Palometa Club Permit Tournament/Howler Pilgrimage

Back from the 1st Annual Palometa Club Permit Tournament/Howler Pilgrimage. We had people from all over, the U.S., Argentina, Canada, and it was a great group! Dick, Kaye, David, Janine, Amy, all the guides, and the gals in the kitchen did a bang up job all week. They were amazing!

Julio with a Permit from the first day!

Mason, Chase, and Andy for Howler Brothers attended. Good thing, as they were a primary sponsor. Jamie Howard and Matt Jones were there filming and Jamie got his first ever Permit. Way to go! Tom Bie from The Drake, David and Luis from Miami, David Leake from Tailwaters....suffice to say, with 20 anglers plus non-anglers it was busier than usual but it was a blast!

Some of the gang hanging around the bar

Steve Davenport jumped in at the last minute for Barrett Clark, who had a riding incident the day before. As much as we felt bad for Barrett, Steve was the perfect replacement. he fishes at the club a few times every year and he's a super nice guy.

New artwork at the club

I may steal this one day!

Joe Seelig, from Anchorage, and I fished the tournament as a team. We pretty much sucked for the first three days of the four day event. Not a big deal to us....but we still sucked. We managed pull a third place out of the hat on the last day. If yours truly had not feebed out and had a fish crush a fly at 5 PM on the last day we may have placed better. Joe is very similar to me in the skiff (somewhat screwed up over Permit) so he was a hoot to fish with. Some of you might recognize Joe from the Club's Permititus ads and the brochure. He's like a Victoria' Secret model, only for Permit fishing.

Map of Ascension, painted by Amy Lynn, who just happens to be married to lead guide Charlie.

Joe's Fly Box

Joe's last day heroics.

First 2 days down there were non-tournament days so we switched it up a little bit. I was lucky enough to fish with David Coleman, from Texas, and Ken Ferderer, from California. Both guys fish at the Club on a regular basis but our paths had never crossed. Had a great day with both of these guys but (sorry Dave) the day of the week for me was Ken's 36" x 34" (49 pound) Permit.

A truly amazing animal! Couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

Ken's Beast!

Oh, and before I completely forget, congratulations to David Leake and David Coleman, who won the tournament, Ken Ferderer for largest Permit, and Julio and Luis, who took home top guide honours. the brother team did an awesome job this week and Joe and I were glad we could add to their numbers.