"Ooooh Barracuda" July 2010

[Shane Procell]

I was trolling the Oleta River and Haulover Inlet area today. I was using a Rapala Husky Jerk and Rapala X-Raps on 10# P-Line w/30# leader. Hooked up on several cuda and ladyfish before I got blownup on this Barracuda. The fight was on for over 35 minutes. It was the best fight I have had in over two years. A nice lady on a stand up surfboard came over and took the picture for me.

[SoFlaBassAddict]

Great fish, Shane.  Heck of a Cuda.  For such a pain in the butt fish, they sure put up an awesome fight.

[endless]

Man that is crazy. Nice pic and fish. The pic could be use as a personal post card.

[SirSnookalot]

Great fish, really nice fish ! and lucky to land him without steel, they give an outstanding fish, we get 40-50", one of the guys had 53" last week.

Pain in the butt fish?  There are a small group of us that fish target cuda.  Gotta tell ya the people line up to take these fish, they are absolutely delicious with flaky white meat, small 30" is best, but the people around here know how to cook, disease comes from the reef, the fish picks it up thru the food chain.  You can just easily get a bad piece of snapper in a restaurant.

Cuda are best caught incoming tide minutes before tide change, they like clean calm warm water.  We use cuda tubes which we make our selves, they resemble eels in the water, snook, tarpon and kingfish will hit these lures as well, they are fish magnets.  Conditions are perfect this morning for them.

This is why I'm a primary saltwater fisherman

[SoFlaBassAddict]

I understand that they can be very good to eat. I've had it before in some of the small villages in the Bahamas. It's more of a pain in the butt in the fact that when I'm targeting other species, you either get broken off or your quarry gets chewed in half. Trust me, I don't mind the fight at all. But if I'm fishing for grouper, snapper, dolphin, etc et I'd rather catch them then deal with a big ole toothy critter that I don't intend on eating.

Gotta love the cuda tubes though.  I've still got a few sitting in my box for those days when you just want something to tug on the other end of the line.  Great lure.

[SirSnookalot]

Good point about being cut off, not uncommon at all.  I caught 3 this morning which is off the charts for catching them.  Most times they just follow the tube then veer off or hit the tube and miss the hook.  Fishing from shore or pier it's snook and tarpon on the outgoing and cuda on the incoming.

The tube in my picture ( I lost it yesterday, cuda bit thru 60# wire) we make ourselves using a limerick hook 12/0, the man that created this style intended it for stripers in Maryland, no longer makes them.  Most over the counter tubes are made with 2 or 3 trebles, I make them that weigh too, they basically float on top with a little wiggle action, just as effective.  Big difference is the quality of surgical tube used, store bought don't last and ours do.

That's a beautiful photo of a very nice fish.