Barracouta
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
A long, toothy, southern-ocean snake mackerel — snoek in South Africa, couta in New Zealand — that destroys tackle, cuts fingers and is the backbone of two national food fisheries.
Safety: species that bite — can cause injury needing treatment.
Catching Barracouta
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- Ground
Barracouta is not a barracuda and it is not a mackerel, though it looks like a collision between the two. It is a gempylid — a snake mackerel — long, slim, steel-grey and armed with a set of large, wickedly sharp fangs at the front of the jaws that will go through a trace, a finger and a landing net with equal indifference.
It occurs right round the cool southern oceans: Uruguay, Argentina and Tierra del Fuego; Tristan da Cunha and South Africa; the St Paul and Amsterdam islands; Tasmania and southern Australia; New Zealand. In South Africa it is snoek and it is a national food fish. In New Zealand it is couta and it is what an angler catches when they were hoping for something else. FishBase records it to 200 cm and 6 kg, over a depth range of 0 to 550 m and usually 100 to 500 m, in water between about 13 and 18°C.
For an angler its character is entirely about the teeth. It takes fast-moving lures and baits with total commitment, fights hard, and then bites through anything monofilament while it is being landed. Wire traces, long-handled pliers and a plan for getting it off the hook are not fussiness, they are the method. Its reputation for wrecking a session comes from arriving in numbers exactly where lighter tackle is being fished.
It is also very good eating fresh — snoek braaied on the Cape is a genuine institution — and poor if it is not handled quickly, because the flesh softens fast. Bleed it and cool it or leave it in the water.
Identification
No photograph of Barracouta has passed identity review yet, so none is shown. FishingHQ publishes a species photograph only once somebody has confirmed the animal in it against the species record’s own diagnostic features.
- Scientific name
- Thyrsites atun
- Family
- Gempylidae
- Water
- Saltwater, Brackish
- Conservation status
- Not assessed
- Regions
- New Zealand, Australia, East & Southern Africa, Central & South America
- Long, slim, steel-grey to blue-black above with a silvery belly, and no scales worth speaking of.
- Large fang-like teeth at the front of both jaws — the single feature that decides everything about handling it.
- A long low first dorsal fin running most of the back, followed by a short second dorsal and small finlets before the tail.
- Not a barracuda: the barracudas are Sphyraenidae with two widely separated dorsal fins and no finlets.
- FishBase records a maximum of 200 cm and 6 kg — long for its weight, which is what `snake mackerel` describes.
Size
- Typical
- 1–2.5 kg (2.2–5.5 lb)
- Large
- 3–4 kg (6.6–8.8 lb)
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 200 cm and 6 kg, and an age of 10 years
Lifecycle and reproduction
Benthopelagic and oceanodromous over a depth range of 0 to 550 m and usually 100 to 500 m, in cool water of roughly 13 to 18°C right around the southern oceans. Medium resilience, and a maximum age of about 10 years. It shoals, and it shoals in numbers.
Not detailed on the FishBase record for this species. Its short maximum age of around ten years and medium resilience are the useful facts in the same territory: this is a fast-living, quick-turnover fish rather than a slow-growing one, which is why it supports the commercial fisheries it does.
Feeding and senses
A shoaling pursuit predator on small fish, squid and crustaceans, hunting hard and in numbers. The teeth are for holding and shearing, and it takes a moving lure or bait at speed — which is why it hooks itself so readily and why it so often arrives in the middle of a session aimed at something else.
Sight and speed in open water, keyed to movement and flash. There is no finesse in fishing for it and no way of presenting a lure that avoids it once a shoal is under the boat.
Through the year
Moves inshore and offshore with water temperature and prey rather than to a fixed calendar, and shoals appear and disappear over days. In South Africa and New Zealand the inshore runs are seasonal and locally well known, and they differ between the two hemisphere-sharing coasts it occupies.
Distribution
Southwest Atlantic: Uruguay, Argentina and Tierra del Fuego. Eastern Atlantic: Tristan da Cunha and South Africa. Western Indian Ocean: South Africa and the St. Paul and Amsterdam islands. Eastern Indian Ocean: Tasmania and southern coast of Australia. Southwest Pacific: New Zealand and southern coasts
This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.
Why anglers care
The backbone of the South African snoek fishery and one of the commonest incidental captures in New Zealand and southern Australian boat fishing. Taken on jigs, spinners, feathers and trolled lures, and on fish baits. It is what a wire trace exists for on those coasts. Excellent fresh and poor if it is not bled and cooled quickly, which is a genuine practical fact rather than a preference.
Handling and returning
Treat the head as the dangerous end at all times. Use a wire or heavy trace, unhook with long pliers, control the fish with a gaff or across the body and never by the jaw, and keep hands and bare feet away from a fish thrashing on the deck. Bleed and ice anything being kept immediately.
Safety
Species that bite — Can cause injury needing treatment
The front fangs are large, sharp and shearing, and the fish keeps biting after it is landed. Cuts to hands and fingers happen at the unhooking stage and go deep, and a barracouta loose on a wet deck is a hazard to anybody barefoot.
What reduces it: Wire or heavy trace, long-handled pliers or a T-bar, and unhook without putting a hand near the head. Control the fish across the body, deal with it immediately rather than letting it thrash loose, and keep footwear on.
Worse when:
- When they arrive in numbers mid-session on tackle chosen for something smaller.
- On a wet, moving deck where a loose fish slides.
- When somebody tries to recover an expensive lure from inside the mouth.
Where to go next
Similar and related fish
Where it lives
More fish
Not related to this page — just the rest of the section. There is little else joined to this subject yet, and a short page should still lead somewhere.
Sources and evidence
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Family, maximum size, depth range, environment, distribution and the IUCN assessment for Thyrsites atun. FishBase records no IUCN assessment for this species.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Identification, distribution, habitat and fishery description from the FAO species identification guides for fishery purposes.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The widely restated practitioner account of how this species is fished — tackle, method and the ground it is taken over.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Why the 3 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Similar and related fish
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Great barracuda
Thyrsites atun is a gempylid snake mackerel with a long low first dorsal and small finlets before the tail; Sphyraena barracuda is a sphyraenid with two widely separated dorsal fins and no finlets. The similar names cause real confusion in trip reports from coasts where both could occur.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these two species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How it is caught
What experienced anglers do — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Trolling
Taken on trolled and cast lures, jigs, feathers and spinners across the southern oceans, and on fish baits. A wire or heavy trace is not optional: the front fangs cut monofilament as a matter of course.
- FAO Species Identification Guides for Fishery Purposes and the FAO Species Catalogues — Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Identification, distribution, habitat and fishery description from the FAO species identification guides for fishery purposes.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- General angling website restatements of established technique — Various (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The widely restated practitioner account of how this species is fished.Background and mechanism onlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
Where it lives
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Open ocean
Recorded as benthopelagic and oceanodromous over a depth range of 0 to 550 m and usually 100 to 500 m, in water of roughly 13 to 18 °C right around the southern oceans.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Environment, depth range, habitat association and distribution for Thyrsites atun.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.