How To Catch Permit On Top, with RA Beattie
The Orvis Fly-Fishing Podcast
James Hathaway
4.8 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 6 April 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Permit on a floating fly? Don't you need to fish heavy flies that get right to the bottom, where permit feed? Sometimes, but over the past decade permit anglers have discovered that permit eat crabs on the surface, and if you've spent enough time on salt water you will see crabs swimming along the surface. Fishing floating crabs make a lot of sense as you'll learn when you listen to this podcast with film maker and permit angler RA Beattie [27:05].
In the Fly Box this week, we have some questions that might solve problems you have had, including:
I have trouble with my fly wallet, either losing flies or tearing out the fleece. Is this a matter of user error?
Should I apply flotant to foam flies and flies with deer and elk hair, or will they float by themselves?
Do jig nymphs harm smaller trout?
If I use large beads on my nymphs, will they inhibit hooking qualities?
I have trouble with my line tangling when striper fishing. Do you have any tips?
Do featherwing streamers offer any advantages?
Why do people fish streamers smaller that a size 10 and when is it best to use them?
The hooks on my bonefish flies keep breaking . Why is this happening?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi and welcome to the Orvis Fly Fishing Podcast. |
| 0:16.4 | This is your host, Tom Rosenbauer, and my guest this week is filmmaker R.A. Bioti. And we're not going to be |
| 0:24.2 | talking about making fly fishing films, which R.A. does beautifully. We're going to talk about |
| 0:30.9 | catching permit on surface flies. And this is a relatively new or maybe rediscovered way of catching permit. |
| 0:41.3 | And, you know, typically permit are fished with sinking flies. |
| 0:45.6 | You try to get the fly down on the bottom. |
| 0:47.7 | But fishing for them with floating flies does work. |
| 0:51.9 | Apparently, I've never done it. |
| 0:55.1 | But there are aspects of fishing for permit this way that make a lot of sense. |
| 1:00.6 | And RA is going to tell us about them in the podcast. |
| 1:03.7 | So if you're interested in catching a permit or you've been unsuccessful in catching |
| 1:09.5 | permit and you want to try a different way. |
| 1:11.9 | I think you'll enjoy this week's podcast. |
| 1:16.0 | Before we do the flybox and before we talk to RA, |
| 1:19.9 | I'm going to tell you about a few Orvis endorsed operations that you might want to plan a trip to in the coming year. |
| 1:30.5 | First is Orvis Endors Guide, David Edens of Flycast Charters and Outfitters. |
| 1:37.9 | David is based on St. Simon's Island in Georgia, and he fishes Jekyll Island, St. Simon, Sea Island, Sappolo, and Cumberland Islands. |
| 1:49.1 | He fishes from both a modern skiff and the center console when he wants to go a little bit |
| 1:56.8 | further offshore. And his primary target from the skiff obviously is redfish. It's a great |
| 2:03.6 | red fishing area. But you can also chase sea trout, flounder, Spanish mackerel, triple tail, |
| 2:11.6 | jacks, sharks, and maybe even a tarpin at the right time of year. David's a season casting instructor, |
| 2:19.8 | and he'll provide you with helios rods and mirage reels |
... |
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