Permit are plenty this summer

Report Date: June 5, 2009

Permit are plenty this summer

The last 4 weeks around LARGE or NO moons have been bringing in plenty of fish into
Biscayne Bay on calm early mornings or evenings you can find tailing fish on the west shoreline from Matheson Hammock south….you have to do the rest! These guys are suckers for a silver dollar crab on a 1/0 Owner hook….make sure you use a fluorocarbon leader usually 4 ft for spooky permit, I use either 20, 25 or 30 lb depending on the bottom and the area….the smaller the leader the more likely the bite. Most fish are around 25 lbs but we have been getting them to 42 so far this year I use light tackle which are 10 lb braided line on medium to light rods and Quantums Cabo’s 30 or 40.
Also there is a good amount of Permit on the edges of ocean side flats in moving water from Ocean Reef up to Soldiers Key….look in moving water from 2ft deep all the way up to 5 ft a trolling motor can help here….when fishing for permit in deeper water with a good current I always take a bait and try different split shots and adjust to where I want that bait to be when a permit spots it I will take several practice casts to see if I have to proper weight on my leader some crabs like to head for the bottom and some just sit there! And I make sure to compensate for the moving water by casting up current and to cut off the fish like a quarterback throws to a receiver.
There are other things that come into play like sea fans rocky bottom whether to open the bail and free spool him if you get wrapped in a fan or on a crab trap… it is important to KEEP YOUR ROD TIP UP and try not to let him rub his face on the bottom when you get a chance turn him by putting side pressure on him to turn the fish back to the boat.

Florida bay has producing lots of Reds’ on the flats…. sight fishing with a fly rod is excellent this time of the year, there are big schools of bigger fish too some in the upper teens as are the normal fish in the slot size which is 18 to 27 inches muddlers ,Kwan shrimp pattern and deceivers will work. If you like to tie and you have not had that much sucesse with fish eating you flies this is a great time of year to test you skills cause most of these fish are aggressive and will eat almost any pattern you put in front of them.
Live baiting around some of the islands out front of Flamingo is doing well with plenty of Reds and some big Snook as well. Small tarpon are fun early in the mornings too this time of year and there has been a load of them in the normal spots they are in every year, these small poonies will easily eat a fly on a 7 or 8 weight fly rod most of them are 3 to 15 lbs.
This past Monday we fished the Redghost fishing tournament out of Islamorada for bones and reds, my anglers where David Torbert and Mathew St.Jermaine we started off
slow by finding only a few tailing bones that were kinda spooky then we moved to the reds and after little while we got into them and in 45 minutes David caught 7 and Matt caught 9 both jumped Tarpon and David caught a nice 28 inch Snook……then came the sharks and everything went away!


Good luck and stay away from thunderstorms!
Capt. Jim Hale

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