Ecology, Equipment

Batter up: Carp clubbing takes river to new low

Here’s a winter’s tale that should prove cautionary and more.

We decided not to visually bust this guy for carp clubbing. He's the one who got away -- for now.

My son and I went out last week for some fishing on the city’s river. As we were leaving the water, we came upon a couple of friendly gents who intimately knew the area. Both had on caps; both had on backpacks; both had good senses of humor; and one should have been arrested:

“You don’t need that rod to catch carp down here,” said the one.

How could you not ask?

“What you need? You need a baseball bat, a Louisville Slugger, that’s what you need — a bat!”

He then went on to tell us that he and a friend “caught” three white plastic bucketfuls of carp in an hour, and lugged them to a nearby Korean buyer who paid cash. He said that the next day — Sunday — he went by  the buyer’s church and there was a big fish grill, making everyone happy.

“I don’t have a lot to do besides hanging out and drinking beer. Imagine, me in that water with my pants rolled up,” he said with a grin. “Nope, you don’t need that. You need a baseball bat.”

We all nodded like it was the funniest thing we’d ever heard, but by the time I got home, I wasn’t laughing anymore.

I called a marine biologist with the California Deptartment of Fish and Game to get her perspective.

“There’s nothing legal about anything you just told me,” Carrie Wilson said.

She went on to detail the wrongdoing:

“First off, taking with a baseball bat is not a legal take,” she said. “And a carp is still a California fish. That means you have to abide by fishing regulations.”

Those regs include owning a fishing license (you can buy one online this year), as well as having a commercial fish seller’s license.

Then there was the matter of the baseball bat. According to Wilson, a bow and arrow is a legal method of fishing in some areas of California, and spearing might also be allowed, she wasn’t sure. But whacking fish with a baseball bat? Positively ghetto in the worst sense.

Finally, even though the FoLAR’s 2008 Los Angeles River Fish found low levels of toxicity in fish analyzed for the report, serving up a heaping plateful of river carp is insidious. Think of your guests, man!

So if you see anyone yelling, “batter up,” and then swinging for the fences, call the Griffith Park Rangers.

See you on the river, Jim Burns

Spots, Worth a thousand words...

Pass the Dijon
It's 94 pounds of carpilicious fun for lucky Brit Paul Roberts, who caught the purported world's largest mirror carp near Dijon, France. (Credit Y&M Media)

Christmas came early for Brit Paul Roberts. According to the Daily Mail, the bloke from Dorset snapped up the world’s biggest (caught) carp at Le Graviers, near Dijon, France. That’s big as in 94 pounds, so big it has a name on the local waters, “The Scarred Fish.”

To make the story even better, Roberts, a boat builder, witnessed his friend, Richard Middleton, pull in a brown fish, weighing 83 pounds only the night before.

That made the two buddies a double-threat — all in only 48 hours.

“As I was reeling it in, I saw what fish it was and then my legs turned to jelly,” Roberts told the Daily Mail.

But a quick bit of Internet reporting reveals that in June the same fish was caught at the same lake as — a 99-pounder! Maybe we should blame the Lap Band. Or the Daily Mail should get a better scale.

If it weren’t raining as I write, I’d grab my rod.

See you on the river, Jim Burns

Ecology, Events

Quick Mends

Yes, once again under the “shameless promotion” category, this time KCET Departures Story Share allowed me to tell my tale about fly fishing on the river.

Even if you can't see the river, these bird-loving signs point the way.

Question: is all black the best look for a happy, early afternoon interview?

See you on the river, Jim Burns

Equipment, Quick mends

Quick mends

I’m writing this while listening to Clay Dyer, a professional bass fisherman, who doesn’t have any limbs. Never heard of this guy, but found his video when I was researching C.A.S.T. for Kids. Turns out that this truly amazing fisherman is also the group’s spokesman. It’s based in Renton, Wash.

Children get a taste of the reel life through the Dan Hernandez Youth Foundation. (Photo courtesy Dan Hernandez Youth Foundation)

Closer to home, check out  the Daniel Hernandez Youth Foundation. Another professional fisherman, Hernandez started  “Meet Me at the Lake” to help under-served children get their first fishing experience.

Question: When are flyfishers going to start doing something like this  on our river? If you’ve been following these posts, you’ll remember I met a couple of kids a few weeks ago, and we all had fun fishing for carp.

At least we know that the equipment is there. Bob Milne explains the ins and outs of the Redington Crosswater Youth Outfit in an informative post.

See you on the river, Jim Burns

Events

Inspiration in the bike lane
Councilman Tom LaBonge makes a point at Saturday's event.

Anybody out there ready for the odd bit of good news?

We all should be, what with the continuing recession/depression, unemployment that won’t go down, unending Afghanistan… And it is getting closer to Christmas.

So, from the thank-goodness-for-small-favors-and-the-occasional-infusion-of-political-will department came a ribbon cutting Saturday along the banks of the Los Angeles River: the eight-mile stretch of freshly paved and dutifully yellow-lined Elysian Valley asphalt is now officially open for rubber, both tire tread and Nike sole.

It’s always  hard to get an accurate crowd count, and the cops left before we could ask them (peace has its advantages), but approximately 200 people listened — and cheered — as Los Angeles councilmembers Eric Garcetti, Tom LaBonge, and Lupe Vella, representing councilman Ed Reyes, talked up the accomplishment under Saturday’s threatening early afternoon skies.

Well over one hundred people attended the opening of the Elysian Park extension of the river bikeway and pedestrian path.

“The dream moves a step closer to reality,” Garcetti said, referring to eventually creating a bike path that will run the entire 51 miles of the river, from the Sepulveda Basin in the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach. Flanked by the L.A. River Keepers, teens who advise those along the river not to trash it and pick it up when ne’er do wells do, it was a day in which public and private cooperation inspired even the most cynical.

Scott Wilson, founder of North East Trees, listened as Ron Olive, of the Dept. of Public Works, told onlookers the project took 10 years to realize. And L.A River Expeditions founder George Wolfe beamed when Vella said “We want nonmotorized kayak access next year.”

Amen.

Flyfishers should be happy because the new access and traffic cuts the threat of meeting people you really don’t want to meet while carping under the 2 freeway. In the past, this area had a bad rep.

Jesus with buddies Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge

Finally, a young man named Jesus rode his new, donated bike alongside Garcetti and LaBonge, southward toward the future. The only thing missing was a donated fly rod for Jesus to strap onto his shiny silver ride.

See you on the river, Jim Burns

Events

KCET Story Share is tomorrow!

This from KCET producer Justin Cram:

The KCET Departures StoryShare event is this Saturday, Dec. 4, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. at Crystal Park in Elysian Valley.

The event coincides with the opening celebration for the Elysian Valley Pedestrian/Bike Path.

Even if you can't see the river, these bird-loving signs point the way.

Crystal Park is located off of Crystal Street, South of where Fletcher crosses over the LA River and North of Riverside drive. Parking is street only and Crystal Street will be closed for the event. For more information on parking, traveling to the
event, and location, please go to kcet.org/storyshare

You do not need an appointment to participate in the StoryShare event, simply arrive to the event between 10am and 2pm and locate the KCET Departures booth. You will be able to tell your story on camera, or if you prefer, as audio only.

For those of you who have already sent in a teaser of your story, we have begun to publish these on the KCET StoryShare site as some of you cannot make it the event. Feel free to contact me via email if you would like to adjust or add to your story on
the site.

See you on the river (tomorrow!), Jim Burns

Spots

The Skunk
Mirror, mirror on the water, tell us carp are where they outter (be).

I met Mario and his friend as they rode their bikes under the Hyperion Bridge. When he called to me, at first I felt unnerved. Then, looking around, I felt foolish to think that this bright-faced boy might be up to no good.

“Fly fishing?” he asked with a knowing smile.

“Got a good spot?” I answered in return.

And off we went, two kids who might have been Tom and Huck from earlier days, and an older gentleman, two on bikes, one on sneakers, plying the waters of the Glendale Narrows.

Shortly, we came to Mario’s spot, which is one well known to the bait guys. In fact, we watched from the other side of a long island as one of them hooked up.

“Nice fish,” I shouted cupping my hands against the wind and background noise.

“That’s a minnow,” his friend called back. “You should see the big ones.”

Indeed.

As we wheeled and walked to a spot I knew, I told the boys to keep a sharp eye out for fish. Now that they’d seen a carp, they realized I wasn’t just telling them tall fish tales. And, sure enough, we spotted a bonnie golden bonefish as he pushed up a concrete step, the swift water parted by his muscular body and slashing tail.

“Whoa,” said the friend.

“Told ya,” the old guy answered back.

Then, I cast, cast, moved my indicator, cast, fooled with my weight, cast. Not a strike.

Soon, the boys got bored, which Mario said happened, but that it was worth it because of the thrill of the catch. They wanted to cross to the other side, so that we’d be closer to where the bait guys were hooking up. The thought of wading in that cold, questionable water didn’t thrill me, and we parted company, as they decided to stay on our side of the river, and go home for sandwiches.

“When you usually here?” Mario asked.

“Fridays,” I answered. The three of us shook hands, and then shook our heads in agreement, that we would meet again one of these Fridays, and, possibly, Mario would bring his dad along.

Being skunked is a quiet ticket to unhappiness and frustration, unless you meet some new buddies during the process.

I fished out the day without a strike, yet as I walked back to the car, empty-handed, I thought about my two new friends. Fishing, after all, isn’t always about catching … If I’d seen them on the sidewalk, in the mall, or in a restaurant, I doubt we would have ever said a word. Yet here, in our defiled river, we three strangers became just a tad better acquainted than when we arrived.

See you on the river, Jim Burns

Worth a thousand words...

Worth a thousand words …
How many guys carry their own scale? Jim Graves does!
Events, Quick mends

Quick Mends
You never know when a carp might be wondering if you're real or just hiding out.

Here ye, here ye!

Ready to tell some tall fish tales of the carp that got away …?

Give your wife and buddies a break, and come over to the Departures LA River StoryShare Initiative. Let’s do it by the letters:

Who: Councilman Ed Reyes, KCET
What: see above
When: Saturday, Dec. 4
Where: Opening of the new Elysian Valley Bike Path
To preregister, follow this link, or just show up!

See you on the river, Jim Burns

The fisherman's life

The Raymond parties like it’s ‘1886’
Acuna-hansen captured this moody snap of the new digs during quieter times.

You know, change doesn’t come easily. That’s why we probably won’t see the return of steelhead to the river until, well, let’s not get into that.

Change comes in two varieties: canny and not-so-much.   The second is almost always accompanied by a press party. Let me explain.

When you find a restaurant that’s your “special occasion” place, you don’t want anyone messing with it, especially not the owner. Chefs are bad enough, we all know that. They’re always diddling with a good thing, inventing, tasting, creating. That’s fine, unless you want whatever it is — let’s say bourbon and soda — to stay exactly the way it’s always been.

So, it was with surprise — and horror — that very recently we were asked, “Here for the press party?” by the valet outside this Pasadena spot-on venerable. In only moments, basic solidity had succumbed to string theory.

Press party? Those two words always mean change, whether it’s the Tea Party partying in Washington in less than two months; or former gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman finding out her maid had decamped to attorney Gloria Allred for a smack down; or your credit card company blithely reminding you that you suck and your rates have gone up to prove it. (OK, maybe that last one, there was no press party…)

Press party? Change? We’re shivering.

The three of us met at the Raymond in Pasadena, Calif., for a birthday party: my best man, his birthday, one that counts for something.

As we opened the door, noise assaulted us, and lots of it, because the press party, turns out, was to inaugurate the new bar. Patrons in the few booths in the dining room all huddled around the center of each table, as if we were secretly burning a fire to keep out the wolves.  The waiter was flustered; the hostess, more so. My wife eyed the noisome revelers askance.

To make matters worse, Best Man had spent the better part of an entire career in hospitality public relations. He confided that when asked the press party question, he had to muffle his autonomic response, which was, “Yes, and are you validating?”

We ordered. Food arrived. We were only mildly happy. Not good.

Then, owner Rob Levy appeared and we began to talk about bourbon and fly fishing. Suddenly, Best Man smiled, and wife, and Rob as well.

We discovered that the well bourbon at “1886,” the new name of the bar, was yummy Buffalo Trace. We talked of trout behind JPL — true — and that Rob’s business partner loved the cult of the dry fly. We were invigorated! Life was new again. Happy!

And so I learned that chilly November evening that at least one man held press parties for canny change, and thank goodness you can still slurp down oysters in the bar, just like it was 1886, and you didn’t have a care in the recession. Not one.

See you on the river, Jim Burns