PERMIT WRECKIN

It was a Monday and we were already staying at the beach. I had my nieces, a friend and a boyfriend that wanted to go catch some fish. The seas were flat calm and it was sunny so I said, “let’s go see if we can get on the Permit”. I dropped the Calcutta in at O’Neill’s Marina, took on a little fuel, some snacks, drinks, put about 30 frisky blue crabs in the well and headed to the spot.

When we got there the water was nice and clear and bait and barracudas were all over the place. We made one drift but did not see the first permit, so we anchored and decided to wait for them to come to us. When we came tight on the anchor, Melissa said, hey what is that? I went back to the stern and about five feet down a dozen 20 to 40 pound permit swam underneath the back of the boat. Great, they are here. We baited up the small crowder/shimano spinning rods with the crabs and out they went. Five, ten, fifteen minutes go by and nothing happens, we don’t even see another fish. We say the hell with this; lets pull the hook and go back to drifting. We motor back up current of where we think the fish should be and toss out all the lines again. Right about the time that the last line hits the water, I hear Andrew “Hambone” Hammonds, say, “hey, I think I got something on ”. Andrew started reeling, reel reel reel, and once he caught up to the fish the Permit took off on a great run. Twenty-five minutes later we had a nice 25-pound permit on board, it was Hammy’s first Permit ever.

The first fish had taken us a pretty long distance from where the school should be, so we motored back up current and started tossing out crabs again. We did not even get the last crab in the water when Haley’s line started peeling off the spool. This fish started to head out in the same direction as Hambone’s then made a u-turn and went straight back to the structure. There was nothing Haley could do but hope the fish did not go deep, but it did and cut her off.

We quickly threw out more crabs and within a minute Melissa had another one on. This was a little bit bigger fish and luckily it headed out to deeper water with zero structure around. Melissa fought the Permit for about 30 minutes, a nice 28 pounder. With one in the box for dinner, we wanted to tag this one and get a fin clip for DNA to assist in the “Project Permit” study.

This study, in partnership with Bonefish Tarpon & Trust and Costa Del Mar, is part of a new Permit research at the FWC – Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI). The DNA samples will be used to determine if Permit throughout Florida are from a unit stock.

Contact Captain Harry Conner at: www.hookemharry.com or by cell at 813-388-3285.