# Barracuda



## Blue Zone (Oct 22, 2011)

WTF? Who actually targets and eats barracuda as a prime carrier of ciguatera? There must be some other issue contributing to the decline.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says the new limits will apply off Monroe, Miami-Dade, Collier, Broward, Palm Beach and Martin counties starting New Year’s Day.

Barracuda less than 15 inches must be thrown back and only one barracuda longer than 36 inches can be harvested per day per vessel or person, whichever is less. The commission says the reason for the limit is that the number of barracuda off the Florida coast is decreasing. Younger fish are the most vulnerable while the bigger fish are responsible for most breeding.


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## krash (Jan 9, 2007)

I certainly don't, although in the past, the early 80's, we used to once in a while hit the mangrove shorelines of Florida Bay and catch up a batch of cuda's between 18" and 22", filet them up fresh and bb'q them for a afternoon of drinking and eating. They are actually a nice white meat, better than Trout.

But just this morning I did see a photo of one of the locals with a catch as recent as yesterday. Some people just keep everything.









I personally dont; see any shortage of cuda's in S. B-Bay...


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## topnative2 (Feb 22, 2009)

Cuda gets sold everyday in Florida restaurants...it is the whatever u want it to be fish..............


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

I actually knew fish markets that bought and sold small barracuda as "silver snapper". Any 'cuda under five pounds is not likely to have a trace of ciguatera and they're quite good to eat. I'm glad to see the new limits since 'cudas are just getting hammered day in and day out down here (the bigger ones are touted as "trophies" and they're also great cutbait (or chum) for lots of different species on the east coast of the state. I can remember when there weren't any 'cudas being targeted for commercial sales and we had a whole lot more of them around. The protections are long overdue...


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## Backwater (Dec 14, 2014)

We use to eat small cudas once in a blue moon during bug season, back in the day. I love catching big cudas, but throw everyone back I catch. Today, if I'm in a cuda area, I throw them all back. Funny tho, you see people keeping anything and everything they catch and don't care about laws. With the population exploding, it's getting worse and worse. I welcome regulations, but there should be some sort of competency test for people getting fishing licenses, where they read and know the regulations and know there will be stiff penalties for breaking them, INCLUDING throwing their trash out on the ground or out in the water! It's getting freaking ridiculous!!!


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

Any time our species is compared to monkeys... the monkeys ought to feel insulted..... Where I am all of the advisory and regulatory signs (as well as any instructional stuff...) needs to be in several languages (other than English....)

And so it goes... Vonnegut


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## bananabob (Jun 3, 2015)

I agree with both Bob and Backwater on this. I know some states do have a test before issuing a hunting license. I think it would be excellent idea for Florida both hunting and fishing...but not likely to happen unfortunately.


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## krash (Jan 9, 2007)

Testing is ok but a stretch at solving the problem... but I find the people that abuse the reuls/regs/laws the worst have no license to start with, then there is the so called subsistence fisher-people that never get ticketed anyhow.

No one, that I have read, can really say why they believe the Baracuda for example are disappearing.. and look at what they did to the recreational Red-Snapper fishery.


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## Blue Zone (Oct 22, 2011)

lemaymiami said:


> I actually knew fish markets that bought and sold small barracuda as "silver snapper". Any 'cuda under five pounds is not likely to have a trace of ciguatera and they're quite good to eat. I'm glad to see the new limits since 'cudas are just getting hammered day in and day out down here (the bigger ones are touted as "trophies" and they're also great cutbait (or chum) for lots of different species on the east coast of the state. I can remember when there weren't any 'cudas being targeted for commercial sales and we had a whole lot more of them around. The protections are long overdue...


Bahamians have a ciguatera detection system-flies. If flies land on the 'cudas, they're on the menu.


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## hunter4626 (Aug 7, 2016)

Blue Zone said:


> Bahamians have a ciguatera detection system-flies. If flies land on the 'cudas, they're on the menu.


There is now a large Haitian population in south Florida.Barracuda has always been on the menu in that impoverished island.We have been approached many times by people who wanted to buy barracudas,and were also asked to purposely to fish for them-maybe they're a delicacy in their diet


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## SomaliPirate (Feb 5, 2016)

As a kid, we lived in PR. My dad would occasionally keep a few mid sized cudas and trade them to some locals for boat detailing. They absolutely loved the cudas for some reason.


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## jupiter934 (Jan 6, 2013)

Barracuda (big and small) is readily eaten all over the Caribbean and as stated above the smaller fish are pretty safe to eat. I have tried them knowingly and I am sure unknowly, good fried up, and never got sick. I do not take the chance often because of the availability of better/safer table fair most of the time. I run ocean towing tugboats for a living and we usually troll everywhere we go for fresh fish. When in the islands, central, or South America I will keep a Cuda or two to trade for goods, services, or just to be friendly with locals and have never ever been turned down on my offers.
One thing I have seen and bothers me is people catching or spearing Cuda's for a pictures or simply because they were being "bothered" by one. They have just as much right to the ocean as you do and if your not going to eat them let them go!


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## lemaymiami (Feb 9, 2007)

So that younger anglers will have a point of comparison... Years ago all you needed to do to tangle with a really big 'cuda was bring a tube lure to almost any fishing pier. Toss it as far away from the pier as you could then race it back to draw strikes from 30 to 40lb (and occaisonally larger specimens). Landing one of those big logs was always problematic but do-able...

Nowadays I'm betting that you'd be hard pressed to find big 'cudas that easy to catch anywhere... Once fish markets and other un-regulated (understatement) operations began targeting the fish it was all down hill from there. I held a commercial ticket in the late eighties and back then every 7-11 type store kept a cooler full of fish behind the counter to sell to anyone interested (this was also back when fish traps were going strong everywhere). I've personally seen a very dramatic decline in the 'cuda population over the years. Once again - the FWC is right on the money but should have acted sooner in my opinion....


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## duppyzafari (Jul 9, 2015)

I used to live in the Cayman Islands and cuda was not just widely consumed, but the absolute favorite fish of many of the people I know there. Take the filets then use the carcass for Run Down or Fish Tea.

Ants were the only CIG- test I remember - put a slice of meat by the ant hill, if there aren't dead ants everywhere an hour later, you're good to go.

Permit were another favorite food, which was obviously distressing to my gentle-hearted conservationist fly fisherman sensibilities. It's very difficult to SLAM in Cayman because the permit population is so thin and the fish themselves usually very small. Still possible, just rare.


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## topnative2 (Feb 22, 2009)

Barracuda less than 15 inches must be thrown back and only one barracuda longer than 36 inches can be harvested per day per vessel or person, whichever is less.


The above does not make sense to me.One per vessel will always be less than per person or am I missing something?[/QUOTE]


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## mingo gringo (Dec 1, 2015)

One of the issues as stated above is the people that are going out catching all the cudas don't have a license,and could care less and still keep anything and everything they catch. I bet they don't ever read any regulations and probably don't even have a clue about the new laws regarding barracuda. I barely even see fwc as it is and there are to many poachers for them to make a dent. Instead they are lazy and sit at the ramp harassing the sandbar crowd when they get back. They don't want to deal with it. You can go to any of the canals that drain in to south Biscayne bay(military,moody,and mowry) and the amount of illegals filling there bucket with anything including under size redfish,snapper and cuda is overwhelming. No Biscayne park service rangers or fwc,and that's just scratching the surface.


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