“You see that shopping cart—try to get your fly right underneath it.” This is not your typical flyfishing directive, but it’s genuine, authentic advice on the LA River. Yes, Los Angeles has a river running through it, and depending on where you go, you won’t need to fish around garbage or the obligatory floating corpse.
The LA River flows though seventeen cities, from Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley to San Pedro Bay in Long Beach, forming the shape of a giant, fifty-mile comma along the way. This ugly but unappreciated waterway is home to herons, egrets, falcons, ducks, and a vast assortment of other winged creatures happily making homes along the banks and riverside bushes. It even has several natural-looking sections that thrive with clean-ish water and fish—large fish, like sewersometimes rewarding day on the water, especially when the closest quality troutriver is three hours away, you don’t get stuck in traffic.
