The protagonist, a private investigator, is hired to expose a celebrity bass fisherman as a cheat and is drawn into a frame-up for murder.

Private investigator R.J. Decker is hired by sugarcane tycoon Dennis Gault to prove that Richard "Dickie" Lockhart, his rival in the professional bass fishing circuit, is a cheat.

Finding the local fishing guides too expensive, Decker takes Ott's advice and meets a reclusive hermit who calls himself "Skink".

Ott is skeptical of Lanie's suspicions, since the coroner ruled Clinch's death an accident and fishing to be too outlandish a motive.

Assuming Skink is the culprit, Decker drives back to Florida and is greeted by the Miami police, led by Detective Al Garcia.

He orders his new spokesman, Eddie Spurling, to cheat by harvesting caged bass from the neighboring stretch of clean water in the Everglades.

With the help of Skink's friend, State Trooper Jim Tile, Decker tracks down Lanie and forces her to confess her role in the conspiracy.

Predictably, the tournament is a fiasco: the latest batch of fish are so sickened by the toxic water that they refuse to eat, while Garcia and Tile are the only participants to catch one (tiny) bass.

Skink sees all the bass floating to the surface and realizes he has put Queenie in mortal danger by slipping her into the toxic water.