The ABC’s of Fly Fishing for Permit in Belize Part 5 Making The Cast
When you or the guide spots a permit, you’ve got a limited window of time to figure out which direction the fish is traveling in and what depth the fish is swimming at.
Experienced permit fishermen will do this calculation automatically and they’ll get the fly out within a couple of seconds. If you’re not there yet, this is what you need to aspire to. It does become automatic, and with practice, you’ll begin to react in this manner without even thinking about it. Once you’ve figured out which way the fish is moving, you’ll need to throw your fly about 6 feet in front of the fish. Leading the permit by this distance will allow two critical things to happen.
1) It ensures that the fly will hit the water far enough in front of the fish so that the permit won’t notice the splash that the fly will cause when it hits the water.
If you get the fly too close, the permit will blow out immediately. Too far and the permit won’t see the fly and will frequently turn off in another direction.
2) It will also allow you to control the sink rate of the fly by giving you enough time to manipulate the fly to the desired depth that the fish is cruising at.
Once you’ve got the fly in front of the fish, you need to start stripping the fly in measured, 12- to 18-inch-long strips. The speed at which you should be stripping the fly will be dictated by how quickly the permit is moving. You want to get the fishes attention so you’ve got to move the fly relatively quickly, at least to start. Remember, when permit are in deeper water, they expect their prey to escape away from them, so you need to keep this in mind when stripping if you want the fly to appear natural. If the fish is showing no interest, vary your stripping speed and the lengths of the strips. A quick change of pace is often enough to trigger a strike.
The Flats
Located inside the Barrier Reef, the permit flats of Southern Belize are coral based and in general, offer very solid footing for anglers. These flats can stretch for over a mile with deep water on either side, dropping off into various depths and shades of blue and green. The width of these flats is usually no more than twenty yards and can be as little as 3 or 4 yards across. The flats look like long brown fingers stretching through a gorgeous blue sea. This area is one of the most beautiful eco-systems I’ve ever seen! To the untrained eye, a tidal flat can seem utterly devoid of life, but nothing could be further from the truth. These flats support an enormous amount of life and potential food for permit. Crabs, shrimp, octopus, baby conch, and a myriad of small fish all live in and around these unique ecosystems. And a permit will gladly eat all of these species. As the water starts to surge up onto the flat, permit will cruise and hang on the edges, waiting until there’s enough water to allow them to get further up on the flat to feed. When you start to wade these flats and are looking for tailing fish, focus on where the waves are breaking onto the flat. This is where you’ll see the most permit. Yes, permit will feed in the middle of the flat, but more often than not they will be working the edges of the flat where the water breaks and rips.
Permit are smart, and when actively feeding, will take advantage of the waves kicking up shrimp and small crabs that get caught up in the “wash”. Permit are also far more comfortable when they have quick access to deeper water, which means the edges of the flats, rather than the middle of the flat where they’re more vulnerable to predators. Many of Belize’s flats have coral heads and small patch reefs ringing the edge of the flats. These coral formations pose a huge challenge to anglers who have managed to hook a permit, and I cannot count the number of fish I’ve watched break off on a coral head or rock. These coral formations harbor crabs and other food and permit will often feed right in tight to these coral heads. It’s a delicate and unforgiving art to be able to present a fly into a coral patch to a tailing permit. There is little room for error and your chances of success are low in this situation. However, there are a couple of things that anglers can do to help avoid the disappointment caused by a coral bust off and I’ll deal with these a little further down.
Casting to Permit on the Flats
Casting to permit on the flats is completely different than targeting permit in deeper water. It requires a whole different skill set and poses a whole new set of challenges. Permit feeding in skinny water are genetically programmed to bail out off the flat into deeper water if anything appears unnatural to them. A splash, a shadow, anything at all really, and they’re gone! When permit are feeding in this environment (1-3 feet of water on the tidal flats), their heads are down near the bottom of the flat, as they use their lips and mouth to chase crabs and other prey out of coral and grass hiding places. When this is taking place, their dorsal and or tail fins will often stick out of the water. You want to drop the fly right in front of the permits head, as close to the fish as you can possibly get the fly without hitting it. If you do end up hitting the fish or lining it (as I’ve done more times than I can count) and it blows out, well… that’s permit fishing. Spooking fish is part of the deal and we all do it! At least you know the fish saw the fly. You want to get the fly in close to the permit because they can’t eat what they don’t see. Many permit anglers are tentative when casting to tailing fish and will often throw short. You’ve got to develop an attack mindset when dropping the fly in front of the permit. Cast it in as close as you can and don’t worry about spooking the fish. And they don’t eat with their tails so make sure to cast to the permits head! Dropping a fly 6 inches from a tailing permit when your heart is pounding, your lips are cracked from the sun, and the wind is blowing into your face, is not an easy task. This fish forces you to be at the top of your game where minor mistakes translate into missed opportunities. The most experienced permit fishermen know exactly when to drop the fly in on the fish. It’s incredibly difficult, takes years of practice, and is highly effective once you learn to master it. The proper time to cast a fly at a permit is just as fish tips up to feed. When the tail tips up, and the permits head goes down to the bottom of the flat, its eyes and attention are focused squarely on searching the bottom for food. In this situation, when the timing of the cast is good, the fish won’t often notice the splash of the fly on the surface. If you can get to this stage, you’ll start to catch permit. The real fun though, is trying to get to this level!
