I enjoyed this one from Mille Lacs…
While checking anglers, CO Mike Lee (Isle) along with CO Fitzgerald approached a boat with a man and women seated who appeared to be working on something very intently and quickly on one of the boat’s benches. When they arrived at the boat’s side the male party in the boat held up a very large walleye and stated, “Hey, look at its tail, doesn’t it look funny?” At that moment the individual dropped the walleye into the lake. Before dropping the walleye into the water Officer Lee observed that the walleye’s tail fin was completely straight with no natural curvature to the tail fin. Officer Fitzgerald was able to land the fish with a landing net, due to the fish being near death. Upon inspecting the fish further it was clear the rear tail of the walleye had been cut. After a lengthy conversation the man finally stated, “I saw you checking the other boats and panicked, because the walleye was too big to keep. So I did the only thing I could think of make the fish smaller, but when you came up to the boat I thought I better just get rid of the fish.” After being informed that walleye do not have a perfectly straight tail fin, and that it was very obvious that it had been cut, Officer Lee advised the male party that he had not cut the tail fin short enough, because it still measured 20 ½ inches, well into the restricted slot size. As the officers left the boat’s side the male individual continued to blame the female party for what had happened. Other enforcement action was taken for insufficient PFDs, no angling license, failure to use required navigational lights, and no fire extinguished on board.