Permit

Permit get confused with pompano constantly, and on the flats they get confused with juvenile black drum too. Permit are deep-bodied and heavily compressed, almost circular in outline, with a steep blunt head profile and a small mouth set low for crushing crabs. Pompano share that same silvery, deep body shape but stay smaller, rarely topping a few pounds, and their body is more elongated and less disc-shaped than a permit's. The dorsal and anal fins on a permit sickle out much longer and more dramatically than on a pompano, especially as the fish matures.

Color is another tell. Permit are mostly silver with a chrome or brassy sheen, and many fish carry a dark blotch on the side near the pectoral fin or a dusky patch on the belly. Pompano tend to show more yellow or orange wash on the fins and belly. On the flats, tailing permit get mistaken for black drum, but drum have barbels under the chin and a duller, bronze-gray color, while permit have no barbels and a bright, flat-sided, mirror-like body. Look at the fork of the tail too. A permit's tail is deeply forked with long pointed lobes, more sickle-shaped than a pompano's shorter, stubbier fork.

Permit live on shallow tropical and subtropical flats, along the Gulf coast and the southern Atlantic coast, wherever warm, clear water meets sand, grass, or coral rubble. They cruise skinny water in singles, pairs, or small schools, often tailing in water barely deep enough to cover their backs.

Beyond the flats, permit hold around nearshore wrecks, reefs, channel edges, and passes, especially in cooler months when they move off the skinny stuff into deeper structure. Look for them on falling tides over sandy potholes near mangroves, where crabs get pushed out of the grass.

Crabs are the main event, especially small crabs, and permit will tail furiously over a patch of bottom crawling with them. They also eat shrimp, small baitfish, sand fleas, and other crustaceans they can root out of the sand or pick off structure.

A live crab, cast well ahead of a tailing or cruising fish and left to sink naturally, is still the best bait there is. Small blue crabs or sand fleas on a light fluorocarbon leader work best, and you want the bait to hit bottom without a splash that spooks the fish. Sight-fishing from a poled skiff or by wading is the standard approach, and it takes patience. Permit spook easily and refuse far more than they eat.

Fly anglers use small, sparse crab patterns cast a few feet in front of a moving fish, stripped just enough to look alive. Around wrecks and reefs, jigs tipped with cut bait or live shrimp fished near bottom will pick up permit that are not up on the flats. Expect long runs and a fight that outlasts most inshore species. Many anglers release permit to keep them biting for the next angler, and size and bag limits are tightly regulated in most states, so check your local rules before keeping one.