BajaNomad

Those lovely Barracuda!

Pompano - 4-7-2015 at 02:57 PM

Ah, those Baja barracuda! Just read about them in a question about BOLA and didn't want to do a hijack.

You love them or you hate them. Always slimy, I handle them with either a glove or a rag. They do make ideal cut bait and if I have to eat them, smoking is the best for me. My Coyote neighbor, Tap, did a great smoke on them so it was easy for me to enjoy them by bringing over some cold ones.

These small barracuda have cousins in our Up North lakes...small northern pike that we sarcastically call 'hammer handles'. They certainly remind me of our little Baja 'cuda. They are slimy, have the same mouthful of sharp teeth...and will try to 'kiss' you when you are just trying to let them go safely without losing any of your blood.

Here's a common toothy 'hammer handle' from a lake Up North.This particular one is Lac la Ronge in northeastern Saskatchewan.

Co-pilot is saying..."Put down the camera and release this, please. I don't want to touch it and I don't like the looks of those teeth."



Indeed, we've caught them while beach camping at BOLA and many other places along the SOC, but never took any photos. Here's a couple of captured vidioed photos taken next to an island in front my house in Coyote Bay, Bay of Conception..where we 'used' to catch them all too frequently, using a tiny spoon or jig on ultralite spinning gear. Like triggerfish back in the day, you had a hard time keeping these aggressive feeders off the hook.
I am being very careful of it's teeth....




....while releasing this small barracuda back into the Bay. Video courtesy of a nervous Co-pilot.... who never helped in touching or releasing the fish.

Adios toothy one!



bajabuddha - 4-7-2015 at 03:04 PM

That's the third purpose of hemostats.... ;)

Bob53 - 4-7-2015 at 03:07 PM

They make very good mako shark bait.

How about needle fish?

AKgringo - 4-7-2015 at 03:48 PM

When I was on a family vacation in Manzanillo in 1959 (12 years old) I caught what we called a needle fish that was about four feet long. That is about the size they need to be to get usable steaks out of one of those barracuda wannabes.
Unlike the dark, oily flesh of a barracuda, the needle fish has an excellent firm white flesh that was great on the grill. As an added bonus, every bone it it's body is an easy to spot blue/green color.
I have never seen a large on like that in Baja, do they get that big there, or was that just a long ago thing?

willardguy - 4-7-2015 at 03:50 PM

Quote: Originally posted by AKgringo  
When I was on a family vacation in Manzanillo in 1959 (12 years old) I caught what we called a needle fish that was about four feet long. That is about the size they need to be to get usable steaks out of one of those barracuda wannabes.
Unlike the dark, oily flesh of a barracuda, the needle fish has an excellent firm white flesh that was great on the grill. As an added bonus, every bone it it's body is an easy to spot blue/green color.
I have never seen a large on like that in Baja, do they get that big there, or was that just a long ago thing?


dark oily flesh??? what barracuda have you been eating?

AKgringo - 4-7-2015 at 04:14 PM

Quote: Originally posted by willardguy  
Quote: Originally posted by AKgringo  
When I was on a family vacation in Manzanillo in 1959 (12 years old) I caught what we called a needle fish that was about four feet long. That is about the size they need to be to get usable steaks out of one of those barracuda wannabes.
Unlike the dark, oily flesh of a barracuda, the needle fish has an excellent firm white flesh that was great on the grill. As an added bonus, every bone it it's body is an easy to spot blue/green color.
I have never seen a large on like that in Baja, do they get that big there, or was that just a long ago thing?


dark oily flesh??? what barracuda have you been eating?



Didn't eat it, I plug cut it and rigged it to spin behind a flasher like I was trolling for salmon in AK. It looked dark to me, and left a sheen like an oil slick when I put it in the water.
Maybe it wasn't a barracuda, but it looked like one to me. Are they good eating?

willardguy - 4-7-2015 at 04:23 PM

I can't speak for these little SOC speeders but their cousins on the other side are delicious with firm white meat. I think they just get a bad rap for their slime, the stuff that turns em into hotrods :coolup:

Bob53 - 4-7-2015 at 04:24 PM

I've caught those big needle fish down in Zihuatanejo. We just threw them back.

Pompano - 4-7-2015 at 04:27 PM

Quote: Originally posted by AKgringo  
When I was on a family vacation in Manzanillo in 1959 (12 years old) I caught what we called a needle fish that was about four feet long. That is about the size they need to be to get usable steaks out of one of those barracuda wannabes.
Unlike the dark, oily flesh of a barracuda, the needle fish has an excellent firm white flesh that was great on the grill. As an added bonus, every bone it it's body is an easy to spot blue/green color.
I have never seen a large on like that in Baja, do they get that big there, or was that just a long ago thing?


I was in Acapulco in 1962 when a young gal was killed by a large needle fish zooming through the surf where the poor girl was swimming. Those fish can swim at up to 60km/hr and habitually jump out of the water. Something to think about on your next trip. It happens every now and then in the Pacific. Never ate one, so can't say as to it's edibility..sides, there are too many nice cabrilla and pintos out there.

I've seen smaller-sized needlefish chasing my feathers countless times trolling out on the SOC. Perhaps that's where they got the nickname 'houndfish'. We have caught similar-looking trumphet fish offshore of Mulege in the past. See photo.

willardguy - 4-7-2015 at 04:35 PM

I always thought the giant needlefish were a cool looking fish, i've seen the panga guys bring em aboard,break their necks and throw em back, send a message to others or just get rid of one more pest? never considered eating one but who knows?:?:

AKgringo - 4-7-2015 at 04:57 PM

Pompano, I never tried to eat a trumpet fish, but I have dived around a bunch of them. They are about as vicious as a sea horse, and don't swim much faster. It is fun to watch them change patterns to mach their surroundings, kind of like a cuttel fish but not as dramatic.
If you ever catch one of those large needle fish, it is worth eating it just to experience picking green bones out of white fish meat. The teeth are the same color as the bones if you don't want to cut it up just to see them.

redhilltown - 4-7-2015 at 05:50 PM

Quote: Originally posted by willardguy  
Quote: Originally posted by AKgringo  
When I was on a family vacation in Manzanillo in 1959 (12 years old) I caught what we called a needle fish that was about four feet long. That is about the size they need to be to get usable steaks out of one of those barracuda wannabes.
Unlike the dark, oily flesh of a barracuda, the needle fish has an excellent firm white flesh that was great on the grill. As an added bonus, every bone it it's body is an easy to spot blue/green color.
I have never seen a large on like that in Baja, do they get that big there, or was that just a long ago thing?


dark oily flesh??? what barracuda have you been eating?



Was thinkin the same thing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

güéribo - 4-7-2015 at 06:00 PM

the "river monsters" thread

redhilltown - 4-8-2015 at 12:17 AM

Quote: Originally posted by AKgringo  
When I was on a family vacation in Manzanillo in 1959 (12 years old) I caught what we called a needle fish that was about four feet long. That is about the size they need to be to get usable steaks out of one of those barracuda wannabes.
Unlike the dark, oily flesh of a barracuda, the needle fish has an excellent firm white flesh that was great on the grill. As an added bonus, every bone it it's body is an easy to spot blue/green color.
I have never seen a large on like that in Baja, do they get that big there, or was that just a long ago thing?



On the Pacific side they get very large indeed. Great for steaks or the smoker. It does seem the Cortez cousins get a bit slimier...it that is a word...maybe because you have to handle 20-30 per hour!!

Skipjack Joe - 4-8-2015 at 06:25 AM

The giant needlefish is a different species referred to as agujon in Baja Catch. I've seen 2 in my lifetime. The first we encountered at Punta Arena while fishing from my 13' boat. It looked to be 1/2 the length of the boat. We spent over an hour trying to get it to take our lures with no results. The second encounter was a dead one washed up on the shore at east cape. Other than the size their heads look much different than their smaller cousins. The 'needle' is much less pronounced. The head comes to a much blunter end at the front.