Art Gronsky

Jim Niemiec

Beginning in 1926 Art Gronsky would come down with his family

during the summer, often in the old red trolley cars that used to run

down Central Ave. (now Balboa Blvd.) to fish in Newport Bay near the

jetty.

Art had a secret hole that produced huge spotfin croaker weighing up

to 10 pounds. “One of the highlights of my years as a local youngster was

hooking and landing three spotfin croaker on a three-hook snelled rig,

baited with razor clams while fishing off the old wooden bulkhead next to

our home at the end of the Balboa Peninsula,” said Gronsky, today’s

inductee into the Daily Pilot’s Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating the

millennium.

It was 1947 when the Gronsky family of Balboa purchased the Balboa

Pavilion from Paul Lorentzen and with a lot of hard work and dedication,

built it to one of the finest sportfishing fleets along the Southern

California coast.

Art Gronsky had a vision of how good local and offshore fishing could

be in the years to come. The Gronsky family remodeled the lower floor of

the Pavilion, adding a tackle store, more docks and expanding the

sportfishing fleet.

The first boat added was the Sea Biscuit, followed by Gronsky’s pride

and joy, the Frontier.

The Frontier was an all-steel, 65-foot sportfisher built in Costa Mesa

and skippered by Captain Spike Taft for many successful seasons.

As the sportfishing business soared in Newport Bay, Gronsky added the

charter boats Apache, Duchess, Gypsy, Bonanza and his own little private

six-pack charter boat, Little Sport, to accommodate the many anglers who

would dive all the way down from Los Angeles to catch albacore, tuna,

yellowtail and white sea bass, or load up gunny sacks with shallow water

rock cod during the off season.

“At one time in the mid 50’s there were more than nine sportfishing

landings in full operation in Newport Bay, with more than 200 sport boats

docked or moored in the bay,” said Gronsky. “In addition to the excellent

offshore sport fishing, there were three canneries that operated

year-round producing millions of cases of canned albacore, sardines and

mackerel, along with one of the west coast’s largest abalone factories

located on 20th Street, supported by a commercial fleet of more than 100

jig boats, seiners and gill netters.”

The Balboa Pavilion grew in popularity and became a huge tourist

attraction. When the Gronsky family purchased the largest sea shell

collection in the world from Fred Aldrich of Bay Island, it was moved to

the top floor of the Pavilion where kids, local residents and vacationers

would view shells that included many harvested off the Newport Beach

coast.

The cycle of sportfishing changed in the early ‘60s as many salt water

anglers made the long drive to San Diego to fish for yellowtail and

albacore that moved out of local waters for nearly a decade.

This absence of blue water game fish didn’t deter Gronsky from

continuing to operate a sportfishing fleet out of Balboa.

In 1963 Gronsky leased the fuel docks next to the ferry boat landing,

constructed a new building and began operating Art’s Landing, featuring

Frontier, Bonanza, Newporter, Southern Comfort and Little Sport.

Gronsky operated Art’s Landing for 20 years, adding a great little

cafe that served the best hamburgers in Newport Beach, along with a

Johnson Outboard Motor sales and service business.

Gronsky’s only regret when he retired from the sportfishing business

in 1983 was that he didn’t purchase the land that he had paid rent on for

so many years.

Art didn’t get completely out of the fishing industry after closing

Art’s Landing. He immediately reopened the outboard motor sales and

service shop that Gronsky operated near the Lido shipyard, and at the

Dunes until he officially retired from the business in 1997.

Gronsky’s many contributions to Newport Beach, in addition to playing

a major role in the development of the recreational fishing industry,

includes spearheading the Newport Beach Nautical Museum now based near

the Back Bay bridge in the old Ruben E. Lee floating restaurant, and he

is a leader in the community to preserve the historical aspects of Balboa

and Newport Beach.

His fine collection of old photography of the fishing industry in

Newport Bay, shot by Gronsky with his old 4X5 Graflex camera, carried

down to the dock when any big catch of fish was being unloaded onto the

dock, has tremendous memorable value.

When asked to reflect on the past 50 years of being an integral part

of Newport Beach, Gronsky replied, “I enjoyed growing up in Newport Beach

as a kid and spending time fishing. When I had the opportunity at my

landings I always found room on one of the boats for a kid to go fishing.

I can recall each summer taking kids from the probation department, and

those who were physically handicapped, and allowing them to experience

salt water fishing for the first time in their life.”

Gronsky also recalls the many mothers who would drop their kids off at

the dock to learn about fishing.

“I could always find a job for a youngster at the landing. From

cleaning the docks and scrubbing the deck, to becoming a pinhead on a

half-day boat. I wanted to keep them off the streets and help them

realize just how great a place Newport Beach was to grow up in, and that

fishing could play an important part in their lives as they grew into

adults,” said Gronsky.

One of Gronsky’s personal highlights was to watch a very young

deckhand by the name of Frank LoPreste of Newport Beach get his heart

into sportfishing back in the early ‘50s.

Today LoPreste is considered by many to be one of the most important

individuals in the California sportfishing industry and a spokesman for

the future of fishing, and Gronsky feels he helped contribute to

LoPreste’s success.

Gronsky resides in Newport Beach with wife Anne of 39 years, who

strongly supported her husband’s vision.

It is not hard to spot Gronsky as he still drives his original black

1956 Thunderbird around Newport Beach every day.

“I have over 580,000 miles on my little car and every mile was driven

on the roads of Newport Beach,” said Gronsky.