Barracuda (something we see a lot of on South Andros) are a highly underrated fish to target on a fly. Not only are they big, aggressive, and fight really hard, they’re also know for jumping like tarpon and hit flies harder than anything we’ve seen.. What more could ask for in a game fish!?
The vast majority of the Barracuda we see at Andros South are spotted while actively scanning for bonefish. Many of our guests prefer to keep a spare rod rigged specifically for barracuda for such an occasion, however, the time required to put down the bonefish rod, grab the ‘cuda rod, strip off enough line to reach the fish, and then make the cast, is often too late for an effective presentation, not to mention nearly impossible when fishing on foot (unless carrying more than one rod of course).
But, what if you could transform your bonefish rod into a proper ‘cuda rig in a matter of seconds? Well, you can!
A while back we told you about a great tip shown to us by Andros South guest, Loren Irving, learned from Brain O’Keefe, which consisted of keeping a barracuda fly attached to 10-12 inches of knotable wire, with a slip knot on the leader end handy at all times on the flats. The thought process? Upon spotting a ‘cuda, simply take the rig out of your pocket, slip the knot to the bend of your bonefish hook and voila! You’ve got yourself a ‘cuda rig. Brilliant.
We recently expanded upon Loren’s tip using a simple quick-change swivel made for conventional gear called a ‘fast-snap.’ It turns your bonefishing rig into barracuda ready setup in seconds and here’s how it works..
You’re a brave soul to fish that ‘Cuda! Where’s my bluegill bucket?
woudn’t the leader snap because you are using a bonefish leader for big cudas?
We usually use 20 pound for our bonefish leaders. Barracuda have a very fast and powerful first run but they shouldn’t be able to break the 20 pound if your drag is set correctly. I’ve even had success doing this with 16 pound when the bonefish were being spooky and still been able to land the ‘Cuda. Cuda fight hard but aren’t like GTs or anything out there. 20 pound can land the majority as long as their teeth don’t touch any mono!
I bought the materials for this, but found that this size fast snap won’t fit through the eye of the hook for the bonefish fly. I am now debating getting smaller snaps to make this work OR possibly just tying an open uni knot in the end that would attach to the clip and keeping that where I could very quickly tighten it over the bend of the hook of the bonefish fly. I would be interested in your thoughts on this. Thanks for the article.