Governor hits snag on fishing opener

On Saturday, May 14, the sun will rise at Leech Lake at 5:48 a.m. It will have been up for all of 12 minutes when fishing season begins.

By some accounts, the Minnesota Fishing Opener is a joyful experience, kicking off the summer season with a blast of good fellowship and a hardy celebration of the state's natural resources. Our own research is admittedly anecdotal, and less positive.

When you are sitting in an aluminum boat at sunup with your teeth chattering, the wind gnawing at your Gore-Tex and the fish ignoring you, the opener can be a test of endurance. You may stop believing in a higher power. You may stop believing in fish. If you know any secrets, you may be willing to tell all should someone promise to get you off the water and into an environment more friendly to human life.

Multiply that boat by a factor of 50 or 70, and you begin to approximate the armada that in a typical year attends the Governor's Fishing Opener. Somewhere in that fleet, probably in a sheltered bay and attended by professional guides, is the governor. Also plying these waters are media types, civic leaders, outfitters and others whose livelihoods are linked to tourism.

It's no exaggeration to say that everyone in the state shares in the benefits of Minnesota's tourist economy. Explore Minnesota, the state's tourism agency, reports that $1 billion comes into the state's treasury just from the sales tax on leisure and hospitality spending.

That's in a normal year. It's been a while since we've had one of those. State tourism officials figure that the pandemic has cost the industry $12 billion. The Governor's Fishing Opener was canceled in 2020, and scaled back in 2021. Maybe that's why people seem so invested in this year's opener. It has to make up for the ones that got away.

The trouble is, a successful Governor's Fishing Opener is not something put together on the fly. It is a feat of public-private partnership. Communities compete for the honor of serving as host. Boats have to be rounded up. Volunteers have to be organized. The whole process takes more than a year, and the coronavirus did not allow that kind of notice.

This year's opener, consequently, made some compromises. There will be no flotilla. Instead there will be a roundtable, a media availability and a "Take a Mom Fishing weekend." Gov. Tim Walz plans to go fishing somewhere on the Leech Lake Reservation May 14, but the exact body of water, as of this writing, has not been leaked.

Walz could claim that other business is more pressing than the fishing opener. But the state's tourism economy is badly in need of a jump start. And for a significant slice of the Minnesota population, the fishing opener is a cultural institution, a ritual and a sacred tradition. Smart politicians see opportunity in those bait buckets — and every governor since 1948 has recognized it.

This strikes us as an unforced error.

And speaking of errors, while we're mixing our sports metaphors, we hope President Joe Biden gets out to a ballpark sometime soon to hurl a ceremonial first pitch. Every president since William Howard Taft has done so, with the sole exception of Donald Trump. If Biden is worried about the prowess of his arm, he shouldn't be: Just as a Minnesota governor need not actually catch a fish, a president need not throw a strike. The point is to be a good sport, to show up.

Plans are already in the works for the 2023 opener. Nothing against moms, or fishing, or weekends, but "Take a Mom Fishing weekend" seems awash in outmoded stereotypes. There are moms who already fish (and one who serves as DNR commissioner). There are dads who don't fish. There are families with two moms or no moms, two dads or no dads, and the Governor's Fishing Opener is no time to make any of them feel excluded. This is one idea that may not be a keeper.

We recommend a return to the traditional format, with a host community, an in-person governor, more fun and fewer roundtables.