When I was about 10, a bunch of us kids from P.S. 145 used to go fishing in the crusty lake up in the Harlem end of Central Park. We'd catch what we called sunnies, with a net whose handle had snapped off, swishing it through the cloudy water to snag one of the little round fish. I brought three of them home one time and fried them up. They weren't a very tasty snack. But I wasn't much of a cook.

The lakes in city parks aren't scummy anymore, and on sunny afternoons there are anglers flinging their lines into the waters, pulling out largemouth bass along with cast-off tropical fish.