The ABC’s of Fly Fishing for Permit in Belize Part 6 Moving the Fly, the Hookset and Potential Problems
By listening to your guide and working in concert with him, your odds of hooking and landing a permit are greatly enhanced.
When I know that I’ve dropped the fly near the permit, I’ll just let it sit there on the bottom of the flat. This is incredibly difficult to do and takes a great deal of patience. I’ll watch the fish and gauge its actions, which will then dictate what I do next. Many anglers don’t have the discipline to do this and they’ll end up stripping the fly as though they were fishing for permit in deeper water. For permit tailing in skinny water, stripping the fly in this fashion is a complete waste of time!
Unlike open water prey that will flee an oncoming permit, crabs on the flats will pretty much do the opposite of this. Crabs instinctively know that they cannot out swim a permit so what they’ll do is remain motionless or quickly try to borrow down into the coral or grass. If I think that the permit is near the fly, but still hasn’t seen the fly, I’ll “twitch it” just a little bit to create a tiny amount of movement that the fish can then zero in on. No more than an inch or two. And then I’ll let it sit again. If you lose patience and move the crab too quickly, it will appear unnatural to the permit and the fish will blow off the flat, taking any other permit nearby with it. If you need to move the fly, a little twitch is all that’s warranted. Aside from the accuracy of your cast, having the discipline to let the fly sit on the bottom of the flat without moving it, is the most challenging aspect of targeting this fish.
The Hook Set
Over the past couple of years there has been a great deal of debate about this critical aspect of fly fishing for permit. Ever since Jack Samson published his updated version of Fly Fishing for Permit, which is a must read by the way, the hook set has been a great topic of conversation around the bar after a day on the flats. Samson asserts that we have been waiting too long to set the hook and that as soon as the permit tips up on the fly, that we need to set the hook, rather than waiting for the take and the line going tight. I understand what he’s saying but I’m not sold on the argument, and neither are many of the Belizean permit guides I’ve known for 25 years. After reading his book, I went right out and put his ideas to practice, with no discernable increase in my number of hookups. Both times I went out onto the flats and tried Samsons’ new technique; I warned my guides that I would be trying something a little different in terms of when I set the hook. The look on their faces after I’d missed the first seven or eight fish said it all.
I do recognize that innovation often takes a while to take hold and that many of us anglers are slow to embrace change. So, I’m not saying that Samson is wrong. I’m just not convinced, yet! I recommend that you defer on this question to your guide. He’s the one who will be working to get you into the right situation to succeed. Ask him what his philosophy is on the hook set and take it from there.
Playing the Fish
Because there are very few clean flats in Southern Belize (those without coral heads or coral debris nearby) once a permit is hooked and is on the reel, the angler should get the rod and reel up over their heads as the fish is making its initial run. This gets the line up high and hopefully over the coral that the fish has likely just swam by. The guide will make a quick decision on what the next step is. If the flat is heavily ringed by coral, the guide will likely get the boat and expect the angler to get into the boat so that the fish can be fought form this advantageous platform. Being in the boat elevates the angler and gets the leader and fly line further above the coral. When you do hook up, be ready to get into the boat in a hurry. The guide will come running up to you pulling the boat, and will hold it while you climb in. You may even have to hand the rod off temporarily while you get safely into the boat. It is not uncommon to hook a permit on a flat in 12 inches of water, only to land the fish a 1⁄4 mile away in 60 feet of water. Make sure that your drag is properly set before you make your first cast. If you’re unsure, ask your guide for the appropriate setting. If you have to adjust the drag once the fish is on, you’re in trouble. Last year alone I watched two different anglers crank down on the drag when they thought they were loosening it. The results were the same. Lost fish, and angry, self-loathing guests!
The Dreaded Trout Set
Once the permit has your fly in its mouth, there is no debate about what to do next. Many people who fish for permit miss the fish because they have ingrained freshwater habits which work against them when they get into the salt. The “Trout Set” is the single biggest impediment to catching permit and if you can leave one habit behind when you get on the plane to Belize, let it be this one. The trout set is when the angler feels the fish on the other end of the line and lifts the rod tip to set the hook. DON’T DO THIS! Instead, when you feel pressure on the line, with your left hand (vise versa if you’re left-handed) strip set the hook. You don’t have to set the hook as hard as you would for, say, a tarpon. The permits mouth and lips, while rubbery, are no harder than that of a bonefish, which means that a lot of force is not necessary. Just a quick tug of the line with your hand and then stand back and carefully feed the line through the guides until the line is on the reel. When a permit realizes that it’s hooked, it begins an explosive first run. Often when the permit “blows up”, the line will “jump” and will wrap around either the reel or butt end of the rod. You already have the line in your hand from the strip set so if you control the line going out through the guides with your hand, it will eliminate these problems. Permit will frequently go for a fly more than once, particularly if that fly has been hastily yanked out of its mouth by an over anxious angler. The fish will quite often still want the fly and will frantically search around in a 2-foot area looking for the fly. If you use the tip of the rod to set the hook, rather than a strip set, you will often pull the fly four or five feet out of the permits strike zone. This forces the angler to make another cast to get the fly back into the permits immediate feeding area. At this point the angler is usually frustrated and nervous and will often hit the fish or line it when trying to get the crab fly back in to where it was just removed from. By now you know what the end result of this is!