Anglers Aweigh : Navy Works With Fishermen to Keep Everyone Happy at San Clemente Island

A few weeks ago, a boater with his wife and two children happened upon San Clemente Island, 55 miles off the coast of Southern California.

“He thought it was Catalina Island,” said Lt. Cmdr. Carl Lammers of the Navy, commander of the island. “He did not have any charts and was not even sure how to read a compass. So we gave him gas and pointed him in the way of Catalina. Those are the people we’re worried about.”

On another day, a dozen rods bend to a lively bite of calico bass while, overhead, Navy F-18 pilots swoop down to simulated carrier landings on the island. But all is copacetic. This is Operation Fishhook, occurring only coincidentally during the Tailhook scandal, at a time when the Navy could use some positive PR.

The Navy wants to be friends with fishermen, while going about the business of preparing for enemies. The Shogun, a sportfisher lent by owners Norm Kagawa, Frank LoPreste and Ted Dunn, has brought reporters from L.A. Harbor Sportfishing in San Pedro to meet with local naval leaders about sportfishers coexisting with Top Gun, within eyesight of military operations and earshot of shore bombardment practice, while sophisticated devices practice searching silently for submarines.

The overnight trip is special to Bill Nott, president emeritus of the Sportfishing Assn. of California, whose efforts have helped to keep sportfishers in business and San Clemente open to fishermen for 38 years.

In 1954, Nott was running the Sea Angler out of Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach when the island’s commander closed part of the fishing grounds to test Polaris missiles.

“He had closed down an area that was loaded with yellowtail,” Nott recalled.

So Nott invited him to go fishing for yellowtail with a few other sportfishing friends.

“We caught 217, and he got eight or nine,” Nott said. “On the way back to the pier he asked, ‘What can we do to solve this problem?’ ”

Nott noticed a large crane used in the Polaris project and suggested flying a yellow pennant from it whenever the Navy was getting ready to launch a missile.

“We’ll get out of the area right away,” Nott told him.

“We also told him we usually quit fishing by 1 p.m.,” Nott recalled. “They never had to fly that yellow pennant. Whatever they did with the Polaris, they did after 1 p.m.”

That cooperative attitude, maintained by occasional diplomatic visits by Nott with subsequent commanders, continues. San Clemente, 25 miles long and 20 miles south of Santa Catalina Island, has been a U.S. military reservation since World War II--now more than ever, said Capt. Ted Sexton, commander of the San Diego Naval Air Station that oversees the island.

“San Clemente Island has become increasingly important to us as a training resource because the Navy is moving out of training ranges all over the world as we get smaller,” Sexton said. “We’re the only shore bombardment area that’s active on the West Coast.”

At the north end, where there are about 133 permanent military residents, Navy fliers from San Diego, Miramar and LeMoore practice carrier landings on a simulated flight deck, night and day.

Army and Marine Corps infantry practice storming and defending the abandoned airport atop the island. Off the west side of the north end, a network of cables runs 15 miles out, covering a 600-square-mile range for testing sonar buoys and other underwater listening devices. The Navy is concerned that a fisherman will drop anchor and bring up several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of equipment.

“With the increased use by commercial and sportfishermen and by private boaters, we’ve had instances where these boats are in these ranges when the ranges are active,” Sexton said. “We are afraid if we continue to mix military exercises with sportfishermen, sooner or later someone might be injured.”

In 1986, a San Pedro commercial fisherman, Boyd Reber, 38, and his crewman, Frank Germano, 21, died while working the waters at San Clemente. Their 37-foot boat was found in pieces, possibly from an explosion, possibly from being wrecked. The cause was never legally determined. Claiming that unexploded Naval ordnance had blown up the boat, Reber’s widow sued the federal government but lost.

The Navy estimates that as many as 250,000 unexploded shells might be lying about the island’s no-man’s land at the southern end. The Navy gets nervous about divers touching bottom offshore or--worse--coming ashore. Surfing is strictly prohibited.

Lammers said, “We have good rapport with the sportfishing and dive-boat associations, but the problem seems to be with the small pleasure craft that come out.”

The Navy has a system of warnings and posted danger zones, but some visitors ignore or don’t understand them.

“We’ve had people on the island that we’ve had to run off,” said Ken Mitchell, the civilian public affairs officer for the naval air station. “If people choose to abuse it, we’d have to look at restricting the whole area.”

San Clemente had an Indian population for 3,500 years, Lammers said, and 6,500 artifact sites have been logged.

The 57-square-mile island also is home to some wildlife, which coexists with the Navy despite such activities as the SEALS’ recent graduation, which was climaxed by the detonation of a 450-pound underwater bomb. The only mammal is an island fox, but there are about 20 species of birds indigenous to the island, and 200 more migrate seasonally.

There is a major seal rookery at Eel Point midway on the west side. The island once was overrun with goats, as was Catalina, but those not removed by live, incidental rounds or unexploded residue will be taken off the island.

Bob Fletcher, Nott’s successor in the sportfishing group, said, “Historically, we’ve had a good relationship with the Navy. Capt. Sexton has made it very clear to us that he wants to maintain (that). We have to recognize what they’re saying, though. They have a big mission here, and we have to respect that mission.

“They also recognize how important this island is to us. At times it’s the only island that’s got the kind of conditions that make the fish bite. A lot of times there may be bass and barracuda along the coast or at Catalina, but you have yellowtail or bluefin tuna here. We need those options, for the dive boats, also.”

Nott, 75, has been in a wheelchair and on a respirator since suffering severe health problems three years ago. The day before the trip, he was saying he couldn’t go because his breathing equipment was immobile and he would have to remain sitting up for the entire 20-hour trip.

Then he decided that he had better go, since he had made all the arrangements--and also because his sons Mike, a justice of the State Appellate Court, and Steve, superintendent for Marine Terminals, would be going, too.

“This may be my last chance to fish San Clemente with my sons,” Nott said.

So, assisted by his wife Winn, he went along, caught his share of calico bass and outlasted most of those on board. And none of the anglers needed to be reminded about whom they should thank for the fishing at San Clemente: the Navy and Bill Nott.

Before Fishing at San Clemente Island

Phone Waterfront Operations: (619) 543-9222 or Island Security (24 hours): (619) 542-9214. Once there, call Island Operations on VHF Channel 16. Check for red “Bravo” code flag or, at night, flashing strobe lights to indicate hazardous operations in progress.