Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Urban Fishing



No, I didn't set up this tableau.  It was just there.  I find quite a few dead fish along the banks of the river in various states of decomposition and I suppose that is somewhat normal.  Maybe those two Great Blue Herons living in Bassett Creek lunched on this guy.  When I'm out walking and picking up trash I see any number of folks fishing in the river near downtown.  The guys I've talked to don't seem like the type to leave their litter behind.  I don't fish now but I have fished with family and I don't remember any of us leaving our trash behind.  I can remember standing at the end of a dock as a teenager waiting for an hour for a smallmouth bass to hit my line.  Waiting in the sunshine, watching the water, the anticipation.  I get why folks love to fish. The allure of urban fishing in Minneapolis is captured perfectly in this story from the Star Tribune from 2013. 




I love the very first sentence of Chris Clayton's article: "It was hot that day, and the Mississippi was low enough that from certain angles you could see its sepia-toned riverbed-the rocks, the bits of trash, and the carp that surfaced now and then like little ugly whales." I wonder if he was just trying to stay positive when he says "bits of trash".  I didn't live in downtown Minneapolis in 2013 so I don't know how bad the litter problem was at that time. I hope we've made some improvements since then.

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