Barracuda

[danielbirch]

Hey guys,
I caught a couple of small barracuda in a little spot of mine near jacobs well and i was wondering if they can be eaten i've heard that they can be posiones like some mackeral in morten bay. There only around 40cm.
Cheers
Dan

[Ian1]

Hi Dan
Iv'e never heard of them being poisonous. The only thing I can think of in Mackeral is Sigitairus disease which can make you sick but that is only in the bigger (older) fish. You won't get that in a 40cm cuda. The eating quality is not the best, they are full of bones.

Cheers

Ian

[Jeremy]

Can you post up a pic of the barracuda? Are you sure they are not yellowtail pike? These are pretty common in the estuaries and would be my guess as to what you had caught.

They are edible but bony. They do make great bait for most other fish.

Jeremy

[Davemclean]

I think 'cuda can only be eaten at a certain time of the year as the flesh isn't to nice at other times, and I also remember hearing somewhere that thay have a green skeleton but that may be a wind up, lol

[breamnut]

best to go with a flathead or bream or something.
it isnt worth getting sick over a fish that probebly taists like crap

[samson]

There fine to eat i used to catch a lot in the tweed river to ten kilo and never had any problems with them, their no bonier than any other fish they only have the rib cage and pin bone like most other fish,their flesh is usally very white and not too disimilar to other pelagics like mackeral or wahoo and you won't have any probs with cigatera as they are only young fish and more than likely born and bred in your river system, therefore would have never encountered any other fish with the toxin and wouldn't be old enough to have built up sufficant amount to harm anyone.
Cheers samson

[disorderly]

As jeremy noted,stick a 10-0 thru the back and suspend below a float.Then just sit back and wait.

Scott