Sooner or later some guest at your cabin will be an incurable, impossible fishing fanaticóand you will have to go fishing. Never mind that you have no interest in fishing. You are the host, and you will go fishing.

People who are otherwise considered sane drive thousands of miles, and spend a like amount of hard-earned dollars, to fish these waters. It should not come as a total surprise that one or two of your guests will suffer the same affliction.

Fortunately, most trust your knowledge of the local waters, and your ìskillî as guide. Such innocents can be taken to serene, back bays long on weed beds and short on action. An hour, maybe two of total boredom usually cures those whose interest was casual to begin with. They mourn the dollars they spent on a license, and privately doubt your competence, but there is no dramatic mutinyóand no messy fish to clean and cook.

Alas, there are times when this does not work. Unwilling to give up after the first two wasted hours, your guest gently suggests a change of scene.

ìHow about trying the reef where we saw all those boats yesterday,î she asks tactfully. This is a sure sign of trouble.
So you go where the boats had congregated (where they often congregate, as you well know). The lines go down. You settle in and wait.

At last the rod bends a littleónot ferociously, not even aggressively. But it bends, and there is some mysterious resistance there. With some renewed interest, your guest starts reeling in. Suspense rises with the line coming in. At last, under the boat, up and out of the wateróYour guest has managed to snag a clam. No, that is too generous. It is a clam shellóthe clam perished long ago, and a hole has been worn into the shell, which the hook just managed to snag.

A catch for the ages.

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Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
Fax 651-464-4605