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While waiting for the ballyhoo to show up for breakfast, I began fan-casting a Yo-Zuri Mag-Popper around the boat. No doubt about it, this was 'cuda' country. It wasn't long before what appeared to be a submarine was hot on the tail of my lure. Upon further review the offering was refused and the large, dark shadow disappeared from sight.

A few casts later two more nice barracuda streaked up from the depths to admire my offering. Once again, however, the fish refused to strike at the lure. Capt. Jose grabbed a rod to show me how it was done. 2 casts later, Jose was tight into a nice 'cuda' of about 35 inches. Jose turned to me with a big smile, "You see that Bro, that's how it's done." It wasn't long before I was dialed in, and drew several vicious strikes.

Barracuda is a much-underrated game fish, and they are one of my favorites on light tackle. They have very bad attitudes and voracious appetites. These two characteristics combined makes fishing for these toothy chaps very exciting on light tackle and with fly rods. Why are barracuda so much fun to catch? Explosive strikes, which may launch them 6 or more feet above the water, reel smoking runs and arial shows that would put the Blue Angels to shame. Combining the voracious appetite of a great white shark, the reel screaming runs of a bonefish, the acrobatics of a tarpon and then throw in the fact that this fish can grow as long as you are tall, and you have the Great Barracuda.

After catching a few real nice 'cudas' over 36 inches, the ballyhoo had arrived. Jose threw the cast net a couple times and with a livewell full of fresh bait, we were in business. A short run took us to a spot that had been fishing real well over the past few days for big Cero Mackerel and some King Mackerel.

The chum bag was placed in the water and we occasionally threw in several live shrimp to sweeten the buffet. We rigged up a couple live ballyhoo on a typical kingfish rig consisting of a Mustad 9174 live bait hook wired up with a 3599C treble hook as a trailer. I baited a Mustad 39952BL light wire Demon Circle hook with a jumbo shrimp and drifted back into the chum slick. As soon as the ballyhoo were in the water, they were both hit hard. In no time we were both into real good Cero mackerel. Hooking a large Cero Mackerel on light tackle is kind of like snagging an Amtrak train as it passes at 60 MPH. They take a lot of line in a big hurry. The Shimano Stellas performed flawlessly and both fish came to the boat and were released.

While Jose was re-rigging the rods I went back to fishing the shrimp. As the offering got about 40 feet back in the slick it got hit hard. Feeding some line out, I raised the rod tip, closed the bail and bowed to the fish. The line came tight almost instantly and I proudly announced "Fish On!" A five-minute fight ended with a beautiful 35" Cero boatside. The circle hook was firmly set in the corner of the jaw. Quickly baiting up again, the circle hook was back in the water with another offering. Not 20 seconds later another Cero was peeling line off my reel. This went on for a couple hours, and the circle hooks performed flawlessly. Every single fish was hooked in the corner of the mouth and not a single fish came unbuttoned.

Then a fish hit my shrimp and it was instantly evident that this was no mackerel. Again, I was feeding a shrimp back behind the boat and my bait was hit real hard. Feeding the fish some line, I dropped the tip of the rod and waited for the line to tighten up. I began reeling and the rod loaded up, but this was different. When the line came tight the reel screamed for more than 30 seconds. Line was coming off my reel like I had never seen before. No steelhead, salmon or bonefish ever took line this fast before, I thought. Twenty minutes and several blistering runs later a beautiful Little Tunny (False Albacore) was swimming in circles alongside the boat. What an awesome fish, and so beautiful in the morning sunshine. I had read about these fish, but this was my first "Albert" on rod and reel. After releasing the little powerhouse of about 8 pounds I immediately grabbed my 9WT fly rod. After stripping out about 50 feet of line, I tied on a small baitfish pattern. Tied on my new prototype fly hook I was eager to give it some action. I jumped up on the motor covers and laid out a cast to the boiling fish and got bit nearly instantly. "Fish on" I yelled as the fly line and backing began to rapidly disappear from my fly reel. "Way to go brother," Jose commented as the backing continued to disappear. As the reel screamed, a couple neighboring boats let out a cheer. The battle was on, and at this point in the match it was advantage Albert. 275 yards of backing later, the fish slowed down. Finally I was able to begin gaining some line, but progress was slow at best. Over 30 minutes into the fight, the fish as well as the angler, were tiring. At last I could see him, circling 30 feet below the boat. A few minutes later Jose had him firmly in his grasp. My first "Albert" on a fly weighing about 12 pounds. After snapping a few quick photos, the fish was released and I immediately began casting again.

I was in luck; the fish were still there. Within seconds I hooked up again and this time it was a much bigger fish. I had loaded my Penn 2.5 fly reel up with nearly 400 yards of 30 pound Spiderwire for backing. This fish was taking line and showed no signs of ever stopping. It appeared as though this fish was heading to Cuba, with or without me. Sixty seconds after hooking up, this fish was still taking line and I didn't have much line left to give. Jose went up to the front of the boat and was ready to detach from the anchor line to chase the fish. Finally, the fish made a big sweeping turn and coming back at us. When I began cranking the backing back in, most of the bottom of my Penn 2.5 was showing. That fish took about 375 yards of line on its initial run, I was in awe. In no time my fly line went zipping past the boat, followed by a couple hundred yards of backing. I reeled until I thought my hand was going to fall off and nearly an hour later the fly line was coming back onto the reel. I put as much pressure as my 12lb tippet would allow and finally the big Albert was boatside and I grabbed him by the tail. He was huge, the biggest False Albacore I had ever seen, even in pictures in magazines. The fish was just over 20 pounds and I was pretty sure that I was in heaven. We took a few photos and then I placed him back in the water where he promptly took off like a shot.

By this time the rest of the school had vanished, which was a good thing because a couple more like that would have most certainly killed me. After a short rest and some lunch it was back to fishing. The Cero Mackerel were still around and there was quite a group of Yellowtail Snapper behind the boat as well. A few large Bar Jacks also kept things interesting.

Over the next couple of hours we picked away at the fish, catching a few more nice Ceros, some Yellowtails, two nice Bar Jacks and a beautiful Black Grouper. By the end of the day Jose was quite impressed with the light wire, offset circle hooks and said that he was now a believer. "I never would have guessed that these circle hooks would work so well on these Mackerel", he said. Just then I hooked into another "big Mack" and the line was again peeling off my reel. Jose turned to the guys in the boat next to us, " check out Mr. Mustad here with his new circle hooks. Look at the big smile on his face. He's kicking butt with these things and he's loving every minute of it." "Is that what you guys are fishing with, them circle hooks I keep hearing about," the neighboring angler asked. "That's them," Jose said, "and he hasn't lost a single fish yet today with them, I'm really turned on to these things now man." Over the course of the day we had caught 30+ fish on the 39952BL in a size 8/0. Every single fish was hooked in the corner of the mouth, including the ones I let eat the bait for more than a minute. The hooks were easily removed and all but a couple we kept for dinner were released unharmed. It had been a grand day aboard the SPANISH FLY with Capt. Jose Wejebe. As the 32ft Sea Craft rocketed back to port, I gazed out at the beautiful blue water with a big smile on my face. It day I will remember fondly the rest of my life. No doubt catching a lot of nice fish makes for a great day, but spending that day with one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet is the icing on the cake.

Stay tuned for more adventures with TEAM MUSTAD and in the mean time, tight lines and best fishes.

Jeff Pierce

Jeff Pierce is the North American Sales Coordinator for
O. Mustad & Son (U.S.A.) Inc. and Partridge.
He is the Captain of TEAM MUSTAD and is
a diehard angler and fly tier.