ESCANABA - Two tribal commercial fisherman from the Garden Peninsula are scheduled to make pleas in tribal court regarding citations for four miles of unmarked and unattended gill nets found in Lake Michigan last month.

Wade William Jensen, 46, and Troy Nester Jensen, 44, brothers from Fairport, were cited by the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians on June 4. The arrests came after officers from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources found the Jensens' commercial fishing nets containing thousands of pounds of decaying fish.

Two gill nets, each two miles long, were located about five miles east of the Garden Peninsula.

A mix of rotting lake trout, whitefish and burbot were trapped in the nets. On June 17, the nets were pulled and confiscated by tribal law enforcement, which has jurisdiction over the case.

The Jensens - brothers and members of the Sault Tribe - are scheduled to enter pleas on the tribal charges on Sept. 8, said a court employee from the Sault Ste. Marie Chippewa Tribal Court on Friday. The defendants will make their pleas via a video conference from the Manistique tribal office to the Sault court.

Any punishment related to the citations will be according to CORA - the Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority - which regulates tribal fishing in the treaty waters in Michigan.

Troy Jensen remains lodged in Delta County Jail where he is serving a one-year sentence on a separate state charge relating to illegal fishing. Wade Jensen, a co-defendant in the same case, was also sentenced to a year in jail but is currently on a medical furlough.