If you like fish and wildlife content, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future videos. On April 12th, 2025, officers with Texas Fish and Wildlife were on patrol when they boarded a fishing vessel returning to port. One officer boarded the vessel while the other followed behind. How you doing, buddy? Good. How are you? Good, man. You catching a fish? Yeah. Good. Oh, yeah. It's a good reason to be tired. I need body form for this. I'm going to have to profess. Okay. by the way. I go by Carter. Pleasure to meet you. Carter Rangel. Carter. Yes, sir. So, let me just ask you like how far out did y'all go? About 30 miles. That's where y'all caught the snapper. Just be honest. I'm telling you. It's obvious. Probably not tast. [Music] So either way, you know, we have So that's where y'all caught them at? Yes. Okay. Um, and you don't have a clue how many y'all caught? I don't have a clue. Did you catch them all out there or some of them? Majority of them. West Bank didn't really do that well there. Was there a particular rig that y'all fished at at 30 miles? No. Uhuh. Um, yeah, go for it, buddy. The name of it. Thank you, Tom. If you need to look it up, that's fine. They got more fish in here, too. I have to look on here. I don't remember the name of it. Well, do you mind if I ask why y'all did this today? Just taking a chance, I guess. Yeah. Well, no, I just wanted to get everybody out and fish a little bit. So, no excuses for it. I appreciate your honesty. So, what we got to do, we're going to have to count them all and uh we're have to figure this out because it's federal waters or it stays here. The season's closed, you know, and even if we apply the twoman limit out federal waters, I think y'all can still be well over that anyways. Did y'all just keep everything? Are there going to be some undersized ones in there too? You think? No size. No. Um, if you don't mind looking up on the bridge there and finding the name of that spot and then uh let me explain this to you as well. Uh, Prime Time. What's that? That's the name of the spot. Prime Time. The Rick spot. I don't know what's there. Prime Time. Okay. The thing is what we're going to try to do is handle this between us right here because the thing is y'all go on in federal waters. If we turn that over to the feds, this is going to be bad. It's going to be bad. We've got a lot of discretion. That's what we're trying. You're being honest with us. Let me tell you something. Yeah. The government aggravates the crap out of me. My son was killed in the military back 25 years ago and to the day that happened and I've had nothing but the NCIS dealings with them time and time again and believe you me they're a bunch of liars so on so forth. Yes sir. So however you want to handle this fine with me. So you bring you know government just pisses me off the way they did my son. Yes sir. I understand. And I don't care got anything to say about that. Yes, sir. So, you want to get under my skin, that's the way to do it. Yes, sir. Uh, like I said, we're going to try to work with you as best as we can just because of your honesty. That's what we like, man. So, well, you know, that's all we ask for. Yeah. My son was accused of uh like showing video on it, not to y'all care, but I do kind of care honestly. change the subject anything here, but I'm just telling you how I feel. Yeah. Well, yeah. I think the one good thing I mean, I think we've been respectful to you, you've been respectful to us, and I just hope that's all we can ask for really. And we appreciate you telling us how you feel about it really. So, well, I don't call feds on me, trading me. I don't, you know, I'm telling you right now that I've I've dealt with the NCIS for 20 years now. Still has gotten nowhere with No, I don't know what happened to them. We're going to go count these things and go for Thank you. Do you mind lining them up in rows of five? [Music] [Applause] Is it safe to say everybody caught some snapper? Everybody. I caught him. You be a brave man, but you may not like it. That guy said, you aren't that good at fisherman. Were there any more on the boat? I thought you said I thought you said there were more. Yeah, but they they were in the apartment right there and they took them out. Okay. 27 then. We have uh is eight people that No, not eight people. There were eight on the deck. 14. 14. 14. So they're just under limits. Hey, can I get everybody up? 15. Hey, some of y'all don't understand what we did wrong today. Does anybody not know? I don't think they know. Hey, so I've been honest with them. Hey, so snapper season closed in federal waters and that's where these fish were caught. Anything past 9 miles or 10.3 nautical miles or 10.3 miles offshore becomes federal waters. That's where these snapper were caught. The season's closed. You can't catch snapper at all out there. So, is there anybody here that did not catch any snapper today? I mean, I'll buy them. No, no, I take it back. I hope I hope some of them. Is it safe to say everybody caught at least one snapper today? Okay. Um, what I'll need from everybody is uh is a driver's license. Is this going to be between us or I got to go. Let me get their lices. inside. We'll let you know. We're We're still going through our process. Yeah. You're dealing with the government, guys. This is a very much a procedure. My wife is driving her real quick. All righty. 14. Okay. Well, sir, he doesn't have a driver's license either. No fishing license and no driver's license. Oh, man. You call the fish. Yeah. Underage. He was busy. Let me So, uh, that's why we're trying to tell you the help. Anything that's really spoke cut or better waters, you're supposed to turn over to Noah. Okay. their fines, penalties are so much steeper than what we got. We have our own law that covers this actually take a snapper in close season. Okay, it would be no different than a speeding ticket. But the way I see it is I mean that's all everybody would be getting today is one ticket for Texas national flow season. Okay. And u that's all we plan on doing. We're not Okay. So there's 15 people. There's I mean we could write multiple. I understand. I understand. We're just paying if everybody gets one ticket. It's like I said a speeding ticket. It's $25 to $500 for the fine and just call the judge, take care of it. It's done with how much? $25 up to 500. Okay. The judge sets the fine. Okay. Yeah. So, Okay. So, you notify the judge. Yes, sir. Okay. Yeah. Um and and how y'all would handle it between yourselves is up to y'all. Yeah. I mean, yeah. So, that's that's everybody's issue there. I mean, that's nothing I have no control over. But but just to be clear, before everybody went out today, they kind of knew what they were getting into, right? They knew they were going to Federal Waters and they probably shouldn't be catching snapper, right? Yeah. Yes, sir. I just I just want to know uh because if they knew that, it kind of makes it no argument. Yes, sir. Yeah. Um Okay. We haven't decided what exactly we're going to do with the fish yet, but let us go ahead and start scratching paper and um we'll explain that to everybody and I'll let them know what's going on right now. But I feel like in the scheme of things, I feel like we're being fair. Yes, sir. And I'm sorry, but like you said, same way you let them have the fish, that be really grateful. But but I know I'm Yeah. And be honest with it, I hooked a few of them. Then I gave it to the next person dragging me in. I didn't Well, we appreciate your forthcomingness and honesty about it. I mean, there's a citation for every single fish plus turning it over to Noah. So, you have state and federal charges pending. So, rather than do that because you're a cooperation right now, you're going to issue a ticket. So, rather than 20, there's 27 fish, I believe. So, rather than one for every 27, we're just going to do one for every person. And and we'll we'll keep this on the state level. Yeah. Was this Did anybody pay to come out today or just like a charter? You do a good job on driving that boat though. Yeah. I feel like you know Yeah. You back that up pretty impressively. Sometimes you just get lucky. Um you run charters on the side or No, just for your for fun. Your own enjoyment. No. Yeah. Since my son was killed. Yeah. I I just it keeps my mind going. Just keep gives me and I'm so sorry about your loss. Yeah. Um have y'all been out to federal waters multiple times this year? No. This is the first time y'all done it. Okay. Who are all these people to you? Yeah. People I've worked with. Co-workers. Yeah. So, no such thing as a good ticket, but we are trying to help y'all out and it is because of his honesty. So but uh let us knock out some paperwork and we'll just talk left one at a time. Okay. Yes, sir. Great. Fire up the grill. How you close season? Yeah. Snapper postseason. Get the exact You're receiving one citation today, Mr. for taking the red snapper in close season. Do you understand all that? Yeah. How that work? Over 9 miles, federal waters. Federal waters currently closed. Just make sure you do it before the 30th of April. If they don't hear from you, they do put a warrant out. Okay. Just sign there by the red X. All you're doing is like promising to contact the judge. of note too, uh, restitution is not being filed, which is an additional fine. Yeah. So, um, technically there could be a citation for every fish. Yeah. With the feds, with the state, but an additional fine, but also one citation today for taking the red snapper in close season. one citation today for the take red snapper in close season. How much are these normally average? Um the range is between as high as 500 but as low as $25. All righty. Let me just knock these two out with y'all. Okay. Um take this half and I get the other half. That's right. Can you get us in? Yeah. Three, two, oh, smile. giving us a break. Appreciate y'all giving us a break. Yeah. And we appreciate y'all cooperation and working with us. Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Hson. All right. Appreciate y'all's cooperation, guys. We'll have our tickets turned in uh by Tuesday or Wednesday. Y'all can call in. Um like he advised, we didn't file any civil restitution. We appreciate y'all's uh cooperation with us. That should help out. So we're as much as we can. Thank you all again. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thanks, Captain. Take care. In the end, each of the 14 adults received one misdemeanor citation for taking Red Snapper out of season. From what we could tell, the officers allowed them to keep the fish. If you like this video and want to see more like it, subscribe to Arrest Cam.