THE BARRACUDA THAT DIDN'T GET AWAY

It was a hot summer's day in the Florida Keys. We were 30 miles out, fishing in our SeaFox 248 Commander. We had pulled in a couple different schools that day. The grouper were hitting hard at our first spot. Frank pulled in a big one too. Final weight was almost 70 lbs. There were several 40+ pounders too. What a fight! After that spot dried up, we moved to the south a bit and on our way, ran into a school of Mahi. They were chasing those minnows hard and fast. It was incredible! No sooner than you dropped a spinner in the water, the fight was on. One after one, we pulled up Mahi and filled our other wells to the brim!

We were tired and the boat was full. We had fished our brains out on this day, and our catch was amazing. We could feed an entire village. As we were pulling back into the local waters, Larry suggested we take a quick spin by a spot he knew that was good for snapper. We cruised into the back bay slowly and I let out some bait to chum the water.

Seconds later, we were swarmed. Not by the snapper we were looking for, but by Barracuda. There were dozens of them destroying the food we had just put in the water. Both Frank and Larry jumped into action and got their hooks in the water... The fight was on. Larry hooked into something that was as big as the Lochness Monster. It dragged our boat for about 100 yards before I was finally able to get the engines started and pulling in the opposite direction. Larry's rod was nearly bent in half, as this creature dove hard and deep. Suddenly, BOOM! It came out of the water like a nuclear missile. It shook hard and it jumped high, but it could not shake off that hook.

The action went on for another hour and a half. Larry reeled him in, BOOM, he takes off running. Over and over this fish fought the toughest battle of its life. In the end however, Larry was the victor. This Barracuda was almost 13 feet long and MASSIVE. His head rests nicely on our shelf now....

That was the biggest Barracuda we ever caught.... That DIDN'T get away! Happy Fishing.

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