It's about time

Well, as I hinted at in an earlier post I was sort of waiting for something profound to happen before I started writing about Belize...the permit in particular. That something isn't happening and I am not exactly sure why I expected it to in the first place, wishful thinking I guess. Conveniently, I just wrote an email to a friend who has been asking for a story and pictures of the fish, I will take advantage and paste it in here. enjoy.



This is right after I hooked the fish, at this point the guide was screaming "GOT HIM!! GOT HIM!! GOT HIM!!" (sounding like got eem got eem etc.), clapping his hands and running down the flat trying to cut the permit off from the left side of the flat and push him over to the right where there is less coral, he was not fast enough.


At this point I had just ran to the edge of the flat and in chest deep water with no where to go I jumped up on a coral head and backed all the pressure off the fish so he wouldn't wrap me around the coral per the guides instructions. I was very doubtful when he first started yelling at me to give him slack. I couldn't figure out after 20 or 30 some shots at fish and finally hooking one why I would ever want to "give him slack", but I obliged...well partly obliged, I didn't really ever give him slack until the guide started speeding away from the flat in the boat once I jumped in, he went about twice as fast as I could recover line and I had zero tension on the fish for about 10 seconds or so, this was undoubtedly the longest 10 seconds of my life, except maybe for that time I crashed my car...ahhh I digress.

Here the fish is directly below the boat, at one point my backing was up to my stripping guide with the fish straight down, it was deep and I was apparently extremely lucky I didn't lose the fish to a shark or a 'cuda.
Victory. Notice the sweet battle wound on my left shin. I acquired this little gem while getting on top of the coral. I am not exactly sure how I got up there out of chest deep water, I thought I levitated but the wound clearly proves otherwise.

PERMIT.....ME

In addition, I am not one for gratuitous promotion, self or otherwise. Pick your own poison, I usually stick to. Nonetheless, if you ever find yourself in Placencia and looking for a guide I would quite highly suggest Benji Eiley. I don't think it is possible to find a guide who will work harder to get you into a fish.