Permit fishing in the Tampa Bay!
The days are far and few between for most anglers of waking up and saying “lets go catch a Permit in the Tampa Bay”. Believe it or not, the Tampa Bay has an excellent but very unpublished Permit fishery. Historically, the Permit show up in the crystal clear waters of the Tampa Bay in the late spring and early summer months, and usually by the hundreds which makes them easy to spot on clear days. I had been pre fishing a large group of young and aggressive fish days before today so I had been pattering them, figuring out what they were eating and how they were behaving all while keeping a safe distance to make sure I didn’t turn a happy group of permit into a spooky group. The night before, I shot a text over to a good friend of mine saying “lets catch Permit tomorrow”, Brit was down! Brittany is a bass fisherman from Florida who fishes many small tournaments in the St Petersburg area but doesn’t have much time fishing in saltwater, but she is an adaptable and exceptional angler! Brittany and I met at Oneills Marina around 9 am, no reason to get up super early as you need a little sunlight to spot Permit. After loading up the boat and a fifteen minute boat ride, we showed up to the general area where I had been finding the Permit doing their Permit things. I brought out some pilchards because I had been catching and seeing nice snook in the area as well and wanted Brit to warm up on casting before we found the Permit. While site casting a few Snook, Brittany looked to the left of us and said ” what are those”, she had spotted a school of very docile and relaxed Permit hanging about 20 feet from the boat. I passed her a rod rigged up with a 1/16 oz bucktail jig, and she knew what to do from there, she had hooked a Permit within 2 seconds of making a cast. After a few drag screaming, blistering runs she landed a Permit in the Tampa Bay! Long story short, we proceeded to catch about a dozen more Permit out of the massive school and decided to call it a day! This is a fishery that I am very familiar with and comfortable introducing to charters, but it is also a very special fishery that I like to take care of. If you are interested in booking a specialty charter targeting Permit in the Tampa Bay, please get in touch with me. I target them in shallow water from May-July, and target them at the nearshore reefs throughout the entire summer.
