Ask flats anglers to rank their prizes and permit sit at the top: sharper-eyed than bonefish, stronger than they have any right to be, and unforgettable when it finally comes together.
A tailing permit in a foot of water is the most demanding target in the Keys. They inspect everything, refuse most of it, and leave without explanation. Which is precisely why a permit on the flat is the fish serious anglers measure themselves against.
There is also the honest-odds version: permit school over the nearshore wrecks, where a well-dropped live crab gets eaten with far less ceremony. Brian runs both plays depending on your appetite for difficulty, often in the same day.
Bonefish, permit, tarpon in one day is the flats grand slam, and the Upper Keys is one of the few places on earth it happens. If the tides line up in season, Brian will tell you plainly whether the board is worth chasing.
A live crab, presented quietly. On the flats it is one shot at a moving fish; over the wrecks it is a drop into the school.
They are prized far more as a gamefish, and flats permit are released. The fight and the photo are the trophies.
On the flats: earned, never promised. Over the wrecks in season: genuinely good odds. Tell Brian which version of the hunt you want.
Captain Key Largo and The Poppa Wahoo Collective are the same family, an island apart. Brian runs the flats and the backcountry out of Key Largo. The offshore fleet, two Hatteras sportfishers, works out of Islamorada 20 minutes south.