The barracuda is a fish that every fishermen has surely heard to speak of. It can be caught around the world in tropical and sub-tropical seas. 

Immediately my Guinean fishing guide turns quickly the small boat to the right side and tells me that 150 meters far, near a group of sandy islands, he has seen a school of mullets frenetically jumping out of the water. Some big predators are attacking these small fishes. We immediately move to that frenzy activity and we arrive in few minutes in shallow waters at about 20 meters from the crazy jumping of mullets. I quickly bring my light spinning outfit and I cast my Rapala in the middle of the activity; my guide, fascinated by this spectacle, brings my other heavy rod armed with a big surface popper, normally used for big jack crevalle, and he also starts casting.

At my first cast after a dozen of meters spooling my reel I have a feeble strike and I see a small barracuda jumping and freeing itself in a second from the treble hooks of my lure.

A minute later is the time of my guide that has a powerful but short strike; a nice size barracuda is on the line. About ten minutes of fighting and a 6 kilograms barracuda is near the boat ready to be released. For this catch we have lost the contact with the feeding frenzy that has moved at about 50 meters from our boat. The guide immediately starts the engine and in a couple of minute I am ready to cast once again my lure. My Rapala falls down just in the middle of the school of jumping mullets and after few seconds I have a long and quickly strike. A big barracuda has attacked my lure. The adrenaline is on the maximum and my 8 lb line keep on going out from my reel; to help me the guide stops fishing and moves the boat back to the big fish. Now the barracuda strangely changes direction and a moment later makes a series of jumps similar to a sailfish.

After about 20 minutes the big barracuda, estimated by the guide about 15 kilograms, is near the boat, but with a new run it brings me more than 30 meters of line. I needed more than 10 minutes to approach this fish near the boat where with a perfect movement my guide gaffs this toothy fish.

The barracuda is rarely targeted by fishermen but I can assure you that on light line it is a hard funny fighter.

In the world exist more than twenty species of barracuda and the most caught are: the barracuda blackfin that can reach the 6,8 kilogram, the barracuda pacific that can arrive at only 2,8 kilogram, the barracuda mexican and the barracuda pickhandle that arrive around 7/8 kilograms. But surely the most know, the most fished and the biggest of all species of barracuda is the great barracuda (Sphyranea Barracuda) that can easily reaches the 30-35 kilograms. The actual record was set in Republic of Kiribati with a fish weighing 38,55 kilograms.

This fish is important in tropical sport fisheries all around the world and are sought with great enthusiasm for their fast surface run and occasional jump.

Juvenile barracudas are often found cruising the edge of the reef of drop-off in huge schools. Larger specimens tend to be loners and hunt during the night as well as the day. Large individuals can give a good account for themselves when captured on fairly light tackle (4-12 lb) but those taken on heavy-duty equipment tend to give up quickly and can seldom be considered a worthy opponent.

Barracuda enjoy warm, clean, blue water but will often tolerate imperfect conditions when hunting. Large specimens will enter estuaries and shallow inshore areas, generally at night, to search for prey. They will eat virtually anything from small squid and prawns to juvenile tuna, they are also cannibalistic. School barracuda live almost exclusively on small reef fish but they are bold enough to attack prey larger than themselves when hunger demands.

Barracuda prefers tropical and sub-tropical seas with a temperature range between 21° and 30 °C; the major sportfishing areas are: Florida Keys, Bahamas, Cuba, all west African cost (in particularly Guinea Bissau, Gabon and Ghana), Australia, Tahiti, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, Kenya, Tanzania.

Commercial hand-line fishermen regularly take specimens well over the existing world record. The commercial value of barracuda is low in most countries but because of their revenues appetite, they are easy to catch and vast hauls are often taken during a night a reef.

Opinion on the eating quality of barracuda varies considerably; large specimens are rarely eaten in the Caribbean because of the presence of "Ciguatera" poison. The barracuda leads a list of over 300 tropical marine fishes suspected of causing ciguatera, a nerve poison, when eaten.

Ciguatera is found in most small reef fish and as these are the main diet of barracuda, a serious, if not lethal, does of the poison can be found in large individuals. Dr. Takeshi Yasumoto, in 1977 report from the World Health Organization claims that the poison is caused by a microscopic plant eaten by smaller fishes and passed on in the food chain. There is no simple way to determinate whether or not a barracuda is toxic; smaller specimens do not generally carry a dangerous amount and are occasionally eaten.

The "snagged-tooth" appearance of the barracuda is responsible for the reputation it has gained for being a vicious "men-eater". This of course is far from true but there are indeed, a few well documented accounts of large barracudas attacking swimmers and divers. The most common explanation for these attack is that barracuda is attracted to shiny objects such as medallions, watches or other adornments worn by swimmers. The barracuda sees the flashing jewelry and instinctive attack is triggered.

Many legends support the belief that barracuda live for many years and stay in the same locality. One interesting story comes from Hawaiian island of Maui, where the Hawaiians in some villages released the barracuda they caught and threw a few mackerel into the water as food for barracuda. Gradually as the fish apparently became conditioned to associating the outrigger canoes, nets and mackerel schools and therefore the Hawaiians with food, they rounded up the mackerel schools under the canoes ready with net. The net was then lifted and some mackerel were thrown to the fish that made the mackerel take possible.

TACKLE AND EQUIPMENT

Virtually every known method of sportfishing has resulted in a barracuda capture. Perhaps the most productive method is slow trolling Rapala lures just over reef, or drop-off or live or dead bait fishing. Popper or minnow casting and even fly fishing will often tempt a hungry barracuda.

Anglers wishing to target barracuda should scale down on their tackle and try for medium-size specimens on very light tackle. Successful anglers could be treated to a spectacular aerial display and a sporty battle.

For trolling a stand up rod of 8, 12 or 16 lb with a relative reels and line are the choice more used. Also for this technique it is convenient to take a huge selection of floating and sinking Rapalas in the size 14 and 18, but above all 22. In some waters the speech "big lure, big fish" works always very well and the biggest barracuda are often fishes with big size lures. The better colors are the mullet (MU) or other clear colours like the Constant Guigo (CG), the brown-black-white (OS), the silver-black (S), the red head (RH), the yellow-green-black (FT), the mackerel (SM).

For spin fishing you can use a common pike rod with a reel that can at least contain 200 meters of 8-12 lb, instead of the lovers of light spin fishing can choose a common trout rod with a reel spooled with at least 250 meters of 6 lb nylon.

With light line it is better to use minnows and jigs of 5 and 7 centimeters that will give you long and funny fighting with small size fishes. Williamson and Yo Zuri surface poppers of 7, 9, 13 centimeters work very well for big barracuda. It is really enrapturing to see the fish frenetically runs after the lure and than do it disappear in a sprinkling of water; few seconds and your reel starts to give line in an impressive way. Other good lures are the Yo Zuri Cristal minnows, the classic Rapala CD Mag of 9 and 11 centimeters and silver spoons of the same sizes.

For this kind of fishing is compulsory to use 60 or 90 steel leader before the lure in fact you can expect to hook toothy fishes over 10 kilograms of weight that can easily shallow your lure.

In Florida and Caribbean waters, surgical rubber tubes rigged with one or two hooks are most successful lures cast over the flats.

The cast should not land too near the barracuda, but should be retrieved past it a fast, erratic speed.

As with other game fish, results in the deliberate fishing for barracuda can be improved by keeping a hooked fish in the water while others are sought by casting of jigging.

For fishing with live or dead bait on anchored boat, you can utilize the same rods used for trolling or spin fishing and you can choose lighter line such as 2, 4 or 6 lb. As gear occurs: hooks from 4/0 to 10/0, 90 lb steel leader, sinkers from 20 to 50 grams, floats of 15, 20, 30 grams.

The toothy hardware of the barracuda is something be remembered and respected when a specimen is brought on board a boat. If you intend to release the fish, take great care when removing the hook. When barracuda are taken on Rapalas even more care should be applied as gaffs, flying triples and razor sharp teeth make for a dangerous combination on the cockpit. It is better to use a very sharp gaff and hook the fish just under the lower jaw. This will not harm the fish if you intend to release it. Fairly long-handled pliers should be used to remove hooks.

As regard to fly fishing, you need a 8’ or 9’ rod with a reel that can contain a 10# floating tip and 200 meters of 30 lb backing. Leaders of 20, 30 lb are the most used as well as flies from N° 4 to big poppers on 6/0 hooks. For the colors of the flies fluorescent green or pink is often the most productive lure combination, but also white, silver and other shiny colors are generally effective. Orange and red or yellow and lime green work well.

I have had some very spectacular days of fishing with fly fishing technique some years ago during a travel at Acumal in Mexico. This trip wasn’t properly a whole and full-time fishing holiday but I have had the time to spent some hours almost every afternoon trying to catch tropical fishes with this kind system.

In particular, I remember a day in which after a couple of hours any fish was caught on our boat. Also in this occasion our fishing day was solved thank to the help and the knowledge of our guide. He decided to move the boat toward deep waters because on that shallow sandy bottom there wasn’t any kind of fishing activity. After about 20 minutes we arrived in blue water and the fish-finder found a big submarine mountain that rises from 80 to 16 meters. So he decided to stop and anchor the boat. We started to cast our flies and immediately we loved that place; a double strike with fly rod was from my friend and me. It was an unique and unforgettable experience. Two barracuda of medium size were hooked, caught and than released.

After some minutes of casting with no success my friend has an incredible hook-up and in few seconds the fish brings him more than 150 meters of line. All of we immediately think that may be a medium size tuna, fish that normally has this kind of reaction when hooked. He needs more than 40 minutes to bring the fish at 15 meters from the boat, and suddenly the water explode and a giant barracuda jumps out of the water breaking the 20 lb leader. I have no idea of the weight of that fish but also our guide told us that he had never seen a so huge barracuda and he thought that it was surely more than30 kilograms.

That spot was plenty of any sort of predators and we ended that memorable afternoon with dozen of barracudas from 3 to 12 kilograms and two small jack crevalles and three mutton snappers of about 5 kilograms of weight. The funny thing is that for most of the fishes caught we have used two common trout rods that have given us plenty of funny and satisfaction but at the end of the day were a little be weakened by that long and exhausting fighting.

Like them or hate them, they should be respected. Barracuda play a valuable role in maintaining the ecological balance of a reef. They will hunt a scavenge and target weak or sickly prey. They often provide novice or junior angler with their first gamefish and they offer sport an fly or ultra light.