Archive for 2017

Last week I fished two separate days, one alone with Ian Slater and one with my good friend Michael Hetzel and Simon Becker. Ian and I enjoyed some typical fall fishing–too warm for the barracuda to be as playful as we needed, and too cold for the permit to be around in great supply. Had…

At the beginning of the month, Kat and I fished the Sugarloaf Showdown with Doug Kilpatrick. Over the last few years this tournament has become a fun way for the LKGA to benefit the Guides Trust Foundation, and with Irma’s recent taxation of both organizations it was a great way to get back to normal…

Chad drove down late last Sunday evening, and we tucked back directly in to our pursuit of the 2 lb tippet permit record. The last time I’d fished with 2# was with John O’Hearn a few weeks back, when a torrent of bad luck afflicted us on the four bites we were able to squeak…

Earlier in the week I fished for a day with Ian Slater and Joe Skrumbellos. We took my boat, which was slightly overkill for permit fishing, though we had to let the beast stretch its legs since it’s been idle since before Irma. I was looking forward to the day fishing with Joe, who has…

Earlier in the week I got out on the water for a day with Doug Kilpatrick–the number at the bottom of a complicated receipt. There was an eating competition involved, and a pick gaff, and somehow it ended up that Doug was going to take me fishing and that’s how it happened. We set out…

On Monday and Tuesday, I fished with John O’Hearn. It was our first day back on the water together since the days in August with Chad, when we had come perilously close to the 2lb permit record with a fish that was 4 ounces shy of the current record. Between then and now much has…

I’m sure everyone has heard about Irma and the damage that was done to the Keys. In places it’s worse than you can imagine, and in others it’s less than you’d think. Key West did incredibly well, without much of a storm surge, and while there are a lot of trees down it’s on the…

Last week I fished for a few days with Chad Huff and John O’Hearn, part of Chad’s now annual trip down to Key West to chase permit. As part of our ongoing effort to make things harder than they should be, our intention was to throw 2 pound tippet at permit exclusively with John. We…

The longer Del Brown report pushed me back a bit on the timeline, and while I had a few tough days of fishing after the tournament with Ian I’m oddly grateful that I don’t have loads to report from them. Basically, we had two days that were without many shots and certainly without a capture.…

A few weeks ago the Del Brown Tournament happened. It’s the last of the majors for the year, and with the exception of the Superfly in September the last of the tournaments I’ll fish in 2017. As such it’s bittersweet, and I’m already plotting our approach for 2018 in both the permit and the tarpon…