Madeline, age 38, got her feet wet fishing in the park with her father, when she was a kid. Years later, she got more than her feet wet when she waded into Harlem Meer to land an 8 1⁄2 pound largemouth bass in Central Park.

I used to fish in the city when I was a kid; my father would take me out, but he stopped taking me when my parents' got divorced. I came back to fishing because I had the time, mentally, and I needed the time, spiritually. It's something I do to help myself focus, to calm down...to live in New York City. I don't know what my life would be without fishing.

I caught a small blue gill last year, and it kind of scared me, because as I was pulling him in, I saw this big largemouth bass, and he jumped out of the water and took the blue gill, and I thought, "Oh my God, he scared me!" And I had to back up for a minute. So then I had the largemouth bass on the line and he took off to the center of the lake, and then he came back, and then he went to the left, and then he came back, and then he went out again, and then he came back and he got in the weeds this time. And I thought, "Oh my God, what am I going to do. He's in the weeds." And we struggled for about ten minutes, and it was just awesome. It was so much fun.

Well, he was in the weeds, and I wasn't going to lose him, so I took my shoes off, and I rolled up my pants, and I got in. And I got that fish. And that fish was about 8 1⁄2 pounds! And it was so funny, the guy who taught me to fly fish—Ken—he had just caught a largemouth bass that was about 2 1⁄2 pounds, and all the kids got excited and, you know, everybody's looking at him, saying, "That's a big fish! Look at the big fish!" And he was walking away from me at that point, and I didn't want him to come back, so I don't tell him what's going on. So I'm in the process of getting ready to go in the water, and I know people were looking at me like I was crazy, but I don't care. So I got in the water, and I got the fish, and came out, with the fish shaking my arm, back and forth! And I said, "Now, that's what you call a big fish!" It was so cool. So cool.