PERMIT ARE GOOD SMELLERS!
WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH FLY FISHING?
Did you know that permit actually have 4 nostril's? Hummm! Dat make dem good smellers I think! I think this is just one of the many features that permit have that help them to become one of the most difficult fish to trick into eating your fly! There has been a lot of talk for ever about how head cement on freshly tied permit flies can let off an oder that the permit can smell, thus making the permit turn away and not eat the fly. I have found this to possibly be true but in my observations being a guide I find myself tying flies up on a daily basis and many of them 5 minutes before i leave the house to fish in the morning - FRESH with head cement on them. Then catching permit on them that same day! So with that info I believe that the flies action in the water is what triggers them to eat the fly. If you give the permit to much time to look and smell at your fly in the first place then maybe they can smell the head cement but in the larger scheme of things I would say the smell is less common of an accuse then in the past!
Now I have heard that some fly fisherman like to dip there flies into crab juice to give the fly an actual crab smell. I personally don't believe this to be a factor also. WHY? Well when you take a live crab that is wiggling and swims like crazy when you drop him in the water in front of the permit, the fish comes out of his shorts to run over and pound the lively little crab! Now, if you take live crab and thump it in the head and knock it out, then cast it right away to a permit the fish will not eat it 95 out of 100 times. Why not? It looks like a crab (because it is a real CRAB), and it SMELLS like a crab (because it is a REAL crab). Whats up with that? NO MOVEMENT to stimulate the fish to attack! Personally with that I think you can throw out all thoughts on weather the fish can smell your fly or not. I have and not looked back! Any questions on this let me know! Thanks!
