Toothy Fish
Barracuda! Just the name brings excitement and a bit of apprehension to novice anglers. Visions of vicious looking teeth and stories of terrible attacks are grossly exaggerated. While cudas have made some attacks on people, they are few and far between. The mouth full of teeth is a very real thing, but as long as you are careful handling them, these fish can be fun to catch and actually good to eat.I grew up in Key West, and one fish we could always count on catching was the barracuda. We would troll the shallow grassy areas around the mangrove islands and catch the smaller ones – those fish between one and ten pounds. The filets were nice white meat and they fried up just fine. When you could not get out to find other fish because of the weather, you could always stay in protected water and find willing cudas.
Barracuda Tackle
We trolled back then with boat rods. A Penn 65 or 209 or even a 4/0 reel on a six or seven foot boat rod held braided 40 or 50 pound Dacron line. A six foot wire leader had a double set of 7/0 hooks, and the bait on those hooks was a thin strip of mullet fillet. We literally bought one mullet at the bait shop at a cost of about a quarter. Theta mullet gave us four baits, two from each side of the fish. From that point, we used the smaller cudas to resupply us with strips of bait.Today, you can do the same thing with the same tackle, or you can use spinning rods and reels. There is really no need to use gear any bigger than 20 pound, but a wire leader is still a must. The sharp teeth will cut monofilament leaders very quickly.
To Eat or Not to Eat
Barracuda do have the ability to carry a serious disease. Ciguatera is a foodborne illness sometimes found in the larger fish. It’s a disease brought about by the food chain on the reefs. Small fish eat algae, coral and seaweed containing dinoflagellates. These small fish are in turn eaten by larger fish, and these fish by even larger fish. The dinoflagellates survive and thrive in these fish, and while they do not affect their host fish, they will cause problems to humans who eat the infested fish.All reef fish, including grouper, snapper, parrot fish, triggerfish, and amberjack can be infested. The larger the fish, the more likely it is that they have eaten a smaller infested fish.
I cannot tell you that barracudas are safe to eat. But, I can tell you that we ate the smaller ones for a lot of years with no problems. You must decide for yourself. If you are unsure, don’t eat them!
Where to Fish
Any and all of the mangrove islands that make up much of the Florida Keys have grassy shallow water around them. Turtle grass is abundant, and the water from three to as much as six or seven feet deep with turtle grass will be holding barracudas.These aren’t the huge fish, they are the smaller, younger fish that have not made it out to the reef. That was always our reason for thinking they were safe to eat. If they have not made it to the reef, they could not have eaten an infested fish. At least that was what we thought.
Troll strip baits as I described or spoons at a fairly fast clip over the grass. And look for the shallow grass that borders deeper water or a channel. It should be holding the most fish.
