Missing Mark by Julie Kramer

Author:Julie Kramer [Kramer, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-385-53031-6
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2009-02-13T05:00:00+00:00

crowd gathered around the dock by Tally’s, a small bait shop and marina on the east shore of White Bear Lake. Black ducks tried swimming but weren’t making much headway against a brisk spring wind. Shep barked at them and they scattered like a school of minnows while we walked along the path that hugged the shore.

My mind was processing the new piece of information I’d just obtained over lunch at Rudy’s Redeye Grill, where Madeline and Mark’s rehearsal dinner had been held. I schmoozed the owner, a guy named Bill, not Rudy, who must have figured Bill’s Redeye Grill lacked a certain panache. But Bill also owned the hotel that housed the restaurant. And by dessert, I’d confirmed that Sigourney Nelson had been a registered guest at the White Bear Country Inn the night before the wedding.

What was she doing there? Besides kissing her old boyfriend in the parking lot? And that didn’t require a room.

Shep barked again and brought me back to the present.

White Bear Lake was staging a premier Minnesota bass competition to kick off the season. For some time, the town had lobbied to host the Governor’s Fishing Opener, a tradition dating back sixty years in honor of walleye season. The outing is a cooperative venture between the resort industry, the media, and public officials. But politics seemed to decree that the annual event to pay homage to Minnesota’s state fish be held outside the metro area to build name recognition for more obscure lakes.

The White Bear Lake Chamber of Commerce became convinced their time would never come, even though they’d sent smooth-talking emissaries, dressed like fish, to make their case before the governor. So they’d spent the last year making plans to buy an insurance policy should a lucky angler catch a state-record-breaking bass in their water.

The winner of such a trophy fish would net half a million bucks, plus prestige throughout the bass world. If no record fish was landed, the top bass of the day would net a new pickup truck and ten grand for its captor.

A record bass would also benefit the town: its namesake lake would become a tourist magnet for bass lovers. And that image meant full hotels, bars, and restaurants for fishing seasons to come. The White Bear Press had been absolutely giddy in its editorial endorsing the idea.

Even without a record-breaking fish, town leaders could use the contest to demonstrate their organizational skills in pulling out all the stops in the name of fish. That might land them a step closer to luring the actual Governor’s Fishing Opener to their shores the following spring.

Because the area is a Republican stronghold, the current governor was forced to accept the mayor’s gracious invitation to join him and the bass on the water even though it carried some political risk. A governor who gets skunked fishing in public loses the confidence of his people.

Governor Wendell Anderson set a high bar in 1973 when he was featured on the cover of Time magazine holding an impressive walleye to illustrate “The Good Life in Minnesota.

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