'Ghetto carping' nets urban fisherman 50-pound catch from trash-filled lake
LOS ANGELES -- What a catch! What's known as "ghetto carping" at MacArthur Park Lake netted an urban fisherman a 50-pound whopper of a fish this week.
"I'm still shaking. I'm still shaking to this day. It happened on Monday morning," said Enrique Salmeron.
Cellphone video captured the moments when the monster fish was pulled out of the algae green lake
"Just take it easy, relax, breathe because it's a lot of excitement. Your forearm starts feeling it, your bicep, your triceps, your back starts giving out. At the end, you're just going like this trying to hoping and praying it doesn't snap off," Salmeron described.
MacArthur Park Lake isn't your typical setting for fishing. Homeless encampments are all around the perimeter of the lake, and often times, trash is found inside the lake. However, for a group of urban fisherman, this is their honey hole.
"They call me the presidente of California ghetto carping. We started this club a little over four years ago now," said Sergio Talavera, who also goes by Big Serge.
Salmeron said urban fishing may not be for everyone.
"We go to parks in urban areas where a lot of people are too scared to go to. They don't feel comfortable. It's just a place where it takes a certain type of gut to tolerate," Salmeron explained.
While much attention is being given to this big catch, Big Serge and Salmeron are not worried that more people will crowd the lake. They said it takes a certain person to do what they do.
"I just like to show it to the public. 'See look, this is what you have here,'" Salmeron said. "Take care of the environment so that it can keep thriving and, you know, to let other generation of kids be able to catch that."
