Permit

Now that summer is here I can finally catch my breath a bit while enjoying some of the year‘s best fishing on the island. This is the time when the winter tourists start thinning out and life gets back to a more sedate pace down here. Looking back on the season so far, despite the outrageous winds and tricky fishing, business was far better than expected.

I was booked solid from the beginning of last December. My new Beavertail skiff has been a fantastic investment and has put my anglers on more fish than I ever realized were out there. We’ve also had more than our share of kicks on the days when I wasn‘t out running a charter. Amanda and I have done everything from sailing the Drake Passage around Tortola on her parent‘s Beneteau 38, to chasing huge bonefish off Culebra with Capt Chris Goldmark, to riding shotgun with Jimmy Buffett in his seaplane while scouting out surfing spots here on Vieques. So far, it’s been an unforgettable season.

When I look back at all the notable personalities who graced the bow of my boat this year, I never would have imagined that my favorite day on the water would be spent with two beer-chugging truck drivers from Long Island.

John booked me online over a month ago and when I met him and his friend Eddie at the gas station near my house, and neither of them was what I was expecting. Almost half of my customers seem to be New Yorkers nowadays, but these guys were the real deal. They were big blue collar types and I could instantly tell that they were all about working hard and playing even harder. Within ten seconds of meeting them they were busting my chops, as only true New Yorkers can, about my beat up, twenty year old Jeep they’d be riding in with me that morning. I felt like I was in a scene from “Goodfellas,” with De Niro in the right seat and Pesci in the back. I liked them immediately.

After several months of dealing with twenty knot winds and anglers struggling to cast fly rods, John and Eddie were a welcome relief. The hell with being a hero, they just wanted to catch fish, and chucking spinning rods was more than fine for both of them. Before I set up the gear I was amazed to learn that not only was this their first flats fishing trip, but that Eddie had never even been fishing before in his life. That threw a lot of pressure my way to get these guys hooked up and addicted to a new sport.

Of course it would be Eddie, the rank amateur, who hooked up first. After needing only a few minutes to master the spin fishing technique, I had him jigging a small bucktail lure along the edge of the Ensenada Honda mangroves. Twenty minutes later his rod doubled over and the eight pound line started peeling off the spool. The fish dove into the deeper water and kept pulling straight toward the bottom. This seemed like the classic fighting style of nice snapper and that’s exactly what it was. Eddie’s first fish was a five pound mutton snapper, one of the most beautiful and best tasting fish that swims. I wrote about this species last month, and how rare they were to catch on the flats up in the Florida Keys. Down here in Vieques they’re almost and everyday sight. Eddie was now officially a veteran angler.

John was now in the batter’s box and he was about to knock one out of the park. I really wanted the guys to hook a bonefish since that’s the one species that really makes an impact on first time flats anglers. What we saw swimming right towards us was an even better target. The three black finned fish were a small school of permit, the most elusive species down here. John fired a perfect shot and one of the permit raced forward as soon as his lure, a brown DOA Shrimp, hit the water. Permit are notoriously indifferent to artificial baits, but this fish was possessed. It attacked the rubber shrimp three different times before finally snagging the hook less than a rod’s length from the bow. Then it was off to the races.

Over the past three years I’ve had dark cloud hanging over my head with these fish. I have never landed a permit down here in Vieques. I’ve had dozens hooked up and they all manage to break off or the hook simply pulls loose. I’ve boated several hundred of them up in the Keys, where they’re far more common, but none down here. I call it my Permit Curse and try not to talk about it too much. This day felt like the day the curse would be lifted, and it was.
Even though it was a small fish, eight pound line is no match for a six pound permit if it’s not handled just right, and fortunately, John handled everything just right. After quite a few tense minutes, the fish was up on the surface next to the boat and its tail was in my hand. It was John’s first permit and the first one that Vieques finally decided to let me have. Curse lifted.

Over the past three years I’ve hosted rock stars, best selling authors, corporate CEO’s, and some really talented anglers. I’ve had my share of great fishing and pure frustration, but I can’t remember being any more satisfied than on this recent morning with two truck driving rookie flats fishermen. John and Eddie from Long Island, with their big snapper and small permit, are easily my Anglers of the Year. I can’t wait to see them again next year.