Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office cites 2 men for tarpon, snook catch.
ENGLEWOOD, FL
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office cited two local men Monday, in the Coral Creek area of Placida, when they found both undersized snook and a tarpon on their boat. Neither man had a Tarpon Kill tag.At about 7:45 p.m. on November 25, Marine Patrol officers saw Ronald Lamar Cole, 44, and Stuart Ray Middleton, 36, on a commercial mullet skiff docked at 3 Cole Brothers Road. When the deputies first met with them, they were apparently culling fish from their seine net.
Nobody likes seeing dead poons.
While they were talking, the deputies noticed what appeared to be an undersized snook and a small tarpon dead in another net on the boat. Cole and Middleton finished clearing their seine net and a total of four undersized snook and the one tarpon were found. The men did not have a Tarpon Kill tag onboard the boat.[highlight color=”eg. yellow, black”]…[/highlight]
Both Cole and Middleton were cited for Possessing or Killing a Tarpon without a Tag, four counts of Possession of Undersized Snook, Possession of Snook over the Bag Limit and Taking Snook by Net. Both men were also warned against commercial net fishing inside the Coral Creek area, a criminal violation.
While they were investigating this situation, the deputies learned that Middleton had an outstanding warrant out of Lee County for Failure to Appear on a charge of Possession of Undersized Cobia. He was transported to the Charlotte County Jail where he was released on a $2,600 bond.
