Dr. Ralph Cifaldi’s Gyno Crab – Tied by Doug Schlink
Mid-Morning Permit Snack
Hook: Daiichi X452 or similar in #2 or #4 Thread: Danvilles Flat Wax, Fl. Green Weight: Lead Eyes – sized to water depth and hook size Tail: Appx 2 – 2 ½ inches, Polar bear, dyed golden orange (Rit golden yellow dye does it) and barred with a dark brown (*) marking pen Body: 8 pieces of Tan Aunt Lydia’s Rug Yarn (Antron) figure-eighted in (Merkin fashion) on top of hook shank, and trimmed to appx dime shape. Legs: 2 (**) Amber/flecked black Sili-Legs, square knotted in (Merkin style), trimmed slightly long (about 1 inch) and set with Krazy Glue (***)
* I didn’t have a dark brown pen, just dark umber. The barring should be darker – more contrasting. ** While conventional wisdom would dictate 3 legs (per side), Ralph contends permit can’t count, so this is tied true to his original pattern (which worked, so apparently they can’t count). *** I didn’t have any Krazy Glue handy – just used some head cement. Ralph put drops of Krazy Glue on the legs near the edges of the yarn body (and worked into the yarn slightly) to keep these sticking out at the appropriate angles.
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Kevin Sheehan and his fiancée, Brenna Wiberg recently returned from a fabulous trip to Turneffe Island Resort the week of April 9 – 16, 2011. Kevin fished with veteran Turneffe guide Clinton Wade (a.k.a. KP), and landed 4 out of 6 permit hooked, including the beautiful 30 pounder pictured here!
Nice fish Kevin
Despite it still being early for tarpon on the Turneffe Atoll, KP managed to get Kevin into about a half dozen tarpon up to 80 pounds (he landed 3 including one to fill out a Grand Slam!).
Kevin spent some time chasing the bones, landing a bunch up to around 7 pounds, and devoted time to coaching Brenna (previously a non-fisherperson) into her first bonefish! (She fishes now!). AND, Kevin was perhaps most excited about seeing and hooking, not 1, not 2, but 3 of the extremely rare Turneffe Golden Bones (more on these guys in a future post). Only a handful of these are landed every year, and Kevin has vowed to get one on his next trip (which they’ve already booked – their honeymoon in 2012!).
Belize is a great destination for anglers traveling during the summer months due to its neo to sub-tropical climate, whose daytime temperatures only vary between 10 – 15 degrees over the course of a year. This consistency makes the fishing in Belize fairly predictable, as well as productive, each month of the year. The following write up by Doug Schink (doug@angleradventues.com) on Tarpon Caye Lodge recently appeared in The Angling Report.
Tarpon Caye is a 10-acre private island situated 15 miles east of Placencia, Belize in the area referred to as “Permit Alley”. The Caye takes its name from its tarpon lagoon that reliably holds a resident population of mid size (30 – 60 lbs.) tarpon. There are also some fair to good bonefish flats in the area, but permit is the main attraction at Tarpon Caye. On the top half of the tide, permit predictably flood the dozens of flats found within a 5 – 20 minute run of the Caye. These are skinny, gin-clear ocean water flats and dorsal as well as caudal fins are frequently out of the water. While you can skiff fish, it’s often more productive to wade these firm, shallow flats. It’s not unusual to have 20 or more legitimate shots over a tide.
Love at First Sight
Tarpon Caye Lodge is owned by “Permit Guru”, Charlie Leslie who has spent over 35 years guiding permit anglers on these flats. What distinguishes the fishing program from more conventional “8 to 4” lodge programs is that they will fish the tides. ‘We do fishing here’, is Charlie’s motto, and he means it. If you are there over a full or new moon, your highest tides occur during the middle of the day and thus the best permit fishing will be during the midday hours. However if your stay coincides with a quarter moon when low tide typically occurs around midday, Charlie will schedule “split day” fishing. For example, during these tides, you might fish from first light until the permit leave the flats with the falling tide, say from 5:30 to 8:30 am. You’ll then return to the lodge for a breakfast/brunch, and a siesta. Around 2:00 pm, you’ll head back out to meet the permit returning to the flats on the incoming tide, and fish until dark.
Accommodations are in basic but comfortable double occupancy cabañas on stilts, each with full tiled bath with hot and cold water and generated electricity. The clubhouse features the bar and dining room where guests enjoy libations and excellent meals featuring the freshest local seafood.
Tarpon Caye Lodge is competitively priced and is currently offering a special for 7 nights/6-days fishing for $1,999 per person double occupancy.
Permit Alley is a challenging fishery to be sure, but if stalking tailing permit on foot on gin-clear flats appeals to you, you owe it to yourself to take the challenge!
We haven’t stopped talking about Bob Cosgriff’s HUGE PERMIT since he sent us the first photo February 25, 2015 on his way home from the Bahamas. You can read Bob’s write up and see a photo below. More photos from Bob’s trip can be found on our Facebook Page.
Photo Credit to Capt. Barry Kanavy
“PERMIT – IT’S HUGE!”
by Bob Cosgriff
These are the words we all long to hear. But let’s start at the beginning.
After several months of miserable winter weather my friend Capt. Barry Kanavy and I were looking forward to six days of fishing on Acklins Island at Grey’s Point Bonefishing Lodge. Acklins is known for its bonefishing so we loaded up on equipment for the grey ghost. Evan Peterson at Angler Adventures had suggested we hook up with the head guide at Greys, Garon Williamson to show us around.
My motto is be ready for “anything”. So that means 5 rods: Three eight weights for Bones, a nine weight for Permit and a ten weight for Barracuda . Every thing was packed, lines cleaned, leaders checked and five boxes of flies; just the basics!
The week started with three days of fly tying as a cold front shut everything down. On day four & five the clouds parted and we got to experience what Grey’s Point is noted for, stalking bones on expansive wading flats. On our last day, I made a casual comment to Garon that we’d like fish from the boat and try our luck with the Cudas we had seen prowling the deeper flats. That request would change our fishing lives forever.
Photo Credit: Barry Kanavy
Two hours later Barry and I surveyed our frayed leaders, mangled wire, shredded Barracuda flies and some great photos to remember our time stalking these torpedoes. Garon mentioned he had one more place to show us for barracuda and the occasional permit.
We motored over on the ocean side and cruised around for five minutes when I heard Garon call from the back of the boat “PERMIT – IT’S HUGE” …tailing behind a ray.
I jumped off the poling platform where I had been sitting and walked forward as Barry pulled out my permit rig of choice: Helios2 9wt, Nautilus NV reel , Rio 9 weight permit line connected to a Rio 20lb leader, ending with a tan Kung fu crab size 4. I was ready. I was confident. After all I had recently tamed some bad ass cudas! I stripped out my line, saw the ray, and on my third attempt cast 65 feet landing the leader 2 feet over the ray. I let the fly sink in the 5 foot water and then felt a small tug. I set the hook and the permit was on. Things stayed pretty calm, the line cleared the deck and everything was under control. I had caught small permit before, so how bad could this be? I would soon find out.
The fish then began a slow turn on my right side. Not a full run but a slow drive by so he could give me a once over. It was then that I realized Garon had been trying to keep me calm when he said, “huge Permit”. It wasn’t huge, it was a monster! I felt my confidence drain as if I’d sprung a leak. I clicked down the drag three times . . . I was going to need all of it. I looked at the nine weight in my hands and realized that I had brought a knife to a gun fight. Seconds later my reel started to scream and I said goodbye to my fly line for the next 35 minutes as the permit began his run to open water and large swells. Barry grabbed the back of my belt to stabilize me in the rolling water and to relay commands to Garon. Twice the fish surged out to deeper water and I was still hanging on. Then I looked down at my reel to see the backing getting very thin. I estimated I had 50 feet left and yelled to Barry and Garon to fire up the engine and we slowly regained some backing only to have the fish take off again. We kept this game up for 20 minutes until he made a run to some rocks on a point. Now I had my moment of truth. I had to stop him from reaching the rocks, even if I broke him off. I swung the rod to the left, put as much pressure as I could and hoped he would turn before the rod exploded. Ten feet from the rocks the fish turned and for the first time in the battle I felt I really had a chance to land this beast.
Slowly I gained backing and started to control his head. Finally I saw my fly line coming back through the guides. 35 minutes had gone by and my arms and legs were on fire. Slowly he came to the boat moving back and forth using his body as a brake against me. He was three feet off the bow when I had a new panic attack that I had lost my leverage and the big fish was taking advantage of that. Finally he came around the side, Garon touched the leader and grabbed the tail like his life depended on it.
Barry and I waited for Garon to stand up with our trophy, but nothing happened. Then we heard him yell that the fish was too heavy. Barry grabbed Garon’s belt and back pack and pulled our guide back into the boat – holding the biggest permit we had ever seen. The fish sat on the floor – We were stunned! No one did anything or spoke for 15 seconds, we just looked at a truly colossal permit. We regained our composure and with both Garon and I holding the fish Barry took some quick pictures.
Photo Credit: Capt. Barry Kanavy
Now our efforts reversed as we scrambled to get the fish back into the water to live another day. He was tired but slowly he got stronger and Garon let go of the tail as he headed off to deeper water.
How big was the permit? We estimated sixty pounds. Other veteran guides, after seeing the pictures say, 60-70 pounds – others less. Is it a record? We will leave that to others to decide. We quickly measured the length against the rod – 45 inches! The girth not measured but look at the photos – you guess.
All we know is that on February 24, 2015 something special took place out there. Garon summed it up best when he said “We will fish the rest of our lives and never catch a fish like that again”. Barry and I quietly nodded our heads as we slowly motored back to the lodge. We were done for the day.
Ultimately, it wasn’t about breaking or claiming records. The best part was watching the fish swim away.
2015 will be remembered in Angling history as the year it became legal for US Citizens, in possession of a “people to people” travel letter from the non-profit fisheries research and conservation organization Bonefish Tarpon Trust (BTT), to sport fish in Cuba.
2015 is also the year travel restrictions were lifted, making it legal for US airlines to fly to Cuba, US travel agents to book travelers to Cuba and US insurance companies to offer travel insurance to US Citizens traveling to Cuba.
Angler Adventures has been assisting a limited number of US anglers traveling legally to Cuba for several years. But, the easing of restrictions in general and the travel license from BTT in particular, opens the door for any US angler wanting to fish Cuba.
What hasn’t changed (and will take years to catch up) is the tourist infrastructure within Cuba and the transportation network to Cuba. Traveling to Cuba is still complex. We recommend using a knowledgeable, qualified travel agent, whether it’s your first trip or your twelfth.
In addition to having a staff of fishing experts, Angler Adventures is a full service travel agency, licensed to sell travel insurance. Angler Adventures can assist you in selecting a fishing location in Cuba, prepare you for what to fish for and what to bring, assist you in obtaining the travel letter from the BTT, assist with your Cuban Visa, create the most efficient travel itinerary for you and your group and offer you the protection of travel insurance for trip cancellation, trip interruption, emergency medical evacuation, and more.
Call us today at 1-800-628-1447. There is so much more we’d like to share with you about this fascinating country and phenomenal saltwater fishery.
Want to know more about traveling to Cuba and its amazing Fisheries: Click or Tap below.
Cuba: Now Available – Bonefish, Permit, Tarpon, Snook & More
