For fun or for dinner
Some people fish for fun, others fish for dinner. My buddy George and I were in the latter category, hoping to land some fish big enough to feed us all, when we went out trolling in the dinghy before breakfast the other morning. In spite of our best efforts though, our only bite came from a small barracuda. 🙁 Oh well, maybe we’ll find ourselves a nice dorado next time.
Trying to stop the lines we were trolling from getting tangled with each other,
and keeping them out of the prop, took some work.
We probably used 2 or more gallons of fuel and all we got was a stupid Barracuda! Not a great trade.
I’ve heard Barracudas can make you sick. Is there anything you can do to make them safe to eat? If so, how do you prepare them?
Larger barracuda can be ciguatoxic in some places. Ciguatera is less common the further south you go and is also less often found in small cudas like this one. As for what you can do, don’t eat them. That’s pretty much it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciguatera
What is the old saying, “A bad day fishing is better than…..”? I am sure your skill (effort) would improve if fishing was your only hope for dinner. Hope you saved enough gas to get to the market :{p
Have fun,
David
We did. We also had some nice beef in the freezer from our last visit to the market.
I know you are looking for a nice mahi, wahoo or tuna to eat, but man doIi love to fish off a sailboat for sport and food…..right around 5 knots is perfect for trolling these fish………Not sure I would eat anything other than a non reef fish as a mahi, tuna or wahoo are………barracuda, amberjack, kingfish, snapper, grouper, etc feeding on the coral would be off my menu
We are almost south of the prime ciguatera regions. Perhaps it’s Russian Roulette but we have eaten plenty of those fish.
You know, you almost had me there.
I was feeling sorry for you…”awe, what a shame. All that time and gas and that’s all they caught? That must have been so dissapp… WAIT A SEC!! HE is fishing in the Caribbean, in MARCH, dressed like that and all tanned. WHY am I feeling sorry for him?!?”
Ya. ALMOST had me.
🙂
Hi Guys, Was wondering,if it is possible to attempt any spearfishing on any local reefs,either with a sling or a speargun. be well
A friend of ours asked that same question on Facebook this morning. Here is the conversation:
Unfortunately we have found that spearfishing is illegal for non-locals in many islands. I don’t think we’ve had our spears in the water since the bahamas!
Our friend then asked: Even pole spears/slings (w/o a trigger mech)?
Yes. Mechanical spears seem to be illegal most places although I have seen them for sale here. We have pole spears but have found that even they are illegal. Kind of silly IMO as you can be much more choosy with a spear than you can with a rod. This avoids you injuring any fish that you wouldn’t want to keep.
I just checked online and it seems as if it is OK here as long as you are not in the marine reserves (Scott’s Head/Souf, Cabrits, Salisbury).
While the following page says that it is NOT legal, nor is fishing without a permit (oops).
http://www.doyleguides.com/Domincustoms.htm
Haha. I think we need a bigger boat! Nice catch
Thanks!
How about using the ‘cuda for chum or cut bait? That’s what we do when we catch a non-target species.
Definitely could have used it for bait. We were all too hungry in this case. 🙂
I was enjoying coffee and back browsing your blog and noticed your complaint of 2 gallons of fuel. If you checked my profile, you’ll see that I pilot a Carver 32. It has 2 “big gas sucking engines” 2 gallons probably wouldn’t get you out ot the no wake zone of the marina! Anyway, Get some real reels n rods and bottom fish for some Snapper or Grouper. Fresh grilled Red Snapper is DA BOMB!
“2 gallons probably wouldn’t get you out ot the no wake zone of the marina! ”
A major reason why we will never have a nice big powerboat! 🙂