Spearing Cudas

[Chris Buchleitner]

Hello,

I am heading down to the Keys over Christmas and was planning on spending some time spearfishing. I'm watching some youtube vids and noticed that many folks spear the cudas. Do people eat the cudas there? I never tried cuda meat but I'll try anything once as long as it's not poisonus!

 

[snowdog61]

There are plenty of folks that will eat cuda - Ciguatera poisoning is the reason most people won't eat them. I'm one of the later

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Smaller cuda are less likely to hurt you and are safer to eat. The meat is excellent if you cut the red strip out, but the stink of the mucus covering their bodies might be a turn off.

In the past, I have sold thousands of pounds of large cuda for OTHER people to eat, and I sometimes feed some to smaller ones to my cat and dog (and I taste it a little sometimes).

 

[USdiver1]

I sometimes feed some to smaller ones to my cat and dog .

Note to OP: This is a good practice, if your cat or dog dies after eating the 'cuda, it would be best to pass on that particular fish. Just saying'

Seriously, these are aggressive predators, with large mouths full of sharp teeth. Any shot that doesn't break the spine or kill the fish directly could result in a situation you don't want to contemplate. Be careful when shooting 'cudas. Again, be careful when shooting 'cudas.

 

[RKO]

Eating barracuda is not a good fish to eat for many reasons, if you are going spearfishing go after the Lionfish. The meat of the lion fish is very good and more restaurants in the Keys are serving it up. Plus if you go after Lionfish your helping the reefs out!

 

[Hank49]

I spear barracuda. They are good to eat and here in Belize, we don't have ciguatera.
One piece of advice. It's best to shoot them as they're swimming away from you. They will come in to check you out and it's tempting to shoot when they get in close like that. But you want them going away because if you hit them, as you pull them in, it turns their head, and teeth.....away from you. If you shoot while it's coming at you, you're pulling the dangerous end right around towards you and if he bolts, he's coming right at you.
I've had one full on attack me three times. The third pass it clipped my knee and but right through the wetsuit to the bone. Lot of blood and it should have had a few stitches but I got it back together with bandaides. Weird. That's the only time that happened and I've shot over a hundred of them.

 

[Killerflyingbugs]

Hank, I got a scar on my arm from the same thing.

 

[Hank49]

Here's the one that did it. Butterfly bandages. Should have gotten a few stitches but...

 

[Killerflyingbugs]

nice

 

[Hank49]

Lucky it wasn't this one. If one like this charged you, chomping, it could probably take your hand off. This one was stranded in our canal on that sand you see behind there? Jake swam out and stabbed it in the head with a kitchen knife. Crazy...life in the country. Here's another nice one. Shoot them from behind....razor teeth. The front ones look gnarly but it's the back teeth that can slice a 3 lb snapper in half.