iOutdoor Marathon fishing Captain’s have been guiding anglers to trophy size Permit in the Florida Keys already this year!
Marathon Springtime fishing is the best time to catch trophy permit. They are in schools and come together over wrecks and other offshore structure. This happens all along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. These large schools are because they are spawning. We catch them with crabs using Berkley Trilene professional braid 20-pound braided line with Berkley Trilene 100% Fluoro 30-pound leader. During different times of the day, they have a tendency to come up to the surface. At times you can sight cast to them even in the deep water.
It’s not uncommon at these times around Marathon to catch a Permit between 20 to 30-pounds. While many love to hunt the huge permit, many have passed the offering because of the incredible fight that can take up to 30 minutes. It’s not long for a baited crab meet its end when they are biting in the Springtime. Some of the bigger Permit stay on the bottom and will come up from below to eat a crab, when they do you will have to battle that huge permit.
To add to the excitement and fight of a Permit, bull sharks roamed the same waters, tring to make meals of many hooked permit. Luckily this year the sharks seem to have been laying low and haven’t bothered us this year. In past years we have had issues with the sharks attacking hooked Permit during the fight. In the Florida Keys, this kind of behaviour is not uncommon from sharks even while tarpon fishing. It’s something you learn to work around and deal with!
Things to know about Marathon Springtime fishing
The current Florida record is 56 pounds and 2 ounces caught near Fort Lauderdale, while the world record was caught in 2002 from Brazil weighed an even 60 pounds.
Permit are grayish, dark or iridescent blue on top, and have silvery sides. In dark waters, the fish shows golden tints around their breasts. They possess teeth on their tongues, no scutes, and have a dorsal fin insertion directly above that of their anal fin. The common size of this species is 25 pounds. Permit are seen in schools of 10 to 20 fish, they also travel in larger numbers and their diet consists mainly of crab but they eat shrimp, clams and sometimes small fish as well. To read more on how to catch Permit read this article.
If you are interested and would like to learn more about Marathon Springtime fishing for Permit please visit this link which has 24/7 online booking for the top fishing charter guides in Florida Keys
