Permit:

Closer this time--another movement narrows your focus. The bottom of the flat is covered in turtle grass, making shadows and sub-surface objects difficult to detect. Such is often the case when hunting permit, where your vision plays tricks with your mind, seeing shapes and movements that do not exist. Such has been the case all day.

Within casting distance, a tail appears. Past images turn to reality as the unmistakable tail of the permit pierces the waters surface. The black sickle waves as if to say “catch me if you can” as the permit tips to take another helpless crab. You’ve seen these deceptive creatures many times haplessly feeding, rhythmically moving from place to place only to disappear without a trace. You would think that permit would be easier to catch on a fly, given their propensity to dine at every opportunity. By now you know, all to well, that such is not the case.

Sixty feet, one-o’clock the tail again slices through the waters surface, waving an open invitation to cast. Having seen the permit several times, you calculate its speed and direction before launching the Merkin to the target zone. The cast is good. The fly hits its mark. The tail again shows. Without a sign the permits moves a body length back the direction from where it came. Picking up, you re-cast. Again the cast is true and the fly lands inches from the permit's wandering eyes. The permit tips to take, however regrettably, not yours. The game continues for a time. Finally tiring of the game the permit disappears, perhaps only a vision of your imagination all said and done.

Rejected, you turn to leave. Your foot haplessly lands on the head of a Lemon Shark whose curiosity has moved in for closer inspection during your ordeal with the finicky permit. You were so focused on the task at hand you failed to notice the five foot shark's obvious dorsal sliding in behind you. It erupts in alarm, showering you in salt and sea grass, adding insult to injury. Blinded by the saltwater in your eyes, it takes a while to realize the culprit as the shark flees across the shallow flat leaving a huge wake in its escape. Scared shitless, you head for shallower ground to collect yourself.

When it comes to fly fishing for permit, anything goes. Thomas Mcguane’s short story about his trials and tribulations with permit, “ The Longest Silence”, says it all. Even if all goes right, percentages for success are few and far between. Of all the saltwater flats fish, casting accuracy is most critical with permit. If you can’t get the fly within a serving plate of a permit's roving eyes, good luck. Therefore, given the odds, your equipment is critical.

A permit rod must handle heavy crabs and great power once a permit decides to take the offering. Reels must be durable and smooth as butter on a hot day. Although our success has been limited to say the least, the equipment we use has increased our averages. Like any equipment we use, it is a test of time that solidifies our choices and helps us get the most out of our fly fishing adventures. The following items have passed the tests.

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