Documenting Los Angeles’s Unlikely Urban Fishermen

It’s hard to imagine there was ever a time when the Los Angeles River was wild and free flowing, flanked by thick reed forests and full of steelhead trout — instead of clad in concrete and sandwiched between swollen expressways and freight-train tracks.

Centuries ago, in the areas that are now the back sides of strip malls and housing developments, the native Tongva people lived in villages along the river and relied on fishing for food. After the Spanish colonists arrived in 1781, the population grew along the banks of the river, which served as the primary water source for the Pueblo de los Ángeles.