She was like the deep blue sea

Jim Niemiec

Sport anglers were saddened by the death of one of Newport’s most

respected matriarchs of blue water game fishing.

Helen Smith of Newport Beach lost her battle with cancer late last

week and she will be missed by everyone who has ever weighed in a trophy

catch at the Balboa Angling Club.

Mrs. Smith was as much a part of the salt water fishing of Newport Bay

as was her husband, Gil, who operated the sportfisher, “Happy Landings”

out of old Davey’s Locker and later operated the deluxe charter boat “El

Lobo” for many years.

Together they combined efforts and worked hard to make the Newport

Beach fishery what it is today.

Helen probably weighed in more striped marlin than anyone along the

south coast, donated a lot of effort to make youth fishing contests

successful for harbor area youngsters and could always be called upon to

give an accurate fish report.

I was a long-time friend of the Smith family and I will miss Helen’s

excellent insight into fishing off Newport.

As of press time, funeral arrangements and plans for a special Smith

family angling foundation are pending.

There are still some bright sport in the channel for late season

anglers looking to land an albacore, bluefin tuna, dorado or striped

marlin.

Big schools of dorado are holding under floating kelp in the channel

and if the boiling fish turn into biters it could produce wide-open

fishing.

Over at Catalina Island, water conditions are ideal and the yellowtail

bite stays steady with most of the fish weighing in the 15 to 22 pound

class and are being caught on sardines.

According to Dean Plant of Newport Beach, anglers are reporting to

Anglers Center that marlin are finally moving up from Oceanside and that

there were a number of billfish boated over the weekend.

Ben Seacrest of Newport Beach hooked into a marlin while fishing on

board his small boat “Fresh One” while trolling through blue 68-degree

water off Dana Point.

There are still plenty of albacore below San Diego. The fish have

moved closer to the beach of Punta Bunda and are providing a pretty good

showing for so late in the season.

Earlier this week, Dr. Dennis Inaba of Newport Beach landed three

longfins while fishing on board the sportfisher “Prowler” running out of

Fisherman’s Landing in San Diego.

Dr. Inaba landed three albies as did Michael Bodrogi of Newport Beach

who decked two albacore on bait and took one on the troll.

Locally, fishing is still on the slow side due to cold water and a

lack of anchovies. The bulk of the daily fish count is made up of small

sculpin, sheepshead and mackerel.

The winds have remained calm and perhaps our traditional “Indian

Summer” will extend good fishing along the coast, in the channel and at

the outer islands for a couple more weeks.