Mexican barracuda in Los Cabos

How to recognize it

Very long body, round in front, with a long pointed snout and a lower jaw that clearly juts past the upper one. The mouth is full of long, sharp-edged teeth of unequal sizes. Silvery, with a series of chevron-shaped (V-shaped) dark bars on the upper two-thirds of the side and a grey tail. The two dorsal fins are widely separated.

Biology

The Mexican barracuda is found only in the tropical eastern Pacific, from Southern California through the Gulf of California to Chile, and rarely at Malpelo Island. It’s a coastal, open-water fish of the continental shelf, usually in shallow water; FishBase gives a depth range of 10 to 60 m.

It eats mostly small schooling fish, plus squid, octopus, shrimp and crabs. Fish taken in the fishery are usually 30 to 60 cm long, but the species grows much larger: FishBase lists a maximum of 127 cm fork length. Off Nayarit, females mature at about 38 cm and males at about 36 cm, and it spawns all year with a peak from March to June.

How it's caught in Los Cabos

Around Los Cabos it’s a shallow-water, close-to-shore catch rather than a target for the offshore fleet. Local reports from the Gordo Banks Pangas fleet in San José del Cabo mention a “wide open barracuda bite” inside the marina in December 2015, lots of barracuda off the marina docks in November 2015, and good numbers from the surf at La Playita in September 2017. These reports don’t name the species.

Off Nayarit, where it’s an important commercial catch, it’s taken on handlines with J-hooks close to shore and by trolling. A 2010 local report from San José del Cabo also lists barracuda among the catch when live Pacific moonfish were fly-lined in the channel for roosterfish. Mind the long, sharp teeth when unhooking: use pliers, not fingers.

On the table

A food fish: researchers in Nayarit report high market demand for it, thanks to the quality of its flesh and its low price.

Rules, records & conservation

Don't confuse it with

The Pacific barracuda (Sphyraena argentea) ranges from California to the tip of Baja and into the Gulf of California. It’s brownish to bluish above with only faint oblique bars, a dark lateral line and a tail with yellowish membranes; the Mexican barracuda has bold chevrons and a grey tail. The great barracuda (S. barracuda) has scattered black blotches and is only a rare vagrant in the eastern Pacific. Sierra (Scomberomorus sierra) has rows of round orange spots, a black front to the first dorsal fin Needlefish have both jaws drawn out into a long, slender beak.

Questions

By Max VargasTop Anglers, Cabo San Lucas · international judge at big game fishing world championships · reviewed October 2026

Sources

• IGFA world records: Mexican barracuda
• FishBase: Sphyraena ensis
• Smithsonian Shorefishes of the Eastern Pacific: Mexican barracuda
• Smithsonian Shorefishes of the Eastern Pacific: Pacific barracuda
• Smithsonian Shorefishes of the Eastern Pacific: great barracuda
• Moreno-Sánchez et al. 2019, feeding habits (Ciencias Marinas)
• Zavala-Leal et al. 2025, reproductive cycle and maturity (Rev. Mus. Argentino Cienc. Nat.)
• Gordo Banks Pangas fishing report, December 12, 2015
• NOM-017-PESC-1994, 2013 amendment (DOF)

Top illustration: Top Anglers. Photos: iNaturalist contributors, credited on each photo.