Rob Scott of Crane Lake, Minn., holds the potentially world-record lake trout he caught Feb. 8 on Lac La Croix, a Minnesota-Ontario border lake northeast of Crane Lake. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources enforcement officers, working in cooperation with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, confiscated the fish, maintaining it was taken over Scott’s limit. He pleaded guilty Friday to that offense and forfeited the fish. (AP Photo/Rob Scott)
Rob Scott, the Crane Lake, Minn., angler who caught a potential tip-up world-record lake trout in February, pleaded guilty Friday in Fort Frances Provincial Offences Court to keeping one lake trout over his limit.
Scott, 65, won’t get to keep the fish.
He paid a $400 fine plus court costs amounting to about $75, according to Kevin Elliott, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources enforcement supervisor in Fort Frances.
Scott, who was represented by an Ontario attorney, did not contest the charges. He caught and kept the fish that unofficially weighed 52 pounds, 3 ounces, on Feb. 8 while fishing on the Ontario side of Lac La Croix, a border lake northeast of Crane Lake. The fish was 45 inches long with a 32-inch girth, Scott said.
But because Scott’s lake trout limit was one fish and he had already kept a 4-pounder earlier in the day, he was over his limit when he kept the big lake trout. He later gave the 4-pound trout to his nephew, he said, but according to Ontario law, he had possessed both fish.
“He killed two fish. You’re only allowed to kill one,” the MNR’s Elliott said.
By Sam Cook
Forum News Service
Read More here: www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_25462601/minnesota-angler-pleads-guilty-loses-potential-world-record