The No Fishing signs appeared around the lagoon on the landfill at Northwestern sometime in the late 1980s. The university brought in a dredger and a contractor to remove silt and generally upgrade the lagoon, which connects to Lake Michigan at its north and south ends.
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When the dredging and upgrading was completed a couple years later, the No Fishing signs stayed up. The university had adopted a new policy. The anglers, particularly the snaggers, were an insurance liability. Henceforth the lagoon would be off limits to fishermen. The university even erected a fence to block access to the rocky point on Lake Michigan, known to anglers as “the Rocks,” just beyond the southeast tip of the lagoon, a popular spot when the salmon were running.
The ban remains in force. Snaggers don’t come here anymore. Neither do the families, the old men who fished all night by lantern light, or the preteen boys who came to the lagoon on their bikes with rods and night crawlers.
“Today I’m just having fun with carp,” he said as he put a kernel of corn on his hook. “My friends josh me about going after carp, but they’re great fighters, and there’s some huge ones in this lagoon. I’m sure there’s some over 40 pounds. The secret to catching them is to use a small hook, no bigger than a number eight, and either a sliding sinker or no sinker at all. The carp must feel no steel or any resistance when he takes the bait or he’ll spit it out.”
Emboldened by his reassurance, I signaled for my two boys to fetch our rods and tackle box from the pine grove where we had stashed them next to Stan’s.
“Well, it was definitely there.”
I threw my line back out and handed the rod to my older boy. My younger boy, oblivious to the potential danger this man presented, was kicking through the strip of wildflowers along the bank trying to catch grasshoppers.
