SHARING

ABOUT THE TRIP

A while ago I was out fishing with my brother-in-law and my nephew.  They are from the Midwest, so, while saltwater fishing is not new to them, it was something that they do not get to do very often.  We were having some success and had two good-sized keeper gags in the box.  Even though we had not limited out, we decided that we had enough fresh fish to feed our families for a couple of days.

We kept fishing in catch-and-release mode, and they continued to have a good time bringing challenging grouper onto the boat.  Eventually we caught our “last fish” which was a gag that was about 32 inches long.  For those of you who have seen a 32-inch gag, you know that a gag that big is about 7 inches wide and can be a handful while pictures are being taken.  It was a real fish by almost any standard.

Perhaps we kept it out of the water a little too long for the photo op, but when we put the gag back in the water, it seemed to be healthy, but a little stunned.  We were fishing in about 40 feet of water, and the fish showed no signs of barotrauma (bloating caused from being brought up from the bottom quickly, generally in waters with a depth of 70 feet or more).  The fish went about five feet down into the water and turned to face the boat, a strange behavior that I had not seen before, nor have I seen it since.  As the fish was facing our boat, a large barracuda slid slowly out from underneath us at about the same depth as the grouper.  There was a standoff that lasted about two seconds before the gag turned tail and headed for the bottom.  We thought that, since we were in only 40 feet of water, the grouper could probably make it to its hiding place on the bottom and foil the barracuda’s plans for lunch.

As we began to secure our gear for the trip home, we heard a disturbance in the water.  When we turned to look for the source of the splashing, we were shocked.  There, on the surface of the water, was the barracuda with the grouper trapped firmly in its mouth.  The barracuda began to violently shake the grouper and did so until the grouper was literally split in half.  The barracuda took the back half of the grouper and headed down, leaving the front half floating within feet of the boat.  As a matter of fact, the front half of the grouper was so close that we used our landing net to retrieve it from the water.  It was as if the barracuda was saying, “thanks for catching it, I’ll split it with you”.  Not wanting to insult the barracuda (or the grouper), we kept the front half and were able to recover two entre-sized filets from our half.

LESSONS LEARNED

We do notice barracuda hanging around the boat from time to time.  What we have learned is that they will generally not attack the grunts or squirrelfish that we sometimes catch.  But they will attack snapper and grouper on their way up.  It is important that you remain aware of wild animal activity around your boat while you are fishing.  Bring your catch onto the boat as soon as possible, because, unlike this case, the other predators generally don’t share.

ON THE HORIZON

Baitfish were not very plentiful in the summer and fall of 2019.  Yes, they were out there and we ran past large of schools of them from time to time.  It just seemed that our encounters were not as frequent as they had been in previous years.  As the weather warms, we can anticipate the return of numerous baitfish schools hopefully of the size and quality we have enjoyed in the past.