Permit fishing in The Florida Keys

In The Florida Keys, permit peak April–October and are around year-round, spawning in April–July, according to Fish Scouter's month-by-month season calendar. April: Spawning aggregations build on the wrecks and natural reefs around the full moon (Western Dry Rocks off Key West is the famous one). Inside the Special Permit Zone it's catch-and-release in the spawning season and WDR has its own closure — check MyFWC. Sharks take hooked fish there; land them fast or move.

1. JanuaryAroundOn the wrecks and the deeper oceanside flats; flats fish only on warm afternoons after a few calm days.
2. FebruaryAroundSailfish weather outside; bones and permit between fronts. Between fronts the flats fish well on the afternoon tide; after one, the patches and the bridge channels. The reef edge is the winter fishery.
3. MarchArrivingFish start showing on the reefs and wrecks — tagging found them arriving at spawning sites in March and April, earlier than anyone thought.
4. AprilSpawningSpawning aggregations build on the wrecks and natural reefs around the full moon (Western Dry Rocks off Key West is the famous one). Inside the Special Permit Zone it's catch-and-release in the spawning season and WDR has its own closure — check MyFWC. Sharks take hooked fish there; land them fast or move.
5. MaySpawningPeak spawn on the wrecks and reefs around the full moon. Live crab drifted back on the current; on the flats, a crab fly to tailing fish on the oceanside.
6. JuneSpawningStill spawning offshore around the moon; flats fish tailing on the morning incoming.
7. JulySpawningLast spawn moons. Tagged flats fish were detected at Western Dry Rocks near the summer full moon — the flats and the wrecks are the same fish.
8. AugustPeakBest flats month of the year — early tides on the oceanside flats, then the wrecks.
9. SeptemberPeakPermit and bonefish both at their best on the flats; big fish on the Gulf-side wrecks.
10. OctoberPeakStill good on the higher fall tides until the first real front.
11. NovemberAroundFall bonefish; sailfish season begins; kings on the wrecks. The best bonefish tides of the year on the oceanside; kings and cobia on the wrecks and the reef edge as the water cools.
12. DecemberAroundWinter pattern: bones on warm days, patches and bridges otherwise. Watch the water temperature: over 70 the flats fish, under it the patch reefs, the bridge channels and the wrecks.

Oceanside flats and patch reefs inside the reef line, the reef itself, then the Gulf-side banks and basins of Florida Bay and the backcountry. Bridges and channels connect the two. The clearest, warmest water in the state.

Fish Scouter charts 5,035 grass flat, 695 artificial reef, 340 wreck spots in the The Florida Keys map area — the kinds permit hold on.

• Blue crabsWhole and small for permit and tarpon; halved or quartered on the bottom for black drum, redfish and cobia.
• Live shrimpUnder a popping cork or free-lined, hooked under the horn on a #1 to 2/0 circle hook; on a jig head for the bottom. The universal inshore bait.

• Leader20–30 lb fluorocarbon
• Hook1/0–3/0
• Jig head3/8–1/2 oz
• Braid15–20 lb

Feeds in 70–90°F water, best at 74–86°F.

All about permit · The Florida Keys, the whole year