With a little math from this old engineer and some hungry central Florida permit, dinner was M’m, M’m good!
Capt John Milroy, Scott Davis and I headed out the St. Lucie Inlet recently targeting permit and cobia on my 24’ Ranger “R KA NU.” As we headed north along the beach, greenies were everywhere. In about 10 minutes, we added 30 to go along with the 10 small crabs from Fish Heads Bait & Tackle.
We ran north, waking up a few large turtles, but no cobia. North of the Martin/St. Lucie county line, we started drifting close to the beach. It was time for a math lesson. Light fishing gear + crab on the bottom = permit. Heavy spinning reel + greenies = cobia.
After releasing a small permit, margates and several spinner sharks, including one six-footer, we got serious with our math. The permit hit hard, with four runs to the bottom of the Penn reel. Capt. John ran in circles as the permit circled us eight times.
After a long fight, I brought a 30-pound permit alongside. Scott waited nervously with an 18-inch-wide net, knowing if he blew this opportunity he would never live it down. After some fist bumps and another spinner shark, we headed home in a 1- to 2-foot swell at 11:30 a.m. We never found cobia, but the one bruiser Florida permit was enough to complete the equation.
By Dave Powell