In an area not far from Truk, she sank 2,672-ton ex-gunboat Shinyo Maru on 2 March, going deep to evade a string of 15 depth charges dropped by searching corvettes.

Eleven days later she closed two cargo ship under escort of two destroyers off the west coast of Yap Island and let go five torpedoes at the largest merchantman.

The first hit stopped the target dead in the water and a second torpedo tore off the port quarter capsized the 5,873-ton cargo ship Atlantic Maru.

After sending her contact report to the other submarines of her wolf-pack, she slipped between two of the three leading escorts and pressed home an attack on a large tanker.

Slipping past five escorts, and with three enemy patrol planes overhead, she fired six torpedoes to sink 1,943-ton tanker Kotoku Maru, and then sank the 1,270 ton pursuing Japanese destroyer Yūnagi.

Picuda probed deeper in the interior of Luzon Strait on 16 September, for a bold daylight attack on an eight-ship convoy, guarded by three destroyers and air cover.

Searching the southern border of her assigned patrol area, Picuda found another convoy hugging the north coast of Luzon on 21 September and sank the 1,948-ton cargo ship Awaji Maru.

Picuda made rendezvous with Barb and Queenfish, then set course in company with these two submarines to terminate her third war patrol in the lagoon of Majuro Atoll on 3 October.

At Majuro, Picuda, now commanded by Evan T. Shepard, her final wartime skipper, formed a new wolf-pack with Queenfish and Barb, and departed 27 October.

On 7 January 1945, Picuda received a contact report from Barb and closed a convoy in the straits of Formosa to inflict severe damage with four torpedo hits on 10,045-ton tanker Munakata Maru.

On the afternoon of 8 January, she again received a convoy contact report from Barb and slipped between two escorts of the starboard screen about four hours before midnight to pick out two large passenger-cargo ships.

She swung and fired stern shots at a tanker, then discovered an escort dead ahead, 700 yards (640 m) range, and was forced to clear the area.

Picuda having flashed a contact report as she cleared the area, set course for lifeguard station in support of the Third Fleet airstrikes on Formosa.

The transport, almost dead in the water, commenced shrill whistle blasts and the mist dropped down to reveal the cargo ship enveloped in a huge cloud of steam and smoke.

She stopped at Pearl Harbor, San Francisco, California, and transited the Panama Canal to arrive at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine, on 22 June.

Picuda put to sea from New London 12 November for a training cruise which included visits to Key West, Florida, and Havana, Cuba.

Picuda was assigned to the New London Group of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until late in the year 1952 when she was towed to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard for snorkel conversion.

This duty included almost daily exercises in the Key West operating area, visits to American ports on the Gulf of Mexico, and periodic training cruises to the waters of Cuba, Jamaica and Haiti.

She sailed from Gibraltar on 18 August and conducted hunter-killer exercises with destroyers in waters off Cuba and Jamaica before returning to Key West 11 October.

Picuda underwent overhaul in the Charleston Naval Shipyard from 13 October 1958 to 12 March 1959, followed by a brief period of refresher training in the New London, Connecticut–Newport, Rhode Island, area.

In 1962, Picuda visited Guantanamo Bay twice before circumnavigating South America, conducting joint operations with Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Peru.

In the 1967 North Atlantic NATO operation "Quick Pursuit," Picuda lost two men at sea (Lieutenant (junior grade) Jerry R. Alexander and Chief Torpedomans Mate Robert E. Small).