Jim Klug photo
East End Lodge is a beautiful place on the far eastern corner of Grand Bahama. This is the more secluded part of the island a good hour from the bustling city of Freeport. Wil’s and my comfortable room was a mere 100-feet from the dock where we boarded our flats skiffs this morning.
Jim Klug photo
Today was our last day of the Yellow Dog Flyfishing Ambassadors Summit and all four of us Ambassadors (Jako Lucas, myself, Wil Flack and Oliver White) had separate boats with our own photographer. Once again my boat mate was Jim Klug.
Our guide was Walter and I’m sure at first Walter rolled his eyes as we boarded his skiff. Klug entered the boat with about 400lbs of camera gear. While doing so he shot me and Walter a glance and said, “Let’s go get a permit boys. I need some permit pictures.”
If you read this blog than you know the permit has been no less than cruel to me. Most recently in St Brandon’s Atoll where I got my butt handed to me by the yellow Indo permit while my less experienced buddies each caught one. I love the fact that they succeeded but the fact that I couldn’t get it done was far beyond annoying. Klug was full of vinegar I wasn’t so sure.
Jim Klug photo
While we looked for permit everything else was fair game. At the very first flat we stopped at Walter thought he saw a school of permit. I knew it was too good to be true, especially when one of these so called permit devoured my fly. It turns out it was a hard pulling horse-eye jack. We have no photo because I lifted him from the water by the leader in a quick effort to save him from a lemon shark. My 16lb tippet (perfect for a crab fly for permit) snapped. Luckily the horse-eye hit the water running and escaped the shark.
Jim Klug photo
We continued our permit quest only to find a huge school of bonefish. What the heck we thought. Let’s catch a few. Klug launched his drone to photograph the pursuit from above. There have been lots of sharks all week and this school was huddled tight together because there were a handful of lemons around. Twenty minutes of casts directly into the school and we couldn’t hook a single one. I guess being scared to death hurts ones appetite.
Jim Klug photo
Finally a permit chance came. I learned quickly that Walter was the permit guide for me. He was calm and the first thing he told me was to relax. He said wait for a 60 foot cast. I can cast much further than this but my accuracy is better at 60 feet than at 80 and it’s easier to watch the permits reaction from the closer distance.
Jim Klug photo
Walters approach made good sense. What Walter and Klug didn’t know however, was that in my hands was my new 7-weight Boron III X that has been lucky all week. A 7-weight is considered way too light for permit. Normally I’d have my 9-weight Winston in hand. But I felt for me that more than the best rod, reel and line set up, I needed luck. I kept the secret to myself. Made a good cast. Got a look from the permit but then he took off.
Most good permit anglers try to land their crab fly a few inches in front of a permit. The idea is that the permit has little time to think beyond – “There’s a crab and it’s getting away” – and they eat it. I agree with this technique but like any angler, don’t always make that perfect cast. I got two more opportunities but felt that I could’ve made a better cast. It was time for a Kalik beer.
Gerhard Laubscher photo
Permit number four was with a school of about six. I haven’t cast to a “school” of permit in years. It always seems to be extra spooky individuals. Sure enough as we approached the school moved away at a rapid pace. Walter poled after them the best he could but getting a cast looked grim. But then one fish stopped, turned and came straight for the bow of the boat. I thought he sensed us and was coming in for a confirmation to alert all permit in the area. But he stopped again and ate something off the bottom.
Cooler than I normally am around permit, I launched the cast that Walter, Klug and myself were waiting for. My crab splat less than a foot in front of the permit. Like often happens, the permit spooked but only ran about 15 feet then turned and came back. I gave my crab a four inch twitch then stopped. POW! This permit dipped and lunged and ate my crab. I stripped gently to make sure he had it and went tight then strip set and all hell broke loose!
Jim Klug photo
As my backing crackled through the guides of my Winston and the handle of my smooth sailing Bauer Reel spun at a blurring pace, Walter yelled with excitement, “What rod is that?”
“7-weight!” I hollered back, “Don’t worry guys, I got this!”
Though we had to chase this beautiful permit, in less than 15 minutes I was out of the boat and tailing the fish of the week. There has perhaps been no better time for me to execute catching a permit. I’ve always wanted to catch a permit in the Bahamas. And I had Jim Klug there to photograph us!
Jim Klug photo
Klug doesn’t mess around. The second I hooked this permit he rang the other boats in order to have all camera crew there for the catch. This lovely permit will likely be one of the most photographed in history. Finally, after looking him eye to eye and head to tail, I let the permit swim away. Spectacular!
Jim Klug photo
I didn’t catch another permit nor did anyone else. That’s pretty normal – one and done when it comes to permit. In fact I knew another was out of the question so Walter, Klug and I hunted specifically for barracuda and shark with my 9-weight and a popper attached to wire. Cudas are hard to catch these days. They wise up to anything humans toss at them and keep their mouths shut. But not this cuda. Yet another great fish on the last day!
Jim Klug photo
Leaving Idaho five days ago in the middle of a beautiful summer as our rivers were beginning to take shape for the Yellow Dog Flyfishing Ambassadors Summit seemed like an awful idea. But H2O Bonefishing and East End Lodge proved it wasn’t. My fishing these last four days here at Grand Bahama has far exceeded my expectations. So much that I’ll be back sooner than later!
Next in line should be less than 40 hours away when I take Granny for an evening on the Rizzo River. Stay tuned!
A special thanks to Yellow Dog Flyfishing Adventures, H2O Bonefishing and East End Lodge for making this incredible flats fishing trip possible!
A common occurrence on any photo shoot is that on the last day you scramble to get pics you haven’t gotten yet. The shorter the length of the shoot the longer the last day photo list is. I’m in the 
I knew what I was getting into beforehand. I came down excited to see and try the new 
Next we hit a favorite 
The other six 
Over the next two hours we all walked the flat. It stretched a long way and four of us fished with plenty of elbow room while 
I picked up one more smaller 
Granny and I had a clammy night of sleep our first night camping on the beach in 
Killing the time wasn’t bad. I made some instant coffee and we sat in the camp chairs and watched the sunrise over the 
Soon 
Granny and I arrived at Rays suggested beach around 8:30 AM. The lengthy beach is about four miles long and no less than spectacular. To get here we cut off the main road and took a ten mile washboard dirt track across the desert. We came to a cliff overlooking this incredible place. To drive down the cliff was a steep switch back road that dead ends at the beach.
There are about fifty pangas up on the beach where we arrived and a few fisherman working. I think they fish at night so most the guys were sleeping in the shade. We parked and walked down to where a gentle surf was breaking on the beach. It was high tide. Naturally I didn’t walk down unarmed. I made a few casts.
The language here is Arabic. There’s a huge Indian and Bangladesh influence so there’s a lot of Hindu as well. As for English, not much at all as we’re quickly learning. Our visitor soon learned we couldn’t exactly have a chat but was delighted that he could have his picture taken with me. I guess for him it was like seeing a grizzly bear in Yellowstone!
The truth is, I was working up the courage to drive our rental Toyota RAV4 on the beach. 
We nearly got stuck about five times and took on three waves on our drive. We definitely should have let the tide drop some more. But we made it. And the sand dune parking spot 
What a place. Granny and I got out and took a deep breath, looked around and couldn’t believe we were on a backcountry beach in 
Breakfast was great as is all Granny’s cooking. Once stuffed to the gills it was time to head down the beach to look for permit. These are Indo Pacific permit, similar but different from our Atlantics and this beach style fishing for them is far different than flats fishing for them back home. Here the permit ride in the breaking waves hunting for crabs then ride the wave back out. And there are a ton of crabs in the waves.
The way 
My eyes were throbbing from straining them so terribly. This permit was so hard to see I questioned myself several times. But it was legit and I launched my first cast. My crab landed a foot in front of the yellow colored permit and he lunged forward as if to eat it. Then my inexperience in the surf got me. At the exact time, my fly line got smacked by a surf wave and the fly got jerked five feet away from the permit. He looked puzzled then realized something wasn’t right and bolted for the deep.
Granny and I saw a mere four permit today. As difficult as they were to see I’m sure I missed some others. But we had no luck. At 4 PM our visibility diminished so we decided to investigate an awful smell we picked up each time we walked through a certain spot. The stink was a half-buried dead whale – wow!
Between the sand dunes is so magnificent we’ve decided to camp here with the 
We watched the sunset and prepared dinner. We intend on eating fish for dinner most of this trip but for skunk days like today we have a few more of the freeze dried meals and the old standby, pasta. Tonight it was pasta. I can’t describe to you how bad I wanted a cold beer or a bottle of red wine for this scenario. But no, we sipped mini cokes.
This beach, which Granny and I have named dead whale beach, is facing north. There’s no moon so the stars are gleaming. Right now the 
