Our tactics would have worked and I would have been proud to tell you we caught a boatload of fish, but alas, we did not do very well. Brian caught a nice false albacore, and we had a whole school of peanut dolphin around the boat at one point. But we could muster only that albacore. The dolphin were not interested in anything we tried to feed them, and as quickly as they appeared, they vanished.
Brewing storms and an afternoon appointment had us heading in earlier than normal, but we did witness what we always do while fighting a fish this time of year. As Brian brought the albacore close to the boat, several large barracuda were flashing by, zipping past the hooked fish. Surprisingly, they did not get the fish and we were able to boat it as we watched these five-foot logs roaming under the boat. I would not be telling you about this, except for the fishing report we got the next day.
As reported by Jacksonville’s Channel 4 News, another angler was fishing some nine miles off St Augustine yesterday. He hooked and fought a barracuda and bought him to the side of the boat. As he leaned over to grab the fish behind the gills, another cuda, apparently after the bait in the hooked cuda’s mouth, came out of the water and impaled itself into the angler's side. The mouth of the fish had to be pried open, and the angler had to be life flighted to the hospital. Luckily he is fine today after a few stiches.
I have had numerous close calls with cudas over the years, both while fishing and while diving. They are unpredictable and when they get turned on to a feeding frenzy, anything can and usually does happen. My closest call came when a hooked cuda in the forty-pound range turned and charged the boat broadside. When it got close to the boat, it came out of the water straight at me, missed my head by about an inch (its tail flapped my cheek) and sailed over the boat and back into the water on the other side. It all happened in a flash, and only after we brought the fish boat side and released it did my heart start pounding. It was truly a close call.
All in all it had been a wet, sloppy summer where we had to really be innovative to find fish. We weren't always successful, but by changing our tactics and modifying our approach we still managed to bring a few back for supper.
