Ken, age 60, says that people don't appreciate the great fishing to be had in the lakes of Central Park. To hear him tell it, it's got the best fishing in America.

I've been fishing here in Central Park since I was five years old. I learned here with a piece of line, then I graduated to a can, from the can I got a little piece of pole, and from the pole to a fishing rod. I also graduated to being a guide: I've guided in British Columbia, Canada, Upstate New York; I take people fishing for a price. And it started right here.

What I like about fishing is the serenity, and the egotistical things that you do to catch fish, with your own little lures that you make and you see that they work. It's sort of like a boost to your ego, it really is: when you catch a nice fish and somebody's around or a bunch of kids, and they're all screaming, "Oh, you're so good!", it pumps you up a little bit.

The biggest fish I ever caught here in Harlem Meer is a 42-pound carp. I caught it by accident. I just threw out—I was trying to catch a bass—and somehow the carp just slurped up the lure, and I was happy as a lark! One of the weirdest things I've ever caught here is a pound-and-a-half oscar. I was going for a crappy that was sitting there, and just as he came for the lure, this oscar jumped out from behind a weed, hit him in the side, grabbed the thing and took off with it!

It's home base for me here; it's the place where I started and I'll probably end. I mean, it's in the middle of the city, and it has so much to offer; people don't quite realize the vast amount of fish in this lake. It's got large mouth bass up to 10 pounds, carp up to 45 pounds, catfish to 25 pounds, yellow perch to 2 1/2 pounds, crappies to 3 pounds; it's really a great fishery.

We have certain groups here; there's six in my group, and we're always coming out and having a little competition. We call ourselves the CP Crew: the Central Park Crew. It's just a bunch of old guys together who fly fish. We have a lot of children...well, they're young men now, who've grown up and had families. And now they're teaching their sons and daughters how to fish here.