Baracuda's

Well fellas,

The wife was off this past week and drug me to Panama City Beach to suffer in the sun...lol....

Due to my bad back I put my seat in full recline position, turned my heated seat on and covered up with a blanket to keep the chill off from the AC. Took my pain med's and slept almost the entire 10 hour trip, which is the usual way I am able to travel on long distance's only.

Anyway any one who knows me knows how I love to fish....Got to the Beach, the water must have been close to 90 degree's in the Ocean and felt great. With trusty pole in hand and two small bait box's hanging on my swim trunks, I'm off. I tried for three days to catch a fish with artificial lures and no success, had a couple of short hits, but no takers.

On the third day I was able to get out on a sand bar and do some casting and while another family was close by..... The father telling his daughter to stop crying and to look around...Nothing to bite her, eat her or anything of the sort... Trying to tell the girl that their was nothing in the water to hurt her....

Next thing I see....Two 5' to 6' Barracuda's swimming with in 5 feet of myself and this family chasing a school of fish.....

I yell out to the family and give a warning and the father goes ballistic over me telling them of the Barracuda's....... They then make high speed for the shore, the whole time trying to tell his daughter that the Barracuda's wouldn't hurt her....

What a plain A$$hole from start to finish..... I've seen too many shows on TV where Barracuda's have attacked people in the water....These were big, and I mean big fish with big teeth to eat you with.......

Now back to the fishing story...the fourth day I bought some shrimp and tried with the good ole Float and sinker with the hook at the end...Had one run with the bait but nothing else....Lost all my bait, the little fish just picked the bait to death until it was all gone... My Ocean fishing experience will have to be on hold again until the next adventure there.....

I came face to face (3ft.) with a good sized cuda while snorkling at Panama Beach several years ago, not a pretty sight to look up and see one stare at ya

Yeah, they're pretty impressive. I've seen them in the distance while snorkeling in the Keys, but never got too close. In general, they leave people alone, but they have been known to attack occasionally, especially if you're wearing something shiny (like a belt buckle). And since they were already feeding.... yeah that guy's a jerk. Glad nobody got hurt.

Hey MsgMills,

I was about 100 miles east of you, on St. George Island FL. - I fished two days, about 2-3 hours each day.

Day one: fished with shrimp on the bottom, same as you, from a sand bar. With a big 3/4 oz. egg sinker I could cast into pretty deep water. First cast I caught a 20" mackerel. Jumped out of the water about 5 feet immediately upon being hooked, what a blast. I was hopeful I'd catch more of them but...

Sea catfish after sea catfish. I probably caught 20 anywhere from 8 inches to 2.5 pounds.

Day two: waded out to my little honey hole again, caught a catfish on my first cast, let him go, and looked down to see my bait bag had come loose from my waist. (Yes, I know I might as well hang a sign on me that says ALL YOU CAN EAT SHARK BUFFET HERE).

I waded onshore, went up to the rental house we were in and cut up an uncooked pork chop into cubes. Discovered sea cats like pork chops too. Caught 5-6 before one finned me so bad I quit. I discovered that sea catfish have some serious venom in their spines. My finger swelled up so bad I had to take my wedding band off and it hurt 10 times worse than the jellyfish sting I had earlier in the week.

One thing I also learned: clean your rod/reel well--REALLY well--after surf fishing. It still doesn't feel right, going to take it apart tonight.

Fished several years in Florida with a local guide, he would rub the fin wound on the belly of the offending fish. He said the slime would make the injury less sore and not swell as much... (Course he had 5 beers in him by the time we met in the mornings, so that might have helped too.) I have tried it on salt water cats and it does helps some, but not as much as it helps of freshwater cats...

I had a family member who decided to wear her ankle bracelet into the water she found out the hard way the barracuda love shiney things with legs attached....chased her all the way out of the water

A true story from the Bahamma's of a woman killed while swimming close to shore by a Barracuda. I seems she was wearing a large silver necklace.
She was hit in the neck with such a ferocious attack it ripped out her neck and juggler. She was dead in a matter of a couple minutes.
I like to catch them.

The last time we were at PCB we parasailed and about 200 yards out the water was black with stingray's!!
Rowdy