The species reaches a length of 6 feet and a weight slightly greater than 100 pounds. The spawning season extends from April through September. A female 35 inches long may lay 0.5 million eggs during a spawning season. While the species is known to live as long as 14 years, most of the fish caught are 4 to 6 years old. Great Barracuda are piscivorous and feed on many species of fish.
Favorite foods are jacks, needle fish, silversides, parrot fish, and filefish.
In the more southern part of the range, the flesh, particularly of larger fish, is considered toxic, being associated with fish poisoning, or ciguatera. Most anglers catch Barracuda by trolling spoons, feathered jigs with strips of fish, bucktail jigs, or brightly colored rubber tubing, which are eel-like and spin as they move through the water. The trick to catching the species seems to be lure action as much as anything else. Trolling or retrieval speed must be rapid and the lure action should be erratic to excite the fish into biting. Some fishermen use spinning and bait-casting tackle to cast topwater plugs.