Fisherman's Paradise

Los Angeles has a river. This is a surprise to many since most don't associate dry L.A. and a river. For those who know L.A. and have seen the concrete lined Los Angeles river, this is what they see and think of:
A concrete channel full of slime and graffiti and trash and sometimes a Terminator on a motorcycle.








Occasionally mutant ants are spotted in the river bottom and the giant sewer tunnels.











Some of the river actually has a bit of life in it.






A several mile stretch actually is alive. Lucky for me this is the area that my place of work backs up to. And this brings us to the story for today.

There are actually things besides dead bodies and trash in the water. There are fish in there, some of them pretty good size. They are some sort of carp and they come right to the edge of the water to eat the scum that sticks to the concrete. I almost had a heart attack the first time I saw these things that looked like something from a Hammer monster movie skulking at the water's edge.

Recently there have been people fishing in the river. I don't know if it is hard times or a fishing derby or what but there can be several fisherman at a time set up on the concrete in their folding chairs drowning worms (or probably dissolving worms considering how polluted the water probably is) and looking like fisherman do except they are fishing in what is essentially a giant open air storm drain. So, here they are in the middle of the city, smack in the middle of the notorious Frog Town (kind of like Toon Town but for Hispanic gang members; can you imagine a swaggering gang banger saying "Yo dog - I'm a Frog Town gangster!" The other bad guys would be laughing so hard they wouldn't be able to hold their Glocks sideways to shoot at them.) within ear shot of the 8 lane Golden State Freeway roaring by, thinking "Well I may not have a job and baby needs shoes but at least I can fish here" when they hear someone yelling at them. What should they see but A Game Warden! A game warden in the middle of the city on the bank of a open storm drain? A game warden demanding to see their fishing licenses?! These fishermen are doing the city a favor pulling the mutant carp out of the radioactive chromium laced sewer fouled water before the fish can grow big enough to attack City Hall and knock the place flat like the Martians did in 1954.

Strangely enough 3 of the 5 fishermen had licenses. The other two got busted. I got tired of watching the drama from my parking lot and went back to work.



(BTW I borrowed the pictures from the internet)