A report from the south:<P>I had planned on taking my kayak out of Malibu but my friend Scott called me and wanted to go fishing, so we went to Daveys Locker to catch the 3/4 day boat. The 3/4 day boat is usually on the Freelance which is a really good boat, but it was chartered so we were put on the Caliber a smaller slower boat. The 3/4 day boats had been going to Catalina but since we were on a crappy boat we couldn't. We headed north to longbeach, which took much longer than it should have. There we chased illusive schools of barracuda. It was sort of like albacore fishing we would find a school stop, they wouldn't stick around the boats and it was lines up and on the move again. Any fish that happened to be landed were shorts, and the only keeper was a 12 inch sand bass that hit an iron. Then we went out to try and get some rock fish. Fished for a half hour with very few fish caught just a few sculpin and whitefish. So it was back to chasing barracuda. With about an hour left to fish we finally got the barracuda to stick around the boat and we had some decent action. We were nailing them almost every cast, but the problem was they were all short. About 1 in 10 fish were legal and those were cutting it really close. Scott and I both got two legals, we were lucky some people probably landed 20 fish without a single legal.<BR>Well we had dinner anyway. A lot of people say barracuda isn't good to eat at all. Granted they aren't the best fish, but they can be quite tasty if cooked right. I like to fillet them but leave the skin on marinade them in lemon, garlic powder, and pepper. Then put them on the barbecue skin side down until cooked all the way through. After cooked the skin falls right off. Also cook them as soon as possible, they are not good after they have been frozen.<P> Jason<BR>

Try soaking your fillets in Italian dressing (if you like it)for 15-20 minutes. Sorry about the crappy boat but we've all been there, just another day on the water.

the italian dressing sounds good, and i didn't mind the crappy boat that much at least i was out there fishing, and the short cudas are still fun to catch<P>jason