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The 3rd District Court of Appeals reinstated a ticket that a Forest County walleye fisherman received in 2005 for fishing with an unattended line, ruling that failure to check the so-called hook and line tip-ups for more than an hour on a frozen lake constituted a violation.
Forest County Judge Robert Kennedy Jr. had thrown out the ticket, ruling that checking the tip-ups every hour did not violate a state law that requires a fisherman to immediately respond when a fish bites the hook.
According to court records, Troy Westphal, who had more than 30 years experience fishing for walleye, set up ice fishing tip-ups on Lake Metonga in Forest County the night of Dec. 11, 2005, not far from his cabin.
A state Department of Natural Resources warden noticed early the next morning that two of the six tip-ups had flags up, indicating that fish had bitten the hooks. Westphal was ticketed for fishing with an unattended line when he arrived to check them about 15 minutes later, court records said.
Westphal told the warden he had last checked the fishing holes about an hour earlier.
The fisherman said he had checked the lines every 30 minutes to an hour throughout the night, saying the tip-up flags had reflective tape and he shined a high-power light from his cabin to see if there had been any bites.
The three-judge appeals court said state regulations make it clear that anglers must be able to “immediately respond to a line upon indication of a bite. ... Whatever short period of delay may be allowed, Westphal exceeded it.”
The fine and court costs for fishing with an unattended line in 2005 was $163, the DNR said.
The agency annually sells more than 1 million fishing licenses.
