Written by: Pete Kutzer
It wasn’t the permit he’d been looking for, but Pete will settle for a hard-charging jack.
Photo by Dave Yoder
My good friend Capt. Dave Yoder and I just spent a week fishing in the toughest tournament in the Keys: the March Merkin permit tournament out of Key West. After dealing with the frustrations with fins, we decided to come back up to Key Largo, relax and check Dave’s stone-crab traps. After we finished harvesting some of these tasty crustaceans, we wanted to take one last shot to see if we could find some permit before I had to come back to this seemingly endless Vermont winter.
It was amazing to see how fast that small school of permit we thought we saw turned into a school of big jacks. As soon as the line went tight, we realized it wasn’t the species we had been looking for. However, a big jack is not a bad consolation prize, and it will keep me coming back. Maybe next year…
Capt. Dave Yoder with a stone crab that will be tasty in the pot.
Photo by Pete Kutzer