I am amazed how long a Tog will live out of water. How do they do it? Their blood seems thicker (more viscous) than other fish but they can stay alive for hours out of the water if they are cool. And live forever and are very healthy in a live well.

it's amazing how tough they are

Swear to god, this is from a noble laureate marine biologist, and my daughter knows it to be true:

Believe it or not, we are fortunate to be living in a time in which we are seeing the noble 'Tog in the middle of evolution. Not to soon in the near distant future(perhaps in our children's lifetime) the Blackfish will actually be an amphibious creature, feeding voraciously on anything hard and crunchy. Teach your grandchildren not to sleep on the beach! See those teeth? Those are designed not only to rip crabs and mollusks from the rocks they live, but to remove fingers and toes at the knuckles. Before too long, those giant pectoral fins will become flipper-like, and the tog will be walking up onto land to feed. Yes folks, if you live by the shore, no longer will deer, foxes, squirrels, rabbits, be the only life we see patrolling the shores. Beware, warn your children and grandchildren, and for god's sake, don't forget the steel toed beach sandals..

Thanks great, then I can just shoot them and won't need to freeze by butt off in a boat all day.:bounce:

Seriously though... I doubt this occurs in our or our grandchildren's lifetime...maybe in a million years or so. That kind of evolution takes a looooooooooooong time.

Yup, just keep denying it.. When your future progeny are all hopping around on toe-less feet don't come crying to me.

Yeah, and I bet you think the earth is still flat, too. I'm only going to warn you one more time.. ;^)

Jim;

More than once, especially in cold cold conditions (read Dec.) we'd get back to the dock, start filleting fish, and when you get to one that is flapping, with cold cramped hands, we didn't feel like cutting it. Put it in the crab car after sitting in the cooler for 6hours, Come back the next day and it is recovered and ready to go.
Amazing critters.

Other than deep hooked (solved by using large hooks) they have almost zero release mortality!

If the average person know how old they were, they would treat them with more respect, less waste etc.
they grow S-L-O-W. we were involved in a study w/ a biologist. He estimated a 13 fish we had a few years ago was 25-30years old (older than me at the time!)

FWIW; I heard my RISAA record (14+) fell yesterday to a 16.3lb moose tog. Damn.
quite a fish. we had a good day, but no size.

As all of you know I am an expert on blackfish. :hihi:

But seriously, what I do know about them is that they go into a dormant stage in the winter where it appears they are hibernating. Scuba divers have seen backfish wedged in rocks with layers of sediment on them, which means they had not moved in days if not weeks.

I figure that when they are out of the water, a survival mechanism kicks in and they go to their 'happy place' that they go to in the winter.. maybe its a self induced coma or something..

All I know for sure is they taste good :D

You may be an expert, but you sure can't catch or fillet them :D:D:D:D

The expert is right though, biologists claim they hang at the spots all winter 'dormant'. The old timers would say they go offshore and bury in the mud....

The fish we caught at 8AM yesterday were still pumping their gills at 12 when we hit the dock. Several flapped around on the deck and I thought they'd flip right into the water. I'm not sure if they can somehow convert oxygen out of the air to some extent (like a mudfish) or if they shut down their system so much that they don't need air. They are truly one of the toughest fish in the waters out there.

All yuks aside, I actually do know a longtime RI marine biologist who probably would know the answer to this. I'll have to ask him next time I see him.

From what divers have told me, and from what I've seen on those cable operated underwater cameras, they're very inquisitive, too. We had one run right into the camera face first this spring.

There ya have it, another perfect design from the divine.

There ya have it, another perfect design from the divine.

OR Evolution at it's finest :btu::angel:

(we don't need to hijack this thread. But Goose set me up for that line! :cputin:)

OR Evolution at it's finest :btu::angel:

(we don't need to hijack this thread. But Goose set me up for that line! :cputin:)

I do agree with that. If your the 'Hijack Police' you have some work to do.

I use to wake them up in late December with a three prong gig. They thought they were safe at 130' off Castle Hill...but NO tog was safe when the freezer needed filling. At least that was the way it use to be.

Here's an old picture showing the carnage in just over an hour or so of spearfishing.

Note the two bags of fillets in addition to the two stringers of fish.