This Old Man Makes a Life of the Sea

Bill Nott had a lot going for him as a teen-ager growing up in Wilmington.

A star running back at Banning High, he was offered a scholarship to UCLA, and was considering an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy.

He aspired to become a standout athlete, possibly a military hero, a scholar.

But then Nott was stricken with polio.

Only 17, he spent an entire year in Orthopaedic Hospital in downtown Los Angeles. He was able to walk out, but with a limp.

“Everything went down the tube,” he said recently from his home in Dominguez Hills. “That turned my life completely around. I made what I guess was a satisfactory comeback. I got married at 20, had my first child at 23. And I went into the fishing business because it was the only thing I knew how to do.”

And for that, the fishing community should be grateful.

Nott, after getting his start as a deckhand at 14, became a pioneer in the sport, building boats and and starting up landings. He became a leading spokesman for the industry, and eventually founded the Sportfishing Assn. of California, which today represents the interests of about 200 boats operating out of 23 landings from Morro Bay to San Diego.

SAC is holding its annual Casino Night on Nov. 10 at the Balboa Pavilion in Newport Beach. The purpose of the event--during which the public can buy scrip and gamble with skippers and industry leaders--is to help raise money. SAC is finding itself, more than ever, actively involved in state, federal and even Mexican political arenas, fighting to minimize costly regulations and burdensome taxes.

“If there was no SAC, you would pay double what you’re paying now because you’d have nobody to try to hold down the cost of fishing,” said Nott, 78. “This is a chance for the public to assist us and support a presence in Sacramento and Washington.”

Having plugged SAC, Nott changed the subject to one he says is much more interesting--fishing.

When he started, an all-day trip cost only 50 cents. And it was usually worth the four bits. In one day in 1938, passengers aboard his first boat caught 498 white sea bass.

“You could hardly move on the deck through all the fish,” he said.

It may be saddening to listen to such stories, considering the comparative sorry state of fisheries today. But a visit with Nott is entertaining anyway, given his vivid memory of a time when real battles were being waged with real bullets, overseas. When patriotism was at its peak.

Nott said that in the days before U.S. involvement in World War II, when British pilots had their hands full with the German air assault on their homeland, he made a killing of his own as a commercial fisherman--catching sharks, and selling their livers.

“The livers were three feet long and produced vitamins so the pilots could see at night,” Nott said. “And they were whipping the hell out of the Germans because they actually could see better at night. We were getting $6 a pound. My partner and I had more money than we knew what to do with.”

With the end of the war came the beginning of the modern-day sportfishing fleet.

“What World War II did was give us access to surplus Navy craft and General Motors 671 diesel engines, which prior to the war we could not afford to buy,” Nott said. “And that put us in business.”

Nott, who had already helped build the 22nd St. Landing, started the now-defunct Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach in 1947.

He and San Diego long-range pioneer Bill Poole started building bigger boats and all of Baja became exposed to anglers, who found schools of tuna and yellowtail that seemed to have no end.

Nott founded SAC in 1972.

One of his first accomplishments was to persuade Fish and Game commissioners to allow crews to fillet fish at sea, instead of waiting until the vessel had docked. So, fishermen went home with fillets, rather than whole fish. Their wives were ecstatic.

SAC’s efforts also led to the elimination of the property tax on boats weighing 50 tons or more, the sales tax on commercial and sportfishing vessels, and the federal road tax on diesel-powered vessels.

“Bill had a tremendous ability to talk to the various agencies we acted with,” said Bob Fletcher, current president of SAC. “And he got results. He had a charisma and ability about him that few others have.”

Nott’s life changed drastically again in 1988, when he suffered a heart attack. It happened more than 50 years after the polio, yet it triggered “post-polio syndrome,” which led to a collapse of his respiratory system.

He nearly died. He was in intensive care for six weeks and on a respirator for nearly eight months.

He gets around mostly by wheelchair these days. But he breathes freely and can still spin a yarn with the best of them.

He recalled one of his most memorable days at sea not long before the heart attack, off Catalina with his wife, Winn, and his son, Steve:

“Historically, on his mother’s birthday, Steve would catch her a big fish. Well, we’re miles [off the island] and we see a free-swimming marlin, and this is at noon.

“Steve hooks him right away and we end up horsing around with the fish for two or three hours. After that he came up and we thought the fight was over, but that fish jumped 30 times. So Steve says, ‘What do we got ahold of, Dad?’ ”

“I said, ‘Boy, we got an ornery fish, that’s for sure.’

“Well, the wind came up, it’s blowing about 20 . . . and every time I’d close with him, he’d light up, which means he’s still hot [angry, full of life].

“And now it’s late in the afternoon, starting to get dark. Winn, without my knowledge, went up to Steve and asked him to break the fish off. Well, Steve said, ‘Dad never deliberately broke a fish off in his life and I’m not going to start now.’

“The sea grew rougher. It’s dark, and we’re still heading for San Nicolas Island, and all of a sudden there’s a big searchlight-- wham! And a voice on a loudspeaker: ‘Are you in trouble? Is there anything we can do to help?’ It was a torpedo retriever boat.

“I said, ‘No, no, no. We’re battling a big fish here.’

“Eventually they took off. No starlight and we’re just out there fighting the sea. Going along another half-hour or so. Wham! Another big spotlight. A submarine, with five guys in the tower. ‘Can we help you? Are you broken down?’

“I said, ‘No, thank you. We’re hooked up to a big fish, and we’re going to land him.’

“So they stood there and watched. Then they went off into the darkness. So eventually Steve works the fish alongside the boat. And the tail came up out of the water and Steve--he’s 6-foot-6--he grabs the tail and, with the surge of the boat, he throws the fish into the cockpit.

“Now the fish really lit up, and it chased Winn and Steve up to the bridge.

“Well, Steve had the butt of a cue stick that he had drilled out and poured lead in. And he got ahold of that and he hit the fish between the eyes and that’s all she wrote.

“He says, ‘Mom, here’s your birthday present, a 160-pound marlin with a 1,000-pound heart.’ ”

Eleven hours after the fight had begun, cold and wet, Winn Nott was as thankful as a mother could be.

--Details for Casino Night are available from SAC at (619) 226-6455 or Davey’s Locker Sportfishing in Newport Beach at (714) 673-1434.