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Community Corner

Gone Fishing

Getting Away From it All at Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area

Just south of Culver City proper, a ramp leads you off  La Cienega  and into Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area. Though I’d visited years ago, and though the park is practically in the backyard of many Culver City residents,   I never gave it much thought until a playdate found me there one recent afternoon. Though our destination was the play area, my daughter’s attention was immediately caught by the beautiful  Japanese waterway and fully stocked fishing pond we passed on our way in.

Given Trinity’s well-documented love of all things living, she begged to return the next day, prepared to fish. What that meant, I was not sure. We had no equipment or bait.  I’d never fished, never been interested in fishing and knew nothing about it at all. Still, an adventure is an adventure and I went along.

The first thing to know about Kenneth Hahn is that it has no equipment rental or bait shop. It’s a solely BYO affair. The next thing to know is that fishing there is a very popular activity.  When we arrived, the pond was ringed by a surprisingly large number of fishermen and women, many of whom had staked out spots with multiple rods and reels. Without a doubt - despite its urban setting - at Kenneth Hahn, some serious fishing is going on.

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Trinity wasted no time getting to know two of the nearby anglers:  a retiree and a younger guy who wore a t-shirt that said “Shut up and Fish.” Like I said, these people are not kidding around, so it was to my  relief that they weren't bothered by my very curious children.

Trinity eventually developed a rapport with “Shut up and Fish” guy and when she found a stray fish in the water, still tied to the string on which it’d been caught, she brought it to his attention. Together they untied it and, after asking the neighboring fishermen and women if it was theirs, he presented it to her as her own.  

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So, to my surprise, without rod, without reel or bait, we did actually catch something. Perhaps, I thought, there would be trout for dinner.  

But it was not to be. A few minutes later, when she thought no one was watching, Trinity untied the fish and released it back into the pond. It was hers, she explained later, through sobs of intense emotion, and she wanted to give it another chance at life before someone else caught it.  She may be a lover of wildlife, but she’s not a lover of killing it.

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