Urban Fishermen And The 'Catch Of The Night'
Garrison Hilliard
Email: Brenda...@wcpo.com
Photographed By: Brendan Keefe
Last Update: 9:53 am
COVINGTON, Ky. -- Journalists are always looking for the 'hook' in every story.
This story has one, but only on the end of a fishing line.
The bright lights of the Cincinnati skyline draw the attention of anyone
standing on the south bank of the Ohio River in Covington. But that glow blinds
the viewer to the dozens of people right in front of them.
Fishermen pick out their spots just after sunset almost every night of the
summer. They sit in silence waiting for a 10-pound catfish to take the bait.
"It's a nice place to sit," says Mark Klein of Covington. "Just sit here, forget
about everything, and just fish."
Klein has been coming to this spot on the river for 30 years. He is just a
silhouette cast against the bright lights of downtown. No one knows he's here,
and that's the point.
"I've always had pretty much luck here," Klein says.
He and the other fishermen generally throw back what they catch. "So I can catch
it again," says Klein.
The river is still too polluted, he says, to risk eating the giant catfish that
emerge from the inky waters at the end of his fishing rod.
The real "catch" is the symphony of chirping crickets, lapping waves, and the
humming song of cars crossing the steel grates of the Roebling Suspension
Bridge.
Says Klein, "I wouldn't call it meditation, it's just relaxation."