If you fish a spot enough times, you learn its secrets: where the path gets murky, where the water runs quickest, where the fishy treasures await. If you fish a river long enough, you might even begin to believe it has a soul – even a littered, polluted, urban river like our Kern. This soul however, was killed last week. Innumerable sentient and innocent creatures – smallmouth bass, carp, crappies, frogs, birds, and insects, which I’ve witnessed firsthand as a fly fisherman – live and play in our city’s river.