Barry, My New Friend...Well Sort Of

Yesterday I went reef fishing with a couple of friends, Wayne, from Canada and Paul from Michigan. Right off the bat we learned that there is no place for personal political views on fishing trips, so we quickly went about our work to catch fish.

The reefs proved to be very productive on this day, we caught a variety of fish that soon filled our cooler. Then as we were moving to another patch reef we spotted birds working, that means feeding on bait fish, we rushed to the area and proceeded to catch large Spanish Mackerel with lures thrown toward them. We were rewarded for our efforts as we hauled in five or six beauties. These Spanish Mackerel are a delicate fish,white, tender fillets when they are cooked and have a very mild flavor. There are some very good recipes to prepare them and the end result is usually very tasty.

Spanish Mackerel

The Mackerel fishing fell off just as quickly as it started, it seems an unwanted guest arrived and was after the same fish that we were. Barry as we called him rolled up on our fishing grounds, uninvited and unannounced. I said to myself, "I have to meet this fellow that has ruined our fishing success", so I quickly rigged up a live Ballyhoo on a small rod and tossed it into the water, bingo, if only my line doesn't break we would soon  have our introduction to Barry. As luck would have it, after fighting with Barry for about ten minutes, we had our introduction, face to face. I have included a few pictures so you can see why all the other fish beat it out of the area. Barry the Barracuda, ended up weighing about forty pounds of serious fish eating machine. We were very careful to keep away from the business end of this guy, as he could do some real damage if he ever latched on to an appendage. After pictures and a hearty goodbye, we released him unharmed to spoil fishing or provide sport for some other unsuspecting fisherman. Here, my friends is Barry!

Barry comes aboard

I'm 5'9" so you get an idea of his size.
He weighed in at 40Lbs

Checking the weight
The fish is controlled with a Boga Grip which effectively renders the fish safe to lift while not doing any harm