CHAPTER V 
THE BARRACUDA OF FLORIDA 
“Do but fish this stream like an artist and peradventure a 
good fish may fall to your share.””— Izaak WALTON. 
In the various works on game fishes in this 
country and Europe, I have never seen the 
barracuda included among those fishes worthy 
the angler’s attention, and as the result of several 
years’ sport with this long, rakish craft in the 
Gulf of Mexico, where it was taken with rod, 
cast-line, and grains, from one to six feet in 
length, I welcome the opportunity to do it tardy 
justice. My attention was first attracted to the 
fish by meeting a Conch on the reef, who an- 
swered to the name of “Barracuda.” I learned 
later that he had earned the title as a result of a 
sanguinary battle with a very large barracuda 
which had attacked him when swimming, lacerat- 
ing him so severely that he carried the marks for 
life. 
At first glance the inland angler familiar with 
88 
