ON THE WATER -- Fishing for excitement

Mathis Winkler

NEWPORT BEACH -- Pulling the “Patriot” into her spot just north off

the ferry on Balboa Peninsula at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Captain Jim Reed

said the fish were still hiding.

“It’s pretty slow -- we just caught about 15 sculpins and eight

rockfish,” said Reed, who skippers one of Newport Landing’s ships and

takes people out on the ocean to fish. “But it should start picking up

real quick.”

Reed’s own love affair with fishing began at age 3, when his father

took him along to freshwater lakes and streams in his native

Pennsylvania.

Some two decades later, he crossed the country and settled in Orange

County, where he’d go fishing as often as possible.

“I’d go out every chance I got,” he said, adding that he worked his

way from deck hand to licensed captain over the years.

In the early 1990s, Reed left town and moved south to San Diego, where

he signed on for long-haul fishing trips lasting between five and 18

days.

It was a bit like the life portrayed in the movie “The Perfect Storm,”

Reed said, adding that the folks in Hollywood had done a pretty good job.

“A lot of it was realistic,” he said, “although the waves looked a

little bigger for the movie. If you have a 100-foot wave and a 100-foot

boat, you wouldn’t see that boat climbing up the face of the wave like

that.”

But while Reed said he liked the long stints out at sea, he decided to

return to a day job about a year ago.

His wife, Vickie, had complained a little and wanted to see more of

her husband. And then there’s also the couple’s 3-year-old son, Evan.

“I want to be home at night,” Reed said.

While the fish might be smaller now, there’s still lots of excitement

on his boat.

“For people who have never fished before -- to them, a 3-pound fish is

as exciting as a 200-pound fish on long range trips,” Reed said.

Right now, he takes his clients to Catalina Island. Once fishing picks

up along the coast, he’ll cruise the “Patriot” as far north as Long Beach

and down to San Onofre.

And later this summer, when the fish bite better, he’ll probably bring

Evan along on one of his trips.