Fishing on the L.A. River without a pole 
By Barry Lank US Source: theeastsiderla 9/26/2021
Barry Lank
Fishing on the LA River near a freeway underpass doesn’t sound very enticing. But that did not deter our assistant editor Barry Lank from accepting an invitation to go fishing on the river with only a line and a hook.
Elysian Valley — The first catch of the day is a square piece of rubber. Maybe from a car? It is, in any case, the only thing from the river that we don't throw back.

We are down at the edge of the L.A. River, five or six of us, under the 2 Freeway. We are fishing, largely without poles. H., who invited me to this, pitched it to me as a story, saying this was a more personal way to fish with just a line and a hook.
 

“Hand fishing allows you to feel closer to the fish,” he texted me before we got there. “Hence closer to life and things like that.”

But I wrote it. I'm doing everyone in this article a favor and not using names, because I'm not sure how much of this was 100 percent legal. Let’s just assume that all the fishing licenses were in order, as needed. And our wine and beer were non-alcoholic. In fact, forget I even mentioned the wine and beer. .

 
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