before leaving for the Revillagigedos with room left in its holds for more, perhaps bigger, tuna.

Cabo San Lucas: Blue marlin have apparently left the area, but ideal weather and bountiful waters are making for an excellent offseason at the southern Baja resort city.

Most boats are averaging two or three striped marlin and between 15 and 20 dorado a day, and fishing for roosterfish has been improving daily, according to Darrell Primrose of the Irvine-based Tortuga Sportfishing. Primrose said there is no wind, the water is between 70 and 74 degrees and daytime temperatures above water are ranging from 76 to 80 degrees.

Briefly

San Diego anglers have stopped searching offshore kelp paddies for the small yellowtail so plentiful as recently as last month, but one boat found some of the larger jacks actively feeding at the nearby Coronado Islands. The Prowler took 35 passengers there Saturday and returned with 38 yellowtail between 12 and 15 pounds. On Sunday, however, strong Santa Ana winds slowed the bite and a less-fortunate 35 people managed just two fish.

Add San Diego: The 10th annual Day at the Docks, a celebration of the sportfishing community as it heralds the start of the spring season, has been scheduled for April 28-29 at the landings at Harbor Drive and Scott Street in Point Loma. An all-day fishing tournament, open to the public, kicks off the event. Information: (619) 294-7912.

Two men in California’s Central Valley paid $2,850 each in fines and lost hunting privileges for two years after poaching 26 ducks--18 more than their combined daily limit--on privately owned land adjacent to the Sutter National Wildlife Refuge. For Allen J. Ledbetter, 39, and Ralph L. Heryford, that worked out to $219.23 per duck. . . . Will Steger reported from the Soviet base at Vostok that the Trans-Antarctica Expedition’s six men and sled dogs would follow a marked trail left by a Soviet tractor-truck over the final 850 miles to Mirnyy. That decreases concern about falling into hidden crevasses.

Santa Barbara County’s Lake Cachuma is offering guided eagle tours every Wednesday through Sunday. Several eagles are reportedly in the area and the flock of Canadian geese has increased to about 5,000, according to the park naturalist. Reservations: (805) 568-2460.

Techniques for shore and boat fishing for rainbow and brown trout in the Sierra and Southern California reservoirs will be the focus of a seminar by Tom Waters and Jim Matthews at Irvine Lake Feb. 3 from 9 a.m.-noon. Cost: $15. Information: (714) 261-9779.

Fly fishing: Lani Waller, West Coast field editor for Fly Fisherman magazine, will present a program on fly fishing for steelhead trout Thursday at 7:15 p.m. at the Long Beach Casting Club’s monthly meeting at Recreation Park in Long Beach. Information: (213) 426-1826.

Times staff writer Rich Roberts contributed to this story.