Permit Cooperate with us in the Back Country

PERMIT MADE OUR DAY YESTERDAY

Yesterday my friend Wayne Johnson and I set out to catch some Permit in the Back Country of Florida Bay, in the Keys. After a quick stop to look for a couple of Redfish, with no luck, we headed out to our go to Permit spot, as soon as we arrived we saw some action on the flats. Wayne was the first to cast so I sat back in anticipation of maneuvering to boat as needed. Wayne's firs cast seemed to spook the wily Permit but then as Wayne took his second cast, wham the fight was on. The Permit took the long traditional run as he felt the hook for the first time, reeling off about one hundred yards of line in no time. Starting the motor and idling toward the fish, Wayne was able to get the fish under control, motor off and it was nothing more than that Permit against Wayne's resolve and the light tackle we were using.

After the catch, lifting a 40# Permit over the rail, pictures were taken, fish was weighed and then released, next came the high five's and celebration. Now it was up to me to catch the next Permit of the day. In a very short time later we spotted a fish coming toward us, it turned and as it did I put a near perfect cast in his direction of travel, wham, for the second time in just a short time. My fish took about four runs during the time that I was fighting him, then came the moment when Wayne lifted it over the rail, it was not forty pounds, more like fifteen-eighteen. The size did not matter, we had two Permit caught and released, we were happy.


We spent several more hours in different locations but the wind came up and made that type of fishing a little more difficult to be successful. Riding home, we reflected on how fortunate we were to have caught two Permit in the same day, these were not offshore Permit where they are more prevalent, these were Back Country Permit that are very cautious and smart making them a worthy Game Fish in any one's book.

We were both using 7' medium weight rods, 20# braid, # 3 hooks, mine was a circle hook and 30- 40 # F Carbon leader. My reel was a Penn Battle 3000 and the rod was a Carrot Stix.

Here are two pictures of Wayne's Permit, mine will follow.

Wayne's forty pound Permit

My little guy, about 15-18 #'s

As always, catch and release