At Outdoors360, we’re excited to offer first-person perspectives on some incredible outdoor experiences. Whether it’s monster fish like these incredible permit, an amazing hunt, or simply an unforgettable adventure, we’re all about the outdoors – and we’re all about changing the way you experience it online. Big thanks to Sean Strahlo, and SaltyRoots.com, for writing this article and sharing their experiences.
Trips start to blend together, and vivid memories begin to fade the more time one spends on the water. Remembering the small details from countless fishing trips is a daunting task and practically impossible without the help of a well kept fishing log. With that said, every angler experiences at least one day on the water that they simply will never forget. More often than not, it takes just one of these unforgettable days to create an unwavering life-long passion for the fishing inside of us. These memories constantly replay in our heads as we tirelessly search for the next hot bite and the adrenaline rush that comes with an unforgettable day on the water. Last summer I experienced one of these unforgettable days.
It was a brutally hot summer day as Capt. Ryan Hambel and I loaded up his 16-foot Ranger Banshee Extreme for an afternoon of snook fishing. We planned to head to one of our favorite wrecks off the East coast of Florida where big spawning snook tend to congregate in the summer. Like most summer afternoons in Florida, scattered thunderstorms were projected in the forecast with 1-2ft seas. We had no intentions of letting a little rain stop us, so we hitched up the boat and rode out.
A short truck ride later we pulled up to an empty boat ramp, launched the boat, and set out. We were met with a strong outgoing tide, which made for a puckered ride through standing waves at the local inlet. Once we broke through the rough outflow of the inlet, we cruised down the beach intently watching the Garmin sonar machine looking for small hits near the bottom. We spent the next 30 minutes loading up on a few dozen croakers. With a livewell full of snook candy, we ventured out to the wreck.
We were blessed upon arrival to find no other boats anchored on the wreck. We quickly deployed the Minn Kota I-Pilot trolling motor, which allowed us to stay perfectly positioned over the wreck without the use of an anchor. We each dropped down the liveliest croakers we had on one ounce knocker rigs, fully expecting them to get inhaled the second they hit the bottom. To our disappointment, the next half hour went by extremely uneventfully. Not a single bite.
During that first 30 minutes at the wreck, I kept hearing a popping sound and noticed small splashes on the surface. I didn’t pay much attention to it at first, thinking it was just bait flicking. With every passing minute, I grew more and more frustrated with the way the snook fishing was going and decided to start switching over my setup to flat line a bait on the surface. As I was attaching 3ft of 40lb Yozuri fluorocarbon leader to a 4/0 Owner Mutu Light circle hook, I noticed a small blue crab floating next to the boat. I checked around the boat and noticed there were quite a few crabs floating by us. And then it happened. Roughly a 40lb permit came up from the bottom and crushed the crab I had been staring at, right next to the boat. Capt. Ryan and I stared at each other in disbelief. Pandemonium broke out as I frantically grabbed the dip net and scooped up the next closest crab. I quickly hooked up the crab and sent it flying 20 yards from the boat. Before I could close the bail, I was hooked up to an enormous permit.
I closed the bail on my Penn Spinfisher 5500 and the drag began to scream. The line peeled off the spool faster than I had ever seen. By the time, I stopped the permit’s blistering first run; two-thirds of my line was gone. About five minutes into the fight, my heart was beating out of my chest, and my total focus was on landing this fish. My focus was broken when Ryan mumbled, “Looks like we are going to get wet.” I turned around, looked to the West, and saw a dark, ominous thunderstorm headed our way.
10 minutes into the fight, I’ve managed to gain back a third of my line. At this point, the permit turned broadside in the water column and tirelessly fought to keep me from turning his head. I could feel his massive forked tail pounding against my leader. Lightning flashed all around the boat, and thunder began to crack. The wind started to howl, and the rain began to come down in sheets as the thunderstorm engulfed us. Ryan and I hunkered down as the wind chopped waves continuously splashed over the side gunnels. We stayed low to try to avoid becoming lightning rods. I slowly worked the fish closer and closer to the boat. My back, shoulders, and biceps ached in pain. 25 minutes into the fight and 15 minutes into the thunderstorm, the permit’s spirit showed its first sign of breaking as it began to pinwheel around the boat. The wind, rain, and lightning became so intense; we started to wonder if we were making the right decision staying out to fight the fish. 30 minutes in, I finally see a giant flash of silver under the boat. The flash of silver, to this day, is still so vividly burned into my memory that I will never forget it. The size of the fish was unreal. I get the fish to the boat, and Ryan grabs the monster by the fork of the tail. We popped the circle hook out of the permit’s big rubbery lips and snapped a few memorable photos with GoPro while the rain continued to pour. I quickly revived and released the beautifully colored fish, which happened to be my first permit. We estimated the weight to be around 35-40lbs.
The thunderstorm blew over a few minutes later, and the ocean slicked off. We proceeded to hook eight permit that afternoon and landed five. The biggest fish broke our boga grip at 50lbs. We were in disbelief. We both survived a gnarly storm and landed our first and probably the biggest permits we will ever catch. We caught permit at that same spot for the next few days and were on cloud nine for an entire month. It’s the unforgettable days like these that keep us coming back for more. Days like these are what we dream about, why we wake up early and stay out late. Days like these ignite the passion for fishing inside of us and water our Salty Roots.
