C and r togs,urge you to read post

Gents,i cant believe all the controversy surrounding this subject.I had a commercial tog permit for close to fifteen yrs.The way this works is i am allowed a four man crew and the fish must be sold to a legitimate buyer at the dock.Made my first trip shortly after getting the permit.Got four of my best toggers and off we went.After two hrs i told the guys we were done.they started yelling at me, why,we are great fun and you are making money.Informed them i had made my days pay and now its over.Among the grumbling i started the motor and away we went.Few days later went on another trip,fished two hours and put an end to it.The next trip i put together,the guys wanted me to promise them i wouldnt quit after two hrs.of fishin,i promised them i would notstop them in two hrs.Kept my promise,i stopped them after an hour and a half.That was the last commercial trip i made with my permit.The permit spent the next fouteen years in my desk drawer. Could not continue to kill those fish no matter how much they were worth and that was plenty.You can be certain that every tog we catch on our c and r trips is treated with great care.By the way that permit went with the boat.i had to sell my boat a few years ago for personalreasons ,one of the saddest days of my life. I hope you guys understand where im coming from SINCERLY CAPT. TOMMY JOSEPH

[skate king]

Captain Tommy, you don't owe ANYONE an apology or explanation for anything!

[njfisherman1975]

Knowing you for as long as my uncle and I have tommy...you owe no one an explanation. You've made a lifetime of fans and supporters for being the type of man and type of captain everyone can learn from. You're one of the best sir!!

Jeff

[RC.]

I don't see any issue with the C&R togging, we do it fairly often too. That said, I don't have an issue with someone asking about why we do it either. It's a forum for discussion. Not sure why everything needs to turn into such a controversy.

How different is C&R togging than freshwater bass fishing where guys in tournament catch bass, stick a stringer thing through it's mouth, put it in a livewell for hours, then release it later after weighing it? Those guys are heroes on ESPN. If released unharmed, who cares....

RC.

[SaltLife1980]

I have no issue with it as well. There is a boat {IDK if its a SB} that has videos on you tube catching and tagging tog. Then releasing them and catching the same fish a few trips later. So they do live after being released. So i dont feel like doing a jigging trip for tog is doing that much damage. In fact, Id like to go on one.

But IDK why everyone is jumping down that guys throat. He was just asking questions. Give em a break.

[jigemup]

Tommy, you owe no one an explanation. Anyone who has fished with you or any one of the guys on these c & r tog trips knows there is no explain needed.

P.S. You did forget to mention that we had a great c & r tog catch again yesterday, and this time, we did kill some in-season fluke and sea bass.