Those dog days of summer are just about upon us. Those days when there is an ever so slight southwest wind, the air is hot, the water is hot, and there is no relief in site. You cruse offshore with your you 30, 50 or possibly even 80 pound trolling gear in hopes of finding some Dolphin, Wahoo, or possibly even a Billfish. You commence to trolling when that outrigger clip pops. Fish on! You set the hook, but immediately you are disappointed. If you are lucky it pulls off 25 yards of line from the heavy tackle and puts up a 2 second fight. Then it just comes to the surface and you see how many skips you can get out of him bringing him to the boat. How disappointing! Just another doggone Barracuda! You release the fish after having a few choice words with him! The truth of the matter is you may go through this scenario a dozen times in one morning, when fishing offshore in Charleston from mid-June to mid-September. The Barracuda love the hot weather and can be quite a menace when you are trying to keep lines in the water and catch a real fish.
Let?s say you want to go out and target an extremely fast fish, a fish that is capable of running off a hundred yards of line in a blink of an eye, a fish that almost always leaves the water before pounding a bait, and then continues to torpedo out of the water throughout the fight, sometimes rocketing up to six feet in the air shaking it?s head and gnashing it?s teeth the entire time. Well if this interests you, then believe it or not that same pesky Barracuda is the fish for you.
I was one of those offshore fishermen thinking, “great another Barracuda”. One day we were out at 4KI trying to catch some Spadefish. This guy pulled up and began casting a tube lure at the buoy. I remember thinking why does he want to catch one of those snaggle-toothed critters. About that time I heard his drag scream and a Barracuda came flying out of the water with the lure clenched between his teeth. That one fish jumped at least 6 times and I was reaching in the tackle box for a tube lu