City councillor Dan McWilliams was one of four men fined last month for catching a few more trout than the legal limit and other fishing offences.

“The financial part of this is not half as bad as the embarrassment,” McWilliams who was fined $800, told The Examiner after the ministry issued a press release on the fines Thursday.

McWilliams, a well known conservationist who is co-chairman of the annual Greenwing Fishing Derby, told The Examiner it was an honest mistake.

He and the others were also fined under the provincial fish and wildlife conservation act for not keeping the fish in a manner that allowed conservation officers to measure their size and not having his angling licence.

He said he mistakenly thought the lake had a three-fish limit, he and his friends cut up the fish to fit them in their cooler and he left his wallet in another car.

He pleaded guilty in Minden on July 7.

The ministry release stated McWilliams was fishing on Havelock Lake with Peterborough residents Dan Mahoney and Derek Mahoney as well as Robert Thompson, of Kitchener.

All four pleaded guilty with total fines of $2,800.

They were found with nine lake trout in their boat, the MNR says. A sport-fishing licence allows an angler to catch and possess two lake trout on this lake, while a conservation licence allows an angler to have one lake trout.

Six lake-trout carcasses were retrieved where they told MNR officers they had some for their shore lunch, the MNR says.

Five of the six fish were able to be measured and were within the restricted size of 40 to 55 cm, the MNR stated.