BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. -- A Brevard County man said a simple fishing trip became his worst nightmare. Christopher Rose had never been arrested until an officer boarded his boat 18 miles off-shore in March.

"Needless to say it was probably one of my worst fishing adventures of all time," said Rose.

One of his friends caught a Cobia, which they thought was just big enough to keep.

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"He took a measurement of it. Stood up and said, 'Are you aware of the regulations on this species?' We said, 'Yes, it's 33 inches to the tail,'" Rose said.

However, fishermen are supposed to measure to the fork of the tail. The officer said it missed the mark by two and a half inches.

"I said, 'Listen, sir, these are my friends, this is my boat, I'll take responsibility for this fish,'" Rose said.

So Christopher Rose took the citation thinking he would pay the fine and that would be the end of it. But prosecutors decided to press criminal charges and now he was looking at a $1,000 fine and the possibility of jail time.

"It's comical. Laughable," said Rose.

Rose went to trial for one undersized fish that he didn't catch. In court, Rose took a compass and measured the fish based on the inches that can be seen, which suggested the fish was not undersized.

"35 inches?" asked the judge. "35 inches and that's from snout bottom lip to fork in the tail?"

"Yes sir," replied Rose.

"Whatever measuring the defendant did do wasn't done with any sort of measuring device," said the prosecutor.

The judge agreed and Rose was convicted. But the judge spared him jail time. Rose had to pay a fine and fees along with his legal fees, which cost him $2,000.

"What you think might be a simple mistake can haunt you," said Rose.

The prosecutor, in Indian River County, declined Eyewitness News' repeated requests to interview her.