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Permit - Fish Characteristics Guides When you find yourself at the front of the boat and you’re looking for permit in deeper water, you need to be ready with enough line out (no more than you can reasonably cast) and the fly between your thumb and forefinger. When you or the guide spots a permit, you’ve got a limited window of time to figure out which direction the fish is traveling in and what depth the fish is swimming at. Experienced permit fishermen will do this calculation automatically and they’ll get the fly out within a couple of seconds. If you’re not there yet, this is what you need to aspire to. It does become automatic, and with practice, you’ll begin to react in this manner without even thinking about it. Once you’ve figured out which way the fish is moving, you’ll need to throw your fly about 6 feet in front of the fish. Leading the permit by this distance will allow two critical things to happen. 1) It ensures
that the fly will hit the water far enough in front of the fish so that
the permit won’t notice the splash that the fly will cause when
it hits the water. Located inside the Barrier Reef, the permit flats of
Southern Belize are coral based and in general, offer very solid footing
for anglers. These flats can stretch for over a mile with deep water on
either side, dropping off into various depths and shades of blue and green.
The width of these flats is usually no more than twenty yards and can
be as little as 3 or 4 yards across. The flats look like long brown fingers
stretching through a gorgeous blue sea. This area is one of the most beautiful
eco-systems I’ve ever seen! To the untrained eye, a tidal flat can
seem utterly devoid of life, but nothing could be further from the truth.
These flats support an enormous amount of life and potential food for
permit. Crabs, shrimp, octopus, baby conch, and a myriad of small fish
all live in and around these unique ecosystems. And a permit will gladly
eat all of these species. As the water starts to surge up onto the flat,
permit will cruise and hang on the edges, waiting until there’s
enough water to allow them to get further up on the flat to feed. When
you start to wade these flats and are looking for tailing fish, focus
on where the waves are breaking onto the flat. This is where you’ll
see the most permit. Yes, permit will feed in the middle of the flat,
but more often than not they will be working the edges of the flat where
the water breaks and rips. Casting to permit on the flats is completely different than targeting permit in deeper water. It requires a whole different skill set and poses a whole new set of challenges. Permit feeding in skinny water are genetically programmed to bail out off the flat into deeper water if anything appears unnatural to them. A splash, a shadow, anything at all really, and they’re gone! When permit are feeding in this environment (1-3 feet of water on the tidal flats), their heads are down near the bottom of the flat as they use their lips and mouth to chase crabs and other prey out of coral and grass hiding places. When this is taking place, their dorsal and or tail fins will often stick out of the water. You want to drop the fly right in front of the permits head, as close to the fish as you can possibly get the fly without hitting it. If you do end up hitting the fish or lining it (as I’ve done more times than I can count) and it blows out, well… that’s permit fishing. Spooking fish is part of the deal and we all do it! At least you know the fish saw the fly. You want to get the fly in close to the permit because they can’t eat what they don’t see. Many permit anglers are tentative when casting to tailing fish and will often throw short. You’ve got to develop an attack mindset when dropping the fly in front of the permit. Cast it in as close as you can and don’t worry about spooking the fish. And they don’t eat with their tails so make sure to cast to the permits head! Dropping a fly 6 inches from a tailing permit when your heart is pounding, your lips are cracked from the sun, and the wind is blowing into your face, is not an easy task. This fish forces you to be at the top of your game where minor mistakes translate into missed opportunities. The most experienced permit fishermen know exactly when to drop the fly in on the fish. It’s incredibly difficult, takes years of practice, and is thoroughly effective once you master it. The proper time to cast a fly at a permit is just as fish tips up to feed. When the tail tips up, and the permits head goes down to the bottom of the flat, its eyes and attention are focused squarely on searching the bottom for food. In this situation, when the timing of the cast is good, the fish won’t notice the splash of the fly on the surface. If you can get to this stage, you’ll start to catch a lot of permit. The real fun though, is trying to get to this level!
The Hook Set Over the past couple of years there has been a great deal of debate about this critical aspect of fly fishing for permit. Ever since Jack Samson published his updated version of Fly Fishing for Permit, which is a must read by the way, the hook set has been a great topic of conversation around the bar after a day on the flats. Samson asserts that we have been waiting too long to set the hook and that as soon as the permit tips up on the fly, that we need to set the hook, rather than waiting for the take and the line going tight. I understand what he’s saying but I’m not sold on the argument, and neither are many of my guides. After reading his book, I went right out and put his ideas to practice, with no discernable increase in my number of hookups. Both times I went out onto the flats and tried Samsons’ new technique, I warned my guides that I would be trying something a little different in terms of when I set the hook. The look on their faces after I’d missed the first seven or eight fish said it all. Playing the Fish Because there are very few clean flats in Southern Belize (those without coral heads or coral debris near by) once a permit is hooked and on the reel, the angler should get the rod and reel up over their heads as the fish is making its initial run. This gets the line up high and hopefully over the coral that the fish has likely just swam by. The guide will make a quick decision on what the next step is. If the flat is heavily ringed by coral, the guide will likely get the boat and expect the angler to get into the boat so that the fish can be fought form this advantageous platform. Being in the boat elevates the angler and gets the leader and fly line further above the coral. When you do hook up, be ready to get into the boat in a hurry. The guide will come running up to you pulling the boat, and will hold it while you climb in. You may even have to hand the rod off temporarily while you get safely into the boat. It is not uncommon to hook a permit on a flat in 12 inches of water, only to land the fish a 1⁄4 mile away in 60 feet of water. Make sure that your drag is properly set before you make your first cast. If you’re unsure, ask your guide for the appropriate setting. If you have to adjust the drag once the fish is on, you’re in trouble. Last year alone I watched two different anglers crank down on the drag when they thought they were loosening it. The results were the same. Lost fish, and angry, self loathing guests! How to Help Yourself Even though catching a permit on the fly in skinny water is a difficult undertaking, there are some things that you can do that will help increase the odds of catching one. 1) Make sure that you have a sufficient number of flies tied with different weights. Some of your flies should also be non-weighted for calm, shallow water. A delicate presentation could be the difference between a bad day and a great day. This goes for color too. Have flies in a variety of shades! Olive, green, and brown, are the optimal colors for crab patterns in Belize. 2) Bring smaller flies than you think you’ll need. Many fly shops will sell you what they have rather than what you need. Remember this when buying flies! Smaller crab flies (size 4-8) will get far better results in Belize than those tied on 1’s and 2’s. |
The Fly Once you’ve managed to get the fly near the permit,
teamwork and communication with your guide becomes critical. He will be
able to see what’s going on far more clearly than you will, so follow
his instructions! The eyes of a good Belizean permit guide are nothing
short of remarkable. If he tells you to pick up the fly and recast it,
then that’s what you do. If he says to move the fly a tiny bit to
get the permits attention, then move it an inch or so and wait for his
next instruction. By listening to your guide and working in concert with
him, your odds of hooking and landing a permit are greatly enhanced. When
I know that I’ve dropped the fly near the permit, I’ll just
let it sit there on the bottom of the flat. This is incredibly difficult
to do and takes a great deal of patience. I’ll watch the fish and
gage its actions, which will then dictate what I do next. Many anglers
don’t have the discipline to do this and they’ll end up stripping
the fly as though they were fishing for permit in deeper water. For permit
tailing in skinny water, stripping the fly in this fashion is a complete
waste of time!
The Dreaded Trout Set Once the permit has your fly in its mouth, there is no debate about what to do next. Many people who fish for permit miss the fish because they have ingrained freshwater habits which work against them when they get into the salt. The “Trout Set” is the single biggest impediment to catching permit and if you can leave one habit behind when you get on the plane to Belize, let it be this. The trout set is when the angler feels the fish on the other end of the line and lifts the rod tip to set the hook. DON’T DO THIS! Instead, when you feel pressure on the line, with your left hand (vise versa if you’re left handed) strip set the hook. You don’t have to set the hook as hard as you would for, say, a tarpon. The permits mouth and lips, while rubbery, are no harder than that of a bonefish, which means that a lot of force is not necessary. Just a quick tug of the line with your hand and then stand back and carefully feed the line through the guides until the line is on the reel. When a permit realizes that it’s hooked, it begins an explosive first run. Often when the permit “blows up”, the line will “jump” and will wrap around either the reel or butt end of the rod. You already have the line in your hand from the strip set so if you control the line going out through the guides with you hand, it will eliminate these problems. Permit will frequently go for a fly more than once, particularly if that fly has been hastily yanked out of its mouth by an over anxious angler. The fish will quite often still want the fly and will frantically search around in a 2 foot area looking for the fly. If you use the tip of the rod to set the hook, rather than a strip set, you will often pull the fly four or five feet out of the permits strike zone. This forces the angler to make another cast to get the fly back into the permits immediate feeding area. At this point the angler is usually frustrated and nervous and will often hit the fish or line it when trying to get the crab fly back in to where it was just removed from. By now you know what the end result of this is! 3) Check
your leader frequently for nicks and abrasions. Remember, these flats
are comprised largely of coral, which can chew up even the best of materials.
5) Work with your guide. I know that I’ve already discussed this earlier, but it just can’t be overstated! Your permit guide is your partner in this pursuit, and if you embrace this concept, you’re setting yourself up for a higher level of success. Bonefish
- pg 1, pg
2 , pg 3
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Permit are smart, and when actively feeding, will take advantage of the waves
kicking up shrimp and small crabs that get caught up in the “wash”.
Permit are also far more comfortable when they have quick access to deeper
water, which means the edges of the flats, rather than the middle of the
flat where they’re more vulnerable to predators. Many of Belize’s
flats have coral heads and small patch reefs ringing the edge of the flats.
These coral formations pose a huge challenge to anglers who have managed
to hook a permit, and I cannot count the number of fish I’ve watch
break off on a coral head or rock. These coral formations harbor crabs
and other food and permit will often feed right in tight to these coral
heads. It’s a delicate and unforgiving art to be able to present
a fly into a coral patch to a tailing permit. There is little room for
error and your chances of success are lousy. But, there are a couple of
things that anglers can do to help avoid the disappointment caused by
a coral bust off and I’ll deal with these a little further down
in the page. 
