Fish Tales

I’ve been riding my bike along the East River every chance I get, and I’m fascinated by the people that fish along the park. As a kid, we went fishing whenever my grandfather visited. The best trip was when he caught an ancient snapping turtle when we camped in Canada. I think the most anticlimactic fishing experience was at a fish farm in Virginia. Catching those fish did them a favor by putting them out of their misery. Even though the fish were swarming in that pond, they still tasted really good. Of course, that’s the best part about fishing. Eating them. Recently I spoke to my friend Derrick about why he hates fish, but I still don’t get it. I have tons of yummy fish memories. I vividly remember when my childhood neighbors, the Stenhams, brought home a huge catch of smelts and fried them up. I’ve never had smelts that good in any of the New York city restaurants. When we lived in Atlanta, my family went to this one Chinese restaurant where we’d always get the Hunan style fish. The dish is an entire fish head deep fried with a delicious brown sauce. My dad would always gross us out because he’d eat the eyeballs and say it was good for his sight.

I’ve been shy about approaching the fishermen along the East River, but yesterday I had to stop when I saw a man’s pole bent from the weight of some catch. Riding closer, I realized he had only caught some seaweed, but I felt comfortable about asking him and his friend about fishing in the city. The friend said that the water in the East River is clean now, but it’s up for debate about the silt at the bottom of the river. He said that some people believe that if fish were born in that silt, they might be contaminated, but if the fish were born upstate in the Hudson, they were fine. I’m not sure how you can tell the difference, but it didn’t seem like they cared. The other fisherman told me that he had been fishing last Saturday around 7 am and he was home eating his 36 inch fish by 10am. He then went on to tell me that the next day he went to Battery Park and caught a 42 incher and sold it to an Egyptian restaurant for $35 in his neighborhood. Exciting but a little scary, no?