While fishing for bone fish last year in mexico my spin fishing pals hooked a couple nice barracudas. Since we are going back this spring I got to thinking about what fun they would be on a fly rod. We go to an area that doesn’t have any fly shops at all and being in Kansas you could put erery thing I know about salt water in my eye and I wouldn’t blink!! So that bring up these questions.
What flys would you suggest for barracuda and were can I get info on the web for tying them?
Do I need to use a steel leader and if so can I tie one on like the spin casters use?
Just braid some Fishair into a needlefish pattern & the cuda will tear it to shreds, so tie a bunch of them ! Take a hook & tie on some thread that will match one of the Fishair colors & tie in 3 strands ( maybe about a dozen fibers for each strand color )from the hook eye back about a dozen wraps, then whip finish the head. Just braid ( like a girl braids their hair )one color over the other color over the other color 8) until there’s about a half inch left & whip finish all 3 strands together. Wire leaders are recommended if cuda are the targeted species.
Although those long needlefish type flies are often recommended for barracuda, I have done pretty well with just a Lefty’s Deceiver. I don’t like fishing wire leaders, but for 'cuda they are pretty much a necessity. You will lose probably 75% of them if you don’t use a wire leader.
The prop fly looks pretty cool. Hmmmmm aybe night fishing for stripers up here…
I’ve had some luck with a Barracuda fly friend and Florida fisherman Allan Finkleman showed me. I don’t know who invented this, but I name this version after him.
It’s really simple, just a hook, Sevenstrand wire and mylar tubing. I don’t have a digital camera but here are the instructions as best as I can describe them:
The Royal Finkleman (a Barracuda Fly)
Hook: Short Shank Saltwater size 1 or 2 (Eagle Claw 254 SS or similar). Barb crushed, hook point sharpened.
Body: Thin Pearlescent Green Mylar tubing over Sevenstrand wire leader material.
Mid Section: Several turns of red floss (1/4 inch worth) over the mylar and wire body. This step is optional unless you want it to be “royal”.
Thread: White, black, or green.
Cement: CA glue and Zap A Gap and 5 min epoxy
Other item needed: large nail
Hook in vise.
Cut a 12 " length of Sevenstrand wire.
Haywire twist one end of the Sevenstrand wire to the hook. Bend the excess wire by rocking it back and forth until it breaks cleanly. (Don’t cut the wire, it will leave a sharp nub.)
Take the nail and go up about the wire about 6 " from the hook eye. Wrap the wire around the nail 2x to form a double loop of wire. This is going to be the “eye” where you’ll attach your leader.
Haywire twist the wire back on itself, while being careful not to distort the “eye” you’ve just made. Bend off the excess wire tag to break it cleanly as you did in step 3.
Take a length of mylar tubing about 8 " long and fray the last 2".
Slip the mylar tubing through the wire and over the hook, frayed end first, so that the frayed part extends beyond the hook bend.
Tie on your thread at the hook bend to bind down the mylar where the tube part of the mylar tubing starts. Take a dozen turns or so to bind the tubing down, and keeping the thread taut, coat the thread wraps with CA glue. Still keeping the thread taut, spritz the glue with Zap A Gap. This should set the glue immediately, making it unnecessary to whip finish or tie off in the conventional way. Clip thread.
At the other end of this contraption near the “eye” you made in the wire in Step 4, tie on your thread and wrap the thread around the mylar to secure the mylar to the wire just behind the “eye”. You should be able to whip finish this end in the conventional way. Coat with the CA and give it a spritz with Zap A Gap.
(Optional) At this point for smiles and good luck, I take a couple of turns of red floss around the middle of the “body” of mylar tubing and wire for the “Royal” Finkleman.
After I’ve tied up a few of these, I mix up a small amount of 5 Minute Epoxy and apply a small amount with a tooth pick to each of the areas i’ve thread wrapped and the floss if used.
That’s it. It doesn’t look like much, but it does catch barracuda. The advantage of the fly is that the hook is near the end, so it tends to hook short strikers, and because the leader is built into the “fly” it doesn’t have as many hinging problems.
It’s not the most beautiful thing to cast, so wear a hat and remember to crush the barb…
Here in Hawaii, a 1 to 2 pounder is about average. Yes, you will loose lots of fish if you don’t use wire leader. The nice thing is they will hit almost any fly. I especially like to use popping bugs. Good fun.
When I was fishing with a local guide outside of San Blas (between Mazatlan & Purto Valarta) the guide made flies out of old yellow braded nylon anchor line. The more sun dried and bleaced out the strands of yellow line, the better the fly seemed to work. We caught lots of Sierra (Mackeral) Bonita and Jack Cravelle. Where we were, all Barracuda fishing was done at night. By the end of the day and a couple of cervasa’s I never made it out after dark. We used a Panga and would fill the boat up. The local natives ate everything we brought in. It was part of the deal with the guide. The hooks were size 1/0. I sure I won’t have to tell you the teeth on the C:uda will require a heavy leader. They used the same fly for everything, including the Barracuda.
Catching up on my FAOL and came across this. I thought for some reason you weren’t supposed to eat barracuda? Something about the accumulation of toxins from the reef fish they eat?
Eating barracuda is not usually recommended because of the possibility of ciguatera poisoning (which is caused by the bio-accumulation of toxins in many reef predators) that being said many locals in the Caribbean do regularly eat cuda’s. I think a lot of it depends on where the fish live. It is suggested that you avoid cuda’s caught from reef areas and stick to smaller ones.
I don’t know if the locals know this or care 'cause I’ve seen a lot a big reef cuda’s sitting in the markets.
The smaller ‘cuda’ don’t seem to be a problem, but the big ones do have the toxin - and our guide, as he explained all that to us, cut a gill and kept the fish in the water as it bled out…which he said would take care of the problem.
Bleading the cuda won’t get rid of the toxin… The University of Hawaii developed a test kit for Ciguatera and it’s available in stores and on line.
In Ponapi they don’t eat barricuda because they thing the other fish will smell their eaten cousin on the fisherman and attack him. Barricuda fishing there is really good.
Here in Hawaii they eat it regularly. Mostly small ones (they eat anything and everything here) LOL