Barracuda anyone?

[Gael]

Well, I’m Fort Dauphin, Madagascar, on business for the last while and will be here for another month or two.

I see the locals catching allot of barracuda here on hand line just off shore, some monster size fish, biggest I’ve seen come out must have been close to 5.5 - 6 ft in length.

Any suggestions as to targeting these fish off shore off one of the local’s dugout canoes?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

G

[MaXiMuM]

Get a beeg fly, and thow it at them...

[Wade]

Get a beeg fly, and thow it at them...

Helps if it is blueish, and did someone mention - Big

[MaXiMuM]

If it ain’t Chartreuse, it ain’t no use…

[Scythe]

5' barracuda ?



My suggestion in addition to Mike's would be ... steel trace.

The little 30cm PickHandles at Kosi nip though 30lb shock tippet like it's nobody's business.

Lucky man, hope you get some fish.

[Lardbeast]

They'll grab anything shiny that flashes and acts like a baitfish.

[Scythe]

Don't be scared to double handed strip the hell out of it either, they're very fast.

Its awesome watching them appear from nowhere to chase your fly for a good 10M - 15M and then pounce on it.

[Jasper]

BIG, shiny and a short braided wire bite trace ... barracuda are generally dumb ... give an initial good hard run ... but then often more or less give up.

(you talking genuine barracuda with the long "dog" teeth, or Spanish Mackerel?)

[Nepptune]

Guys, don't underestimate the intelligence of a big Cuda.... they don't get to 6ft long by being doff....
One of a Barracudas prime food sources are garfish and needlefish.... most Barracuda flies are long... like 20 cm plus in length and tied loooooooong and skinny.... stick at least 10 cm of wire in front of it.... and Strip FAST!!!

Make sure you give the cuda a good lead cause in that clean water, they have the BEST eyesight of fish on the flats.....

And mind the teeth on unhooking!!

[Gael]

Neps, thanks for the info. It’s not flats that we’d be fishing, it’s probably about 1km off shore, I have a leadcore line that I hope will be sufficient.

I will see if I can get a photo of a good sized fish tomorrow when the locals come in. The locals carry a pole over their shoulders which they hang their catch off by the tail, the big one I saw last week they had to cut off the head and a little more to stop it scraping on the ground as the walked. The average size I would say is about 3ft.

They also occasionally pull out some GT’s and sailies, all on hand lines (wonder if they need a skin graft on their hands after that)

There are a couple of shad around but I can’t seem to get to the better sized fish with the fly tackle, one of my work mates caught a beauty of 4kg on regulation tackle last weekend.

Don’t think I will get a chance to go fishing tomorrow (work 6 days a week here, only sundays off), we’ve got a cyclone passing north of us and I think the weather is going to go for a ball of ………