After a great day three we arrived back to find out all the lodges had been booked for a three day permit tournament. 
We had no idea this was going on which everyone involved thought was weird.The organizers really wanted us to join in. It was a benefit for the town, so even though we hadn’t come down to fish for permit exclusively we made a donation and we where now entered.
Day 4 we where all fired up and our guides where really pumped for a tournament we didn’t really care about. So off we went Oceanside again and boy did we have a day.
First flat we found a bunch of laid up tarpon couldn’t get any eats or even follows. So headed to next flat, absolute mother load of permit. My fishing buddy had legit five shots in 5 min happened so fast that he just stayed on the casting deck as we poled the flat. Eventually he got out and him and one of the guides started wading into position to make a shot on a small school of permit. Boom fish on couple min into the fight he lost it. Meanwhile I had gotten in position on the casting deck and we saw a small school headed directly towards us 50ft at 10 o’clock which is perfect distance for me laid out the cast one strip fish on.
Not a huge permit but my first one and I was stoked! After a few more shots but no eats we headed back to the flat we had seen tarpon earlier.
As we are eating lunch we see tarpon rolling buddy jumps up and starts making casts boom tarpon on.
After he landed his poon I was up, 15 min later fish on.
I’m 2/3 into a grand slam and we are seeing a lot of permit so fishing buddy’s up. We spend most of the rest of the day chasing permit, he gets a bunch of shots but no takers.
We head off see if we can find a bone to complete the slam. First school we come across I can’t really see and end up spooking to much adrenaline. Got to remember to relax. Next school I lay out a nice shot, strip, strip fish on.
Grand Slam completed we head back and report in to the tournament directors. Ends up my permit is one inch short to count. But we are on the board for the grand slam and fishing buddy has biggest tarpon (35in) landed so far.
We sit back start crushing beers and get to talk to everyone else as they get back. Find out we are one of three boats to land permit that day and non of them hit required size to count.
People start to come around to chat with the two random guys from Washington. Everyone else is from Florida, Texas and Arkansas all of them have extensive experience on the flats. So we get to hear stories and see pics of monster fish caught all over the Caribbean, Africa, South America and the pacific. These guys have literally knock off my whole bucket list GT, double digit bones, sailfish, 100# tarpon, golden dorado, bull reds basically any fish I ask about someone had caught on the fly and had a opinion of where and what guide/lodge I should use to have best shot at them.
No one we talked to this day had fished for steelhead or fished Alaska everything was salt driven. Which for two dudes from Wa that have spent the better part of a decade chasing steel and the elusive 30in rainbow in Alaska was very weird.
We had no idea this was going on which everyone involved thought was weird.The organizers really wanted us to join in. It was a benefit for the town, so even though we hadn’t come down to fish for permit exclusively we made a donation and we where now entered.Day 4 we where all fired up and our guides where really pumped for a tournament we didn’t really care about. So off we went Oceanside again and boy did we have a day.
First flat we found a bunch of laid up tarpon couldn’t get any eats or even follows. So headed to next flat, absolute mother load of permit. My fishing buddy had legit five shots in 5 min happened so fast that he just stayed on the casting deck as we poled the flat. Eventually he got out and him and one of the guides started wading into position to make a shot on a small school of permit. Boom fish on couple min into the fight he lost it. Meanwhile I had gotten in position on the casting deck and we saw a small school headed directly towards us 50ft at 10 o’clock which is perfect distance for me laid out the cast one strip fish on.
Not a huge permit but my first one and I was stoked! After a few more shots but no eats we headed back to the flat we had seen tarpon earlier.As we are eating lunch we see tarpon rolling buddy jumps up and starts making casts boom tarpon on.
After he landed his poon I was up, 15 min later fish on.I’m 2/3 into a grand slam and we are seeing a lot of permit so fishing buddy’s up. We spend most of the rest of the day chasing permit, he gets a bunch of shots but no takers.We head off see if we can find a bone to complete the slam. First school we come across I can’t really see and end up spooking to much adrenaline. Got to remember to relax. Next school I lay out a nice shot, strip, strip fish on.
Grand Slam completed we head back and report in to the tournament directors. Ends up my permit is one inch short to count. But we are on the board for the grand slam and fishing buddy has biggest tarpon (35in) landed so far.
We sit back start crushing beers and get to talk to everyone else as they get back. Find out we are one of three boats to land permit that day and non of them hit required size to count.
People start to come around to chat with the two random guys from Washington. Everyone else is from Florida, Texas and Arkansas all of them have extensive experience on the flats. So we get to hear stories and see pics of monster fish caught all over the Caribbean, Africa, South America and the pacific. These guys have literally knock off my whole bucket list GT, double digit bones, sailfish, 100# tarpon, golden dorado, bull reds basically any fish I ask about someone had caught on the fly and had a opinion of where and what guide/lodge I should use to have best shot at them.
No one we talked to this day had fished for steelhead or fished Alaska everything was salt driven. Which for two dudes from Wa that have spent the better part of a decade chasing steel and the elusive 30in rainbow in Alaska was very weird.
