Dear Editor:

It seems that your photos promote killing of Game Fish rather than Tag and Release.
It would be nice to see you promote conservation instead.
Very disappointing.

Michael
Stuart, FL

Response – Dear Michael:

I was out of town in meetings and could not respond to this properly last week. Thank you for your concern. We often post photos of tagged fish and people receiving awards for winning release categories. Perhaps you have missed them. However, we try to find photos of our clients releasing fish. unfortunately, many, far too many have photos of their tagging a billfish when they are holding in their hands out of the water. This is illegal and we will not post them as we do not support removing fish from the water to take photos prior to release. We have written about this and posted on social media and presented this opinion in our ROFFS™ Fishy Times as well.

Not incidentally I have a slide that I use during my presentations that indicates that we strongly urge people to tag and release, leave them for tomorrow, and take only what you can eat fresh. We have been members and supporters of the IGFA, Billfish Foundation and Tarpon and the Bonefish Foundation for a very long time. I am an active member of the Grey Taxidermy Tagging Research Team that is involved in tagging fish around the world. We also include information about these efforts as well in social media including the ROFFS™ Fishy Times.

Regards,

Mitchell A. Roffer (Ph.D.), President
Roffer’s Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service, Inc.

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Above: Great fishing action for ROFFS™ Client Jaryd Hurst (Rum Runners Revenge), out of Saint Augustine, FL.