Friend Mike Lodge of Rhode Island, someone who travels on each and everyone of my hosted Yellow Dog trips, fished here on the west side of Cape York with Aussie Fly Fishers earlier this year. Mike is an incredible fly tier and enjoys matching the crab hatches for permit, triggerfish and more around the world. Mike sent me a care package of crabs and shrimp for this trip that is unbelievable. Many of the fish you’ve seen on this week’s blogs came thanks to Mike’s lifelike flies.
Granny and I were back with Josh Hutchins today and we traveled north. We left at 6 AM sharp with high expectations. Yesterday Josh was up here with Kevin and they had shots at this week’s main target, the Anak permit, all day long. Kevin had some hard luck. He lost one and broke one off.
We’re near the spring tide as well which is also good. This means water levels will be extra high at high tide and extra low at low tide which in turn equals lots of moving water. That’s a key positive ingredient for permit fishing.
While a lot of things were in our favor, there was one matter that was not. The wind. The forecast was for steady offshore wind and strong gusts to over 35 mph. When we launched the wind was already tormenting. Off we bounced to where Josh saw huge schools of milling permit most of yesterday.
It’s a 30 minute ride to the first permit loaded flats. Sadly, the flats were not looking as we hoped. These flats run right along side the beach and with the offshore wind, they were almost completely dry. The strong winds coming from the mainland literally blew the water off them. Ugg. Obviously the permit weren’t there.
Josh is a true pro. No doubt, he had as high a hopes as we did for finding the permit on the first flat. But weather happens. You can go down with the ship or adjust plans. Off we went for another 30 minute boat ride further north. Josh knew a flat they may benefit from the lack of water. When we arrived, other than the wind itself, water level looked good. Josh hopped up on the platform.
It was howling so bad Granny announced she wasn’t fishing today. I mentioned something about the possibility of this earlier this week. She was cool with it. Half the fun is the hunt. She stood on the cooler and scanned for fish with Josh. I took the bow, still feeling confident.
There were permit. Not the hordes Josh saw yesterday but there were several individuals. I got off an excellent cast at the first sighting but no eat. On the next few, the wind was blowing so hard we either never got close enough or in one situation a gust pushed us so hard and fast we lost sight of the fish then ran him over. It was a challenge. Finally I spotted one 100 feet away riding high straight towards me. I just had to time my cast due to the speedy push from the wind . When he got to about 60 feet I launched landing my fly about six feet in front. The permit saw my crab plummeting to bottom and went with it and mashed it. I strip-set. Anak on!
Some permit takeoff at drag-crackling speeds. Others act as if they don’t know they’re hooked. That may sound strange but crabs’ bite back. So when a permit feels a hook, it’s not always alarming. This permit hung around with me yanking on him for about 30 seconds. Finally he woke up and scorched out of there.
The Anak ran fast but not far. He went just to the edge of my backing then turned and came back. I reeled at mock speed to keep up with him. Then he ran again and back again. This behavior went on for the next five minutes.
After exactly six minutes (I looked at my photo info) the permit was easing up. I leapt from the boat and waded towards a beach. Winston bent deep. With the boat being tossed around in the wind, the trolling motor running, it was the safer bet for landing the fish. Meanwhile the permit was doing some alarming headshakes along with back-to-back directional changes. What I hate about this is that the hook hole gets bigger and bigger and the chances of escape become more possible.
At seven minutes Josh had the boat secure and exited with the net to be ready. The nerve-racking headshakes continued and then in happened. What looked to be my first Anak permit was off. (Granny got the sickening shot of the line slacking back in my face!).
Its painful. We’ve all been there. I remember losing my Africanus permit all too well in Oman back in 2015. This loss wasn’t as excruciating but it was bad. Permit do evil things. But we still had two and a half days. Back in the boat we went and the permit search continued.
The wind strength grew throughout the day. We had whitecaps on the flats and the water churned to a milky color. Josh and I never gave up but other than a few glimpse of permit too late, we could not get the job done.
There’s one area with a thick Eucalyptus Forest next to the beach that provided some protection late in the day. It wasn’t Josh’s ideal place to find permit but it gave us a break from the wind. It was actually protected enough we could see fish again. I plucked a pair of beautiful goldens and this little giant trevally. Not bad all things considering today.
The long boat ride back to the ramp was ominous. Not only did we contend with big side swiping wind, but when there’s offshore wind Cape York does prescribed burns. The idea is that all the ashes blow out to sea so brush-thinning fires don’t get out of control. Let’s just say, we feel like we smoked a couple packs of cigarettes tonight.
I don’t care how challenging the conditions were today, the fact that we almost had an Anak and that we caught a few fish was awesome. Thanks to the efforts from all three, we didn’t lose a minute of fishing time and we have two more days. Back north tomorrow to get that dang Anak!
Those flies are gorgeous! Bummer on the Anak. Get after it.
Keep after those Anak! Wish you guys all the best
Nice job on the flies Mike!! No more excuses Currier.. get it done! Even better I hope Granny shows you how to do it…haha
Nothing in the world makes me happier than watching Granny catch fish. I would love to see her nail down an Anak!
Nice looking 🦀. Heartbreaking losing the anak. I lost 2 there. Happy to see the crabs out to good use 😝