Winter time fishing here in the Florida Keys brings in the monsters. By monsters I mean huge Barracuda! Many people look down on this Sabre Toothed beasts, not me, nor any of the happy clients that we here at Bamboo Charters have pitted in battle with these fantastic sport fish. Barracuda will can be caught on a wide variety of lures and baits. Capt. Tony Melton runs a 24 ft Pathfinder Bay boat for Bamboo Charters and he has been scoring big ‘Cudas on very light tackle using Tube Lures while trolling and sight fishing around patch reefs.
Capt. Tony likes to keep the boat at 4-5 miles an hour and will tease these speedsters into casting range of a 7 ft spinning set up, using a 6-15 lb custom built Ugly Stick paired up with a Penn Battle 4000 spinning reel spooled up with Suffix 832 Braid. The Ugly Stick blank takes the heavy abuse that these Cudas dish out, with strikes coming less than 20 feet from the boat at times the sudden and violent attack can destroy a graphite rod. The Tube Lures we use are 12 inches long and rigged with two heavy duty VMC treble hooks on 60 lb test nylon coated wire. The fight is incredible and the aerial acrobatics that a Barracuda put on will make your jaw drop! These Winter ‘Cudas run between 12 and 30 pounds and will dump 100 yards of braid in mere moments, this is just the start of a great fight. The next time you are in the Florida Keysgive yourself a treat and pick a fight with a Sea Monster and go catch a ‘Cuda.