Code Crackers

For years I dreamt about catching permit (aka pumpkinheads or oyster-crackers) on the fly. They were, and remain, the number one quest for the saltwater fly fisher. Guiding in northern waters and fishing some of the world’s best flats brought me face to face with them, but they were by no means a consistent catch.

A few years ago I caught a permit on camera, fishing with Dave Bradley, while filming my Adventure Angler TV series. I rate Dave as the best flats fly-fishing guide in the country. He already had a good tally of permit to his credit, but then something clicked big-time. He drove me mad with almost daily text messages of ‘got two yesterday’ and ‘got three today’.

I had to get back to Hinchinbrook, to film his latest tactics. We had two good days of sunshine, two short sessions, reasonably windy conditions, and so-so tides. We boated three beautiful permit between 6 and 8 kilos, lost two more at the boat, and missed one when the hook didn’t find a home on the strike. Pretty awesome fishing, especially on camera, and true to the consistent numbers Dave had been teasing me with for two years or more.

SAFETY IN NUMBERS

For sheer quantity, the best place to find permit is in the Hinchinbrook Channel in far north Queensland. There are more at Hinchinbrook than anywhere I’ve fished, including a number of countries in Central America. What really sets it apart is that they can be found on almost any day of the year. That’s not on an occasional tide, or on an occasional flat, but over a range of conditions, tides and flats structures. In so many other places, if they’re not there, they’re not there. At Hinchinbrook, if you can’t find them you simply look elsewhere.

But this doesn’t make them easy to catch. Far from it! It’s a case of safety in numbers. They’re numerous, and they’re safe.

Both Dave and I have fished for permit on the east coast of Queensland and the west side of Cape York and we believe Hinchinbrook’s fishery is the most demanding. We have not fished for the species in Western Australia, but from what I have read about and seen through footage, the fisheries are quite different. I’m putting my head right on the block here, but when you have schools of permit sitting in the wave zone, eating floating crabs alongside wharves, or swimming with stingrays, you have an easier scenario than the classic fish mooching slowly on a clear sandflat.

Whatever the case, a permit on fly is a permit on fly. You work for every one of them and they truly are the Holy Grail.

There are two common permit species in Australia, Trachinotus blochii and Trachinotus anak. At Hinchinbrook and Cape York there is a mixture of the two, but clear differences in behaviour. At Hinchinbrook T. anak is the bigger, living predominantly inside the Channel and around estuary flats. T. blochii is a smaller fish, often as small as a saucer. It has oversized dorsal and anal fins, often swims with rays and shovelnose sharks, and lives on flats closer to ocean currents and reef. The two species differ in body shape, T. blochii being shorter and more triangular. In our experience on the east coast, it is the easier fish to tempt with a fly.

THE PERMIT PUZZLE

In the quest to tackle the permit puzzle in Australia over the last decade or more, there have been countless theories and tactics put up for debate. The exact nature of their diet has been one talking point. Obviously crabs and shellfish are on the menu, but does it extend to prawns and baitfish?

Most have been caught on crab patterns, but some have succumbed to shrimp and prawn imitations. More than a few permit have been hooked on Clouser variants. My feeling is that permit are taking these for shrimp rather than baitfish, but invariably fish are fish—they’re pretty basic creatures so if they’re hungry and they think it’s food…

Another puzzling topic has always been whether to retrieve or not, and if so, how fast or slow? You can apply some simple logic here. You need some tension on the fly-line to feel the take. Permit can pick the fly up, then spit it out again without much fuss. If you’re not involved in that take, you won’t hook the fish. It’s difficult, and bordering on impossible to keep tension on the fly without moving it, so, there will be some retrieve.

Perhaps it’s worth considering another factor. It’s a given that the best time to catch permit is around the low tide, ideally on the start and first half of the incoming tide. With this in mind, most things a permit eats will be moving, so why not your fly?

The ideal presentation to a sighted permit is to cast the fly a distance above the fish relative to tidal movement. Once the fly is on the bottom, you can start a long slow retrieve that will allow the fly to drift and drag along ‘with the tide’, down onto the fish. This in theory is a natural drift and presentation, and maintaining line tension is critical.

UNREAL EYESIGHT?

Another myth is that because these fish are spooky and have a large eye, they must have incredible eyesight. I’ve been pretty close to permit on the bow of a 19-foot flats boat, and I’m not convinced. However, fly fishers have reduced their tippet size in response. I’ve done it myself, mostly to 6 kg, but I’ve fished 4 kg plenty of times.

Now here’s the thing. Since Dave Bradley has been landing permit consistently, his tippet size has steadily increased! His base tippet size is 16 lb test or just under 8 kg, though his clients have caught a decent number of permit in clear conditions on 10 kg tippet.

When you think about it, when permit are in a true feeding mood, they’re moving slowly, at times barely moving at all, and they’re searching along the bottom. Not just close to the bottom. When they are really serious they are tilted down towards the sand, which must limit their window of vision.

Anglers have often attributed a missed opportunity to a fish shying away from the leader. More likely the permit may never have actually seen the fly at all. Near enough is clearly not good enough. I must have made a thousand casts at permit with crab patterns on light tippets. Less than ten have been eaten. Some fish were caught after several presentations, most of which I thought were about perfect. Two permit captures were on my first cast!

CRACKING THE CODE

I’m convinced that a crab pattern is the best fly to present to a permit. I also believe that you can retrieve the fly, albeit very slowly, basically at the speed of the current. Most of the time, I don’t think that permit are ultra-spooky, or have incredible eyesight, so reasonable tippets can be used.

Dave Bradley and some of his clients and mates have certainly found a few keys to catching permit consistently. The most obvious is also the most basic principle in all fly fishing—put the fly in front of the fish. This is where I believe most anglers are falling short. The fly isn’t precisely in the correct place to get a bite.

The fly must be on the bottom, simple as that. But it must also be on the bottom within the permit’s window of vision, not two metres away as it drifts past.

To achieve this, a few things must happen. The angler must judge how long it will take for a particular crab pattern to reach the bottom, given the depth of water and speed of the tide. You need to present the fly a distance away to avoid spooking the fish, anticipating how much ‘free drift’ the crab needs to reach the strike zone before you come tight on the fly.

Quite often, despite a perfectly-calculated presentation, the permit will change direction. Recast!

Dave believes the secret to consistently hooking permit is the weight of the crab pattern, and that nearly all those made popular in the past are too light. I realise now that so many of my previous presentations to permit probably drifted short of the bottom. This may mean the fish simply doesn’t see the crab, or ignores it swimming in mid-water.

In the past two seasons that Dave’s permit captures have exploded, the tippets haven’t got lighter, the anglers aren’t casting better, the permit aren’t dumber, but the crab flies are far more realistic and seriously heavier.

Crab flies have never been easy to cast. The new versions tied by Dave Bradley, Neil Shepherd and Ken Culgin are even harder to cast, especially with any accuracy against a 20 knot wind. But if you can get the job done, the fly will hit the bottom and you’re a genuine chance of hooking a permit.

Chasing after the Holy Grail was never supposed to be easy. But for anglers prepared to power up their casting and become proficient with super-heavy flies, perhaps the oyster crackers code is at last becoming decipherable.