DULUTH — Upon further review, a fish that fooled experienced anglers and biologists alike into thinking it may be a new Minnesota state record brook trout was indeed a splake, a human-invented hybrid between a lake trout and brook trout, according to DNA test results.

Mike Ince of Aitkin caught the 6.93-pound fish on June 7 on Lake Superior along the North Shore near Duluth, and anglers on board believed the coloration and fight of the fish made it seem like a natural brookie. The fish also had a very square or straight-back tail fin, hinting toward brook trout.

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources fisheries staff who inspected the fish said they weren’t sure.

“It definitely had the square tail of a brookie, but it also had the real silver color of a laker. … To be honest, I’m just not sure,” Cory Goldsworthy, DNR Lake Superior fisheries biologist, said at the time.

To make matters more confusing, the fin clip pattern seemed to suggest it was a brook trout released in Wisconsin.

To settle the matter, Goldsworthy sent a sample of the fish to the University of Minnesota, where a DNA test ended the mystery. The fish was a splake. That means the state record for a kept brook trout will stand at 6 pounds, 5 ounces. The state record splake is 13 pounds, 5 ounces.

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