The act of fishing in Los Angeles seems almost defiant: a tranquil outdoors activity against a backdrop of concrete, litter and highway overpasses.

It’s hard to imagine there was ever a time when the Los Angeles River was wild and free flowing, flanked by thick reed forests and full of steelhead trout — instead of clad in concrete and sandwiched between swollen expressways and freight-train tracks.

Centuries ago, in the areas that are now the back sides of strip malls and housing developments, the native Tongva people lived in villages along the river and relied on fishing for food. After the Spanish colonists arrived in 1781, the population grew along the banks of the river, which served as the primary water source for the Pueblo de los Ángeles.

Rains often turned the flow of the river from a trickle to a torrent in just a few hours, which made flooding a recurring problem. Following a catastrophic flood in 1938 that destroyed thousands of homes and killed almost 100 people, the Army Corps of Engineers decided that the best solution was to channelize 278 miles of the river and its tributaries — including the 51-mile stretch from Canoga Park to Long Beach — with concrete embankments.

Today, the waterway is more reminiscent of an oversize storm drain than a river, with just a slow trickle of water flowing down the center of the concrete-lined channel. The images it conjures for most people are the settings featured in famous movie scenes, like “Grease” or “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”

But tucked in a little corner of Los Angeles, underneath the intersection of two highways, lies a neighborhood known as Frogtown — along with a small and lush section of the Los Angeles River ...

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