A father and daughter fishing together last week on a frozen lake near Fergus Falls, Minnesota made quite a catch.
And it didn't end up in a fry pan.
They lowered their underwater camera into 20 feet of water to check for fish and instead spotted trophy elk antlers, still attached to the skull, resting on the lake bottom.
"They drilled some holes and were able to hook the antlers and bring them up through the ice,'' said conservation officer Troy Richards. He saw the rack later and said it is huge.
"The antlers were definitely trophy status, 6-by-5 [with] heavy mass,'' Richards said.
No one knows how old the antlers are.
"They look old, but pretty well-preserved,'' Richards said. "My speculation is the elk has been down there since the turn of the century or longer. It truly is a mystery.''
Don Schultz, DNR area wildlife manager at Fergus Falls, agreed.
"There were elk in this area prior to European settlement,'' he said. "So they could be several hundred to maybe thousands of years old.''
Schultz, who hasn't seen the antlers, said the closest elk herd today is about 200 miles north of Fergus Falls.
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