Couple of old fish pictures

[BearBiologist]

From the early 1960's:

Me, Mom, Dad and my grandmother's boyfriend. Likely the year before I started going with them on deep-sea trips:
I'm holding two barracuda and Mom is holding a bonito (two or three years later, I got my first scar from a barracuda!):

Dad, a neighbor, and my Mom. NICE barracuda. My first trip I caught two that size!

 

[GypsmJim]

"Deep Sea" is a ways from us, but Great Lake fishing with downriggers, or long lines near the harbor can also be rewarding.

 

[BearBiologist]

View attachment 40809
Sorry about the size of the pic
Barracuda do have some teeth, no way I'd want to get chomped by one.
Were out one day and I think we caught and released about 25-30 of them, mostly in the 30-40 in range.

Dad told me early it wasn't worthwhile to try to remove a hook from their jaws. Use silver hooks and take them out when they are dead, I learned the hard way that he was right. I was a teenager and had to buy my own tackle and pay for trips. My dad was a milkman and would drop me off at the landing and be there to pick me up when we returned to shore (I was 12-13).

Saw a guy ("newby") try to pick one up by sticking his thumb in the mouth and his fingers in the gill openings. I heard later from one of the deckhands, or some "deadwood", that they were able to save his thumb!

 

[Jeepnik]

Grew up fishing all sorts of ocean fish. I learned to really like catching barracuda. We would smoke them. The heads were buried in mom’s flower gardens. She always had beautiful blooms.

These days I usually catch and release. They are either generally smaller or I’ve gotten bigger.

I use a Penn 750 spinning reel. My terminal tackle is a wire leader (saves constant retieing. My favorite lure is a mackerel colored spoon with a single barbless hook. Usually easy to shake them off unless the swallow the whole thing. Some of the big ones will. Those that swallow the spoon are kept and smoked.

Boney, and the flesh can be quite “fishy”. But again smoking on the BBQ with some liquid smoke makes it quite tasty.

 

[BearBiologist]

I learned with spinning but graduated to a customized Penn 500 for most surface fishing (bonito, albacore, "barries", small yellowfin and bass).

We would bake barracuda in foil with lemon and S & P. We would mix soy with Wright's liquid smoke and slow-bake the bonito. Usually most went for cat food but we'd sneak some for ourselves! White sea bass and "kelp bass" would be eaten (Dad didn't like fish though Mom and I and one brother did). We didn't worry about ciguatera with barracuda on the coast.

 

[jimbo1096]

Saltwater fishing spoiled me for bass fishing. Just wasn't as much fun after a few trips down to the gulf.

 

[fuzzyedge]

 

[Chief 101]

My dad and I, I have mountains of pics like this but i chose this one as it may be the earliest...we lived on fish in those days...

 

[Hankus]

I grew up wade fishing Sarasota Bay and bridge/pier fishing the area. Even after we got a boat we would anchor near a sandbar and wade fish the shallows. Castnet for mullet to smoke, and we would smoke mackerel and Kingfish too.

 

[gjgalligan]

How do you know those fish were old?

 

[KIR]

I have only caught one fish in my life, when I was at summer camp and they told me it was a crappie. NO, it wasn't the one pictured below.

 

[jules]

 

[mr.deerstalker]

we do "ok" up north too ....