Permit (Trachinotus falcatus), State of New York Fish and Game Commission, 1902, Annual Report, Albany, New York, Smithsonian Libraries, Wikimedia Commons.
Permit aren’t uniquely pretty, and you could make a pretty good case that they’re uniquely ugly. Permit look a bit like their cousins, the various jacks, and even more like their closer cousin, the Florida pompano. But notwithstanding that they’d never win the swimsuit competition they’ve become one of the glamour girls of fly fishing. Of course so have carp.
All of those fish (other than carp) are of the family carangidae, and pompano and permit share the same genus. There are a good dozen species of pompano, as often as not (the not being mostly fishing literature) permit are described as a pompano. There is only one species of pompano generally called permit, the permit, and descriptions often distinguish the permit and the Florida pompano by the permit’s larger size–permit can grow to twice the length of pompano–and the orange patch on the permit. That it’s not called a pompano in common parlance is probably more accident than intent, and most of the Spanish and some of the uncommon English common names use some variation of pampano or pompano.
Permit are tall (deep?) and thin, and their dorsal and anal fins and tails are distinctive. Falcatus translates as scythe-like. When I’ve seen them on flats it’s the tall black-tipped dorsal fin and tail, breaking the surface like flags, that are unforgettable.
Permit are relatively long-lived, exceeding 20 years. The IGFA lists the all-tackle weight record as 60 lbs, and on the fly the record is 41 lbs on 8 lb tippet. Florida Fish & Game says that fish easily exceed three feet, and that fish weighing 20 to 30 pounds aren’t uncommon. Of course Florida Fish & Game makes money selling fishing licenses. Permits for permit.
Our guide said we might fish for permit, and from what I gather the Keys are the only reliable permit fishery in the States. The best month for fishing the Keys is June, and there’s just not much happening there fish-wise in February. I’ve fished for permit before, in Belize. I saw four small schools, or at least I saw their dorsal fins and tails, and hooked two fish. That’s a pretty good ratio for permit. Of course I’ve landed none, which is more like it. The IUCN lists the permit population as stable, and that’s a good thing. It’s range is roughly the same as the range of the Caribbean version of bonefish, Albula vulpes, but the IUCN map below is very ambitious. North of the Keys it’s likely a map of where a lost permit appeared once when it turned left instead of right at Tampa. A permit in the upper Gulf would seem extraordinary, and as far north as Massachusetts would just be wrong.
Permit are found offshore at reefs and derricks, but they’re not really offshore fish. according to the Florida Museum, permit are primarily inshore fish, inhabiting channels and deeper water and hunting the flats. They don’t often occur in flats shallower than two feet because of their deep bodies. Like any fish with any sense permit prefer bait. Who wouldn’t? Like bonefish and redfish, they’re diggers. Smaller fish school, larger fish don’t. They prey on the usual flats suspects, mostly crustaceans and mollusks, and are in turn prey of the usual flats suspects, sharks and barracuda. It means that they’re skittish, difficult fish, and even when hooked they run like, well, like permit, and are hard to keep on the hook. My record? Two 30-yard screaming runs until one came off and one cut the leader on something.
As recently as 2008 the Turneffe Atoll Trust reported that there had been exactly one (1) scientific article published about permit, in 2001, so as more common than not with fish we don’t know a lot. They reach sexual maturity at between two and three years, and permit may spawn year round (but spawning is probably concentrated in spring and summer). They’re broadcast spawners, just like oysters and teenagers. The Bonefish & Tarpon (and now permit) Trust reports that tagging indicates that permit aggregate and spawn over nearshore reefs. Juvenile nurseries are likely along beaches.
B&TT’s research seems to be heavily sponsored by Costa, which is nice, both that they’re doing research and that it’s sponsored.
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