Palometa Club 4th Annual Permit Tournament Recap

Headed off to the P.C. Permit Tournament, their 4th annual, during the first week of April. This is a non-serious event to raise funds for the Punta Allen school as well as Bonefish Tarpon Trust.

This year saw a few new faces. We finally got John and Danny from Hatch Reels to join us this year. Overall, the general consensus was that this year saw the highest level of angler ability of any of the tourneys. Heck, we even had a Permit guide from Placencia, Belize who was paired up with a fellow from California who fishes for Permit somewhere around 70 days a year. To flange up with this great group, we once again had 16 of the best Permit guides I know of.

 As usual, the first two days of the week are "fun' days where we partner up with different people who aren't our tournament partners. Got to fish with a couple really good guys, Will and Schuyler.
For the four tournament days, David Leake, from Tailwaters in Dallas was once again stuck with me as none of his better choices were able to make it. In between Permit fishing, I provide David with a non-stop stream of Canadian style humor and general babble.

The guy in the photo to the right, Schuyler Marshall, took home big fish honors with a 30 pound Permit (he says 29.6 or something, it's 30!)

 Possibly due to the fact that there were some seriously good anglers this year, there were a lot more Permit landed at this years tournament. One day saw 11 landed, with 24 total for the week. And there were a number of fish lost as well. I accounted for three of those lost fish. Seemed to be going through some sort of "thing". I don't think I had lost three Permit in the last 2 or 3 years. Oh well.

The sponsors made this years tournament the best ever for the amount, and quality of prizes. Hatch reels all over the place, rods, bags, artwork by Paul Puckett, lots of very cool stuff.
You could buy a bunch of Punta Allen with what the reels that Hatch donates are worth. And the rest of the sponsors are just as generous. Thanks to you all!

Of course, none of this stuff would happen, including raising the funds for the town school and B.T.T., without the efforts of Dick and Kaye Cameron, David Leake, Fina, Rosie, Maribel, Gloria, Carlos, Coli, Manny, Luis, and all 16 of the best bunch of Permit hunting devils (no, not the fishermen, the guides!) ever to haunt the Caribbean. Thanks to all of you.
Make sure to watch in the coming weeks for video and photos from Matt Jones Photography, who did some really cool stuff that should be great to see.