He was caught cooking his lobster catch, Florida police say. Officers took him to jail

Most illegal fishing cases are made on the water.

This one was made in the kitchen.

A Naples man was jailed Tuesday night — just a few hours before lobster miniseason opened — after police said they caught him with lobster tails in a pot.

Miniseason opened at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday and runs through Thursday night.

Thomas Keith Henning, 62, was arrested at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday at a home in the 200 block of 95th Street in Marathon.

At the time, he was cooking up some illegal catch, according to the arrest report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Henning told police he had about three lobsters and was cooking them, but police said they found five lobster tails in a pot.

The meat had already been removed.

Asked if he had more, Henning repeatedly told officers no.

Then an officer showed him some evidence they had collected in the case.

It’s a photo, of Henning and his son unloading lobster from a center console boat, that someone had sent to the FWC.

Henning then confessed that there were more.

He led Lt. Kevin Balfour to his stash: 35 additional out-of-season lobsters hidden in a laundry basket that was covered with towels.. All that was left of the catch were wrung tails.

“Henning admitted all lobster were his and all the lobster were caught on his boat today,” Balfour wrote.

Henning was jailed on misdemeanor charges of possession of out-of-season lobster and possession of over-the-bag limit lobster.

On Wednesday morning, Henning remained locked up at the Stock Island Detention Center without a bond.

Police jailed another man earlier Tuesday for possession of undersized lobster and out-of-season lobster, among other charges.

But Yuliver Rodriguez-Tejeda, 43, of Houston, Texas, was caught while snorkeling, police said. He also remained locked up without bond Wednesday morning. By Wednesday evening, though, he was released without having to post one.

This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 11:54 AM.

Gwen Filosa

Miami Herald

Gwen Filosa covers Key West and the Lower Florida Keys for FLKeysNews.com and the Miami Herald and lives in Key West. She was part of the staff at the New Orleans Times-Picayune that in 2005 won two Pulitzer Prizes for coverage of Hurricane Katrina. She graduated from Indiana University.