Fishermen Go To Sea Daily In Dories From Newport — Only Place On Pacific Coast
For nearly 20 years on he beach next to the Newport municipal pier there has existed a fishing community which has its counterpoint nowhere on this coast. Ten to 12 dories under bright beach umbrellas make up the permanent village, and some 20 more dories are beached there at night. About 30 families depend on the fresh fish they can see for their living.
These sons of the sea are as taciturn as legend has them. When Shorty Gunther, who has been fishing from Newport for 15 years, was informed that his occupation was one of the Pacific coast’s unique ones, that Newport is reported to be the only place on the coast where fishermen go out to the sea in dories, and that there were those who would be interested in reading about it, he squinted reflectively into the sun and maintained that his job was his job, and that was that.
“No,” he said, “I can’t say I have what you might call adventures. It’s mostly a matter of going to work and coming home again. Once I had to swim 45 minutes to get home, and once in a while one of us tips his dory over, but mainly we don’t, and when we do it’s part of the job, anyway.” When asked why this unique industry had sprung just where it did, he said, “It’s on account of the surf mainly. There’s not so much of it here.
And partly it grew up here because the concession on the beach was granted then so long ago it has become a traditional feature of the Newport beach, and because the city charges them no license to sell their fish here, provided they always sell the same day’s catch, and that they keep the beach and their fish clean.
The men roll their little dories into the water any time around three or four in the morning every day, and row out to sea. Any motive power other than human simply is not used. The general practice is to go out two to five miles, and this time of year, put out from 500 to 1200 hooks per man, strung at depths of from several hundred feet to 2000 feet for sea trout or black cod, and nearer the surface for mackerel, barracuda, bonito, yellowtail, and the like.
In the early afternoon they row home again with anywhere from 50 to 300 pounds of fish to the boat. “We could bring home a ton or two apiece each week, if we could sell them,” Gunther said. At Newport the dories are laboriously beached again, the fish cleaned, and while the women sell the fish if they can, the men bait up for the next day. Cutting up fish and baiting a thousand hooks apiece takes up the rest of the day.
During June they fish for mackerel and sea trout, on account of the closed season on some game fish during May and June, said Gunther, who said he was reflecting the voice of the community, “this new fish law is the best law that was ever made. Except for it, we could take thousands of barracuda and bonito with our nets every day, and kill them off in two years, because they’re spawning now.
The seining season opens in September and then these fishermen put out two to a boat, and in groups of two boats, and seine drag this part of the coast for the fish they cannot take now. During this month they cannot sell barracuda or bonito at all, but confine themselves to mackerel, halibut and cod.
Asked about reports that the fish were not so plentiful this year, Gunther said, “There’s fish, all right. You got to find them, is all. Sometimes they’re one place, sometimes another. Our biggest trouble this year is not the lack of fish, but the pig sharks. We catch them pretty regular, and they just break our lines and ruin our outfits.
And so these men do their jobs because they are their jobs, and rain or shine they think no more of it. But more and more people are stopping underneath an umbrella to buy the fish, because no where else can one get one’s main course for a fish dinner just 10 feet from the water where it was caught. —Bob Guild, Santa Ana Register, June 21, 1934
Pictures from Santa Ana Register, February 21, 1935
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Additional articles on the history of Newport’s Dory Fleet
The Newport Beach Dory Fleet — Through The years
http://kenjonesfishing.com/2018/03/the-newport-beach-dory-fleet-—-through-the-years/
The Newport Beach Dory Fleet — Looking Back #2 — 1950
http://kenjonesfishing.com/2018/03/the-newport-beach-dory-fleet-—-looking-back-2-—-1950/
The Newport Beach Dory Fleet — Looking Back #3 — 1969
http://kenjonesfishing.com/2018/03/the-newport-beach-dory-fleet-—-looking-back-3-—-1969/
The Newport Beach Dory Fleet — Looking Back #4 — 1971
http://kenjonesfishing.com/2018/03/the-newport-beach-dory-fleet-—-looking-back-4-—-1971/
The Newport Beach Dory Fleet — Looking Back #5 — 1973
http://kenjonesfishing.com/2018/03/the-newport-beach-dory-fleet-—-looking-back-5-—-1973/
The Newport Beach Dory Fleet — Looking Back #6 — 1988
http://kenjonesfishing.com/2018/03/the-newport-beach-dory-fleet-—-looking-back-6-—-1988/
The Newport Beach Dory Fleet — Looking Back #7 — 1989
http://kenjonesfishing.com/2018/03/the-newport-beach-dory-fleet-—-looking-back-7-—-1989/