Stalked by a Barracuda....

[DiveBarbadosBlue]

Barracuda is delicious and safe south of Martinique...so in Barbados they are safe and on many menus. One of my favorite all round

 

[fisherdvm]

I think if you observe their behavior, they are extremely intelligent, and always an opportunist. They can see divers very well, and will use you as a camouflage for their stalk on unsuspecting small fish that gets startled by your movement. Otherwise, they are very shy and elusive.

I don't think they will ever truly stalk or target a person. Unless you had shiny D rings or other shiny dangly that resemble a small fish. And eventhen, only in poor visibility.

I love to fish for baracudas, and it is hard to fool a baracuda into biting anything that does not look natural.

 

[Hank49]

I think if you observe their behavior, they are extremely intelligent, and always an opportunist. They can see divers very well, and will use you as a camouflage for their stalk on unsuspecting small fish that gets startled by your movement. Otherwise, they are very shy and elusive.

I don't think they will ever truly stalk or target a person. Unless you had shiny D rings or other shiny dangly that resemble a small fish. And eventhen, only in poor visibility.

I love to fish for baracudas, and it is hard to fool a baracuda into biting anything that does not look natural.

It's pretty easy to catch barracuda here in Belize......I'm not a very good fisherman and I catch them all the time. Trolling, they'll hit a plastic tube that looks like a....plastic tube, and nothing that resembles anything I've seen in the water. They make and sell them here. I've caught them on many different lures. Some look like fish or squid but some don't. I think they'd hit a pocket calculator if you dragged it behind the boat.

 

[syntaxerrorsix]

It's pretty easy to catch barracuda here in Belize......I'm not a very good fisherman and I catch them all the time. Trolling, they'll hit a plastic tube that looks like a....plastic tube, and nothing that resembles anything I've seen in the water. They make and sell them here. I've caught them on many different lures. Some look like fish or squid but some don't. I think they'd hit a pocket calculator if you dragged it behind the boat.

Agreed.

Rigged ballyhoo cost too much to waste on 'cudas and for some reason they always tear right through the middle of the spread.

 

[fisherdvm]

It's pretty easy to catch barracuda here in Belize......I'm not a very good fisherman and I catch them all the time. Trolling, they'll hit a plastic tube that looks like a....plastic tube, and nothing that resembles anything I've seen in the water. They make and sell them here. I've caught them on many different lures. Some look like fish or squid but some don't. I think they'd hit a pocket calculator if you dragged it behind the boat.

I shore fish for the juveniles with an ultralight pole - one to two footers near the shores. They're the only ones edible in Florida. But I don't eat them. Just catch and release. When you stalk them like I do, you have to present live fish near them and they hit fast. It is fun to catch these as you stalk them. You're right, trolling is a different matter, as visibility is not an issue. But still fishing for them in clear water - they have such excellent vision and will not touch a dead or nearly dead fish. So it is always a challenge for me to present a live bait for one to hit. More than half of the time, they miss my hook, and cut my bait fish in half. But it is fun.

 

[Buoyant1]

This little bugger followed me the whole dive, so I took his picture

I don't think I've ever just seen one zip by and leave us alone...they're curious like cats...(and apparently as unpredictable)

 

[ScubaArt]

My most memorable encounter with a barracuda happened many years ago diving off Provo, Turks and Caicos. I was a relatively new diver on my 4th or 5th night dive, buddied up with a stranger of equal experience. We became separated from the group after comming across a large octopus. It was then that we both noticed this very big (5 ft.) cuda. It had teeth like a german shepherd gone wrong! And he was definitely following us. We tried swimming away, but he stayed right with us. So my dive buddy motions to me " kill our lights, swim 20 kicks thataway " and off we go. When I turned my light back on, this monster is maybe 10 inches in front of my face. I freaked and did the motorboat back to the dive boat out of air. I'm the first one back and the Captain asked how my dive was, I tell him the drama and he just laughs and say's " Thats just Elvis. He wants you to feed him". He explained how if you shine your light on a fish, Elvis will perform for you. So I jump back in the water with my snorkel and light and watch this fish in action. I fed this fish for 20 minutes and was amazed by it's speed. It also cured me of any fear of cuda.

 

[manda100]

I have had a few enconters with some curious barracudas. On a few dives they followed every move we made usually on wreck dives,the best was on the Speigel Grove in key Largo. This thing was at least a five footer and I felt him swim by my head before I seen him. An amazing creature, a bit scary when they suprise you like that all I seen was teeth at first .He did follow us the entire dive after that, I think he was looking for a hand out.

 

[farsidefan1]

They are frequent visitors of dives. I have never felt threatened. They are very cool. Teh first one I saw was also the biggest. Snorkeling off Cozemel ane I saw one perhaps a bit over 6 ft. I estimate the size becaus a guy was swimming right by it. I looked to see if he had any jewelry on because I figured him for dead (ok, I was very naive at the time). The cuda just finned out of his way. The guy never saw it or knew what he had passed by till I informed him on the beach a bit later. The cuda was longer than he was and he was taller than me (5'11"). Big sucker but since it hadn't bothered him I figured it was safe. I swam to him and he just watched till I was maybe 4 ft away then he just turned and disappeared into the blue. I've seen them frequently and enjoy their company. I think a 12 footer would break the world record by at least 4 feet. Sorry, gotta see that to believe it. Just don't let them frighten you out of diving for crying out loud. The poster who said they follow you to use you as a shield makes a lot of sense to me. That would explain much of their behavior around divers. Clearly there have been attacks but gimme a break. 20 unprovoked attacks since the 1800's??? I think more than that many people have been killed and eaten by aliens since then. It isn't worth worrying about! ps, no I don't believe in UFO's

 

[vladimir]

I didn't see any mention of a 12 footer, which would break the record by 6 feet or more. I also didn't see anybody suggest that you have to be worried about barracuda. But they do, on rare occasions, attack. And if one attacked you, you'd take it seriously. Moray eels, pufferfish, triggerfish, and most shark species are all non-threatening. But if you are ignorant of their behavior, or just unlucky, you may lose a finger, an ear, or worse.