Fishing two days ago with Aaron Snell, PM with Tomo Chalmers and a permit

Two nights ago I went fishing with Tomonori, a friend from Japan. We had a fun time in the lights, though we only managed to hook one of the many tarpon we saw and threw at. Our tide wasn’t great, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless and called it a night to get some sleep as we were both fishing the day after.
The following day I fished with Aaron Snell. In preparation for the Del Brown that starts Monday, our target was permit.
We started early, and in our first two spots found nothing. It didn’t take us long to make a move far away for some new water.
We fished some light banks, and in short order found enough fish to keep us occupied. In the course of a few hours we had perhaps eight shots at permit, only one of which was nearly a bite. As we pushed down the bank, a few tarpon showed up, and I grabbed the 10 weight I had rigged from the previous nights expedition with Tomo. One cast at the lead fish didn’t get more than a follow, but I left the fly for the second fish that was, apparently, tired of being wet and wanted to be dried off.
The small hook and 30# shock from the night fishing, as well as the large size of the fish (80 pounds, estimated) led to a longer than normal battle, the end result of which was a broken leader.
We left the area for one more on our way home, and had two shots at permit that didn’t want to play before we called it a day and headed to the dock.

In other permit related news (this time not so dejecting), my friend Chalmers Allen was in the shop the other day and showed my the following photos of his impressive permit caught with Captain Bill Houze earlier that day. The Angling Company would like to congratulate Chalmers on a great catch and give a tip of the hat to Bill for some great guiding. Here are the photos:

Saturday I start with Aaron, and we are planning on fishing every day through the end of the Del Brown tournament that starts on Monday.

Results and reports will be posted here.

ncl