Fly Fishing For Key West Permit
Permit’s habits, unpredictability, and wariness make them one of the biggest challenges in saltwater fly fishing.
Fly fishing for permit isn’t something many anglers start with as hunting permit in shallow water with a fly rod is considered as one of the biggest challenges in the sport. Permit spend the majority of their lives in deeper water, and occasionally come inshore. Their time spent in shallow water is time usually spent with their guard up. Permit are notoriously cautious in shallow water. Their body shape resembles a satellite dish that can sense the smallest disturbance, and their eyes are big enough to see the slightest movement, either of which will send a permit racing away towards deeper water. Combine that wariness with a propensity to examine their prey before taking hold of it and well, you have a fish that is really spooky and hard to feed with a fly. That is the appeal of the permit.
Permit Fly Fishing
The Lower Keys and Key West have the most inshore permit habitat in the USA. From the Seven Mile bridge all the way to the Marquesas, permit can be found using the basins, banks, flats, and channels that comprise the area.
Finding permit willing to take a fly is a difficult objective, where success often occurs in water that is one to three feet deep. When a permit is in water that shallow, it is never comfortable and probably there for a reason - to feed. The behavior of actively feeding permit, as well as the proper way to fish to them, can vary, but is usually dictated by the conditions of the area they are currently in.
Tailing Permit
When the water is low, and permit have business to conduct in it, they leave a lot of signs that they are there. The most telltale of those signs is that black tail. It will poke out of the water just enough to be seen from a good distance and tease anglers as they make their approach. It might (will) disappear and reappear at the most inconvenient time, but every now and again, as a permit tips down to pick up something off of the bottom, that whole glorious black tail will break the surface and remind permit anglers why they are there. Shots at tailing permit are what most permit aficionados live for.
Fly fishing for tailing permit is the epitome of a team effort. The person on the back of the boat has to make calculated decisions and timed moves to get the boat close enough (without the fish knowing) to setup the angler to make what usually needs to be a perfect shot - a soft landing fly that makes no unnatural movements right in the fish’s face.
Cruising Permit
When the water starts to get over their backs in depth, permit are frequently seen swimming as singles, small groups, and schools looking for a quick meal as the tide forces them elsewhere. Cruising permit are more difficult to spot at a distance as their movements are relatively concealed by the water. Spotting a group of cruising permit usually means their bodies in clear view, which also means that they are in range, or about to be.
Quick setups and great shotmaking catch cruising fish while longer shots landed directly in the fish’s face and presented naturally produce bites.
Floating Permit
When the water is comfortably deep and the wind is calm, permit can be found in groups floating on the surface usually with the tips of their dorsal fin and tail breaking the surface of the water. They may be in a channel between flats sitting in the current waiting for floating crabs to pass by, or they could be in a nearshore basin waiting on their next move. Floating permit have the reputation of being ultra spooky to the point that getting a fly anywhere near them seems impossible.
Floating flies can be casted directly into fish, swung across them, or popped and skated near them depending on what they might allow an angler to get away with. When a permit does take a floating fly, it is usually exciting as their bodies are designed for bottom feeding and surface bites usually involve some sort of permit contortion.
When To Fly Fish Permit
Permit can be targeted year-round in Key West and the Lower Keys under the right conditions. Permit want warm-hot stable weather. The more stable the better which makes July-October the best months. In the spring, permit seem to spend time inshore feeding before disappearing offshore to spawn in April-mid June, making March one of the other best months to catch a permit on fly.
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Tarpon
Tarpon are considered by many as the superstars of the saltwater fly fishing world. Their size, acrobatics, and willingness to take flies make them sought after by both rookie and expert fly anglers alike. Tarpon are caught in a variety of sizes, from 5 pounds to over 200 pounds, and landing a big tarpon on fly is on the bucket list of anglers from all over the world.
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Bonefish
Fly fishing for bonefish is what many anglers think of when they imagine fly fishing in shallow tropical water. Bonefish are a worthy adversary for saltwater anglers of all abilities for a handful of reasons. First and foremost they are fair. A bonefish will bite a well presented fly more often than not. At times, catching a bonefish can be easy, other times, not so much.