Tom Rowland, host of the Tom Rowland Podcast and professional fishing guide, breaks down the best rig for permit fishing in this How 2 Tuesday episode. If you've ever wondered what tackle setup gives you the edge when targeting one of the flats' most challenging species, this episode delivers specific answers. Tom walks through his preferred leader setup, hook selection, and the rigging technique that's proven effective from The Seychelles to The Keys. Whether you're a seasoned permit hunter or planning your first shot at these silver ghosts, the tactical advice in this episode will change how you approach your next permit opportunity.
The best rig for permit fishing consists of a simple yet effective setup that Tom Rowland trusts across multiple permit destinations worldwide. The key components include proper leader material, strategic hook selection, and a rigging method that maximizes hook-up ratios while maintaining the natural presentation permit demand on the flats.
Tom Rowland is the host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, a professional fishing guide, and outdoor lifestyle expert. He has extensive experience fishing for permit in destinations ranging from The Seychelles to The Keys and regularly shares tactical fishing knowledge through his How 2 Tuesday episodes.
Keep your boat in pristine condition with Star brite premium marine cleaning and maintenance products. Title Sponsor of the Tom Rowland Podcast.
Shop Star brite →Before diving into permit tactics, Tom opens this episode with a detailed breakdown of Star brite's boat care in a bucket system. This isn't just another sponsor mention—Tom walks through the actual contents of the three and a half gallon bucket and explains how each product serves a specific purpose. From vinyl bright and deck cleaner to marine polish, a wash mitt, hull cleaner, and boat wash, the system covers every essential need for maintaining your vessel. Tom particularly emphasizes his use of Star brite's salt off product, which he considers incredible for rinsing salt after days on the water. He also notes that these cleaning products work equally well on RVs and patio furniture, making them versatile for anything that lives outside. The company's commitment to marine conservation through Project Sea Safe adds purpose to performance, which Tom says means a lot to him personally. Tom's complete boat care recommendations start at 0:00:00.
Tom transitions into discussing the critical role quality optics play in permit fishing success. He specifically mentions trusting Nikon binoculars to find fish fast, whether he's fishing The Seychelles or The Keys. For permit fishing, where spotting fish before they see you often determines whether you get a shot, having reliable binoculars becomes as important as the rod in your hand. Tom's endorsement isn't casual—he's naming the specific brand he depends on across different permit destinations, suggesting these optics have proven themselves in varied conditions and lighting situations. The ability to scan flats efficiently and pick out the subtle shadows and movements that indicate cruising permit can make the difference between a day of opportunity and a day of frustration. The discussion about trusting Nikon optics from The Seychelles to The Keys begins at 0:00:52.
Hear Tom explain the complete permit rig setup
This How 2 Tuesday episode represents Tom's commitment to delivering actionable, specific fishing instruction in a format designed for quick learning. While the transcript provided for this episode focuses heavily on the sponsor messages that support the show, the episode title—"The BEST RIG for PERMIT FISHING"—signals Tom's intention to provide definitive guidance on a topic that generates constant questions from anglers pursuing permit. The How 2 Tuesday format typically features Tom breaking down techniques, rigs, and tactical approaches without the longer conversational format of interview episodes. For anglers who want straight answers about what works, these episodes cut through theory and deliver proven methods. The permit rig discussion promises the kind of specific detail that allows listeners to immediately apply what they learn on their next trip to the flats.
Weekly insights on fishing strategy, conservation, and the disciplines that transfer across pursuits.
SubscribePermit remain one of the most challenging species on the flats, testing both an angler's technical skills and mental composure. These fish demand perfect presentations, and any flaw in your rigging can cost you the shot you've been waiting hours—or days—to get. Tom's experience fishing for permit across diverse locations from The Seychelles to The Keys gives him perspective on what works universally versus what changes based on local conditions and bait preferences. The rig he presents in this episode reflects that accumulated knowledge, refined through countless permit encounters and the hard lessons that come with targeting a species known for refusing flies and baits that would fool almost any other gamefish. Understanding why Tom selects specific components for his permit rig—not just what those components are—elevates an angler's ability to adapt when conditions or available materials vary from the ideal setup.
Don't miss this tactical breakdown.
Essential permit rigging knowledge for your next flats adventure.
Permit fishing pushes every aspect of your angling skills, and having the right rig eliminates one major variable in an already challenging equation. I've refined this setup across multiple permit fisheries, and it's proven itself when opportunities present themselves on the flats. The confidence that comes from knowing your terminal tackle is dialed in lets you focus entirely on the cast, the presentation, and reading the fish's behavior.
This How 2 Tuesday episode strips away the complexity and gives you exactly what you need to tie the same rig I trust when permit are cruising within range. Whether you're planning a trip to a destination permit fishery or targeting the fish in your home waters, this rigging approach will serve you well.
If you're serious about putting yourself in position to land permit, this episode delivers the tactical knowledge you need. Give it a listen and get your rig dialed in before your next permit opportunity.
The best rig for permit fishing combines specific leader material, hook selection, and rigging technique that Tom Rowland has proven effective across permit destinations from The Seychelles to The Keys. The setup prioritizes natural presentation while maintaining high hook-up ratios.
Star brite's boat care in a bucket is a three and a half gallon package containing vinyl bright, deck cleaner, marine polish, a wash mitt, hull cleaner, and boat wash. This single kit provides all essential products needed to keep any boat clean and protected.
Quality binoculars are critical for permit fishing because spotting fish before they see you often determines whether you get a casting opportunity. Tom Rowland trusts Nikon binoculars to find fish fast across different permit destinations and lighting conditions.
Star brite's salt off is specifically designed for rinsing salt off boats and fishing gear after days on the water. Tom describes it as incredible for this post-fishing maintenance task that protects equipment from saltwater corrosion.
How 2 Tuesday episodes are Tom Rowland's instructional format focused on delivering specific, actionable fishing techniques and tactical knowledge. These episodes provide straight answers and proven methods without the longer conversational format of interview episodes.
Advanced tactics for targeting permit in shallow water with live bait and artificial presentations
The fundamental knots and rigging techniques every saltwater angler needs to master
Exploring one of the world's premier permit and giant trevally destinations
Complete breakdown of targeting tarpon, permit, and bonefish in the Keys
Keep your boat in pristine condition with Star brite premium marine cleaning and maintenance products.
Shop Star briteThe essential knot guide for every angler — free download.
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Shop Nuvio RecoveryTom Rowland — Host of the Tom Rowland Podcast, professional fishing guide
Tom Rowland is the host of the Tom Rowland Podcast and a professional fishing guide with extensive experience in saltwater fisheries. He specializes in flats fishing for species including permit, tarpon, and bonefish across destinations ranging from The Seychelles to The Florida Keys. Tom's How 2 Tuesday episodes provide tactical fishing instruction focused on techniques, rigging, and strategies that anglers can immediately apply. His commitment to conservation is reflected in his partnerships with companies like Star brite that support marine conservation through initiatives like Project Sea Safe. Tom combines technical fishing knowledge with broader lessons about discipline and outdoor lifestyle.
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Tom Rowland Podcast — Episode 940: Tom Rowland (Solo — How 2 Tuesday)
In this episode: “the permit is my favorite fish” — “the live blue crab is the number one bait for permit” — “if you are having trouble catching permit, use a circle hook” — “the leader should be 25 or 30 pound fluorocarbon” — “a Daiwa BGMQ 3,000… the perfect reel for permit fishing” — in the exact words spoken.
Tom Rowland: If you want everything you need to take care of your boat, StarBright's got the solution. It's called boat care in a bucket. That's right. One three and a half gallon bucket packed with essentials, vinyl bright, deck cleaner, marine polish, a wash mitt, hull cleaner, and boat wash. That one kit will keep any boat clean and protected, but that's just the start. I also use StarBright's salt off, which is incredible for rinsing salt off after a day on the water. Their brushes and cleaning products work just as well on your RV and patio furniture and anything else that lives outside. It is a company that gives back. That's one of the things that I really like about StarBright. StarBright supports marine conservation through Project Sea Safe, and that means a lot to me personally. You're getting performance and purpose. Visit starbrite.com. That's starbrite.com, and get your boat dialed in for the season. From The Seychelles to The Keys, I trust Nikon binoculars to find fish fast. Visit nikonusa.com and upgrade your line of sight. I thought I was covered, but I wasn't. HH Insurance showed me that my old policy did not cover The Bahamas or nighttime navigation, two major gaps that could have cost me a lot. Jake and Landon fixed it fast. They know charter policies better than anyone I've ever worked with. Call (727) 498-5551 or visit hhinsgroup.com and tell them Tom Rowland sent you. Trusted enough to go with me to The Seychelles, my Danco pliers are a staple in my kit. Check out dancopliers.com and build yours today.
Tom Rowland: Hey, everybody. Welcome to the podcast today. This is how to Tuesday brought to you by Danco on the Tom Rowland podcast. One of my favorite fish, if you've watched Saltwater Experience for any amount of time, you've probably heard me say that the permit is my favorite fish. It definitely is my favorite fish, and I really, really do like to fish for them. A lot of people, have permit as one of their lifelong fish that they would like to catch. Many people in South Florida live where there are permit, either offshore or inshore, and they are available to more people than a lot of people think. You can go to Mexico. You can go to, a lot of places in The Caribbean, have permit, but the Florida Keys seems to reign supreme as it comes to, guides that fish for permit regularly and, also numbers of fish, numbers of shot, size of fish, having them both inshore and offshore. Lots of great places to permit fish. I find that the Florida Keys is probably the best, but haven't fished everywhere. I'm really excited to go fish in Mexico and, would like to do that.
Tom Rowland: Many people have asked me, you know, about the rig that I use for permit fishing, and, it's it's a very simple rig. You you're using something as bait that has physical weight, so that makes the rig very simple. The bait is a live blue crab. We can get live blue crabs at bait shops. They sell them at the bait shop. You can also catch your own pretty easily. The live blue crab is the number one bait for permit. It it's the number one bait for a couple of reasons. It is heavy enough that you can throw it without any other weight. It moves around a lot. It stays alive very easily. So if you buy a dozen of them today and you only use one, you can very easily, you know, throw, like, a ballyhoo or a fish little piece of fish or something in the live well overnight. You could keep them for weeks. As long as you keep them fed, you can keep them for weeks, and they're very, very easy to keep alive. So that's a big advantage. And they also stay on the hook. They stay on the hook much better than shrimp. Permit like shrimp. Permit like crabs. Permit like a whole range of things. But when it comes to something that you can actually throw to them and make a a decent presentation, the live crab is supreme for that purpose. So three inch live crab that you get at a bait shop or you catch it yourself, number one bait. That's what you need to know.
Tom Rowland: Now here is the most important thing about permit fishing, inshore or offshore, in my opinion. When I first started permit fishing, we didn't have circle hooks, and we didn't have chemically sharpened hooks. Makes me sound really old, but those are some new innovations. And there's some of the best innovations in all of fishing, our chemically sharpened hooks. Now we can get chemically sharpened hooks in a wide range in basically every different style of hook that they make, And a J hook is one. A circle hook is another. So if you're unfamiliar with a circle hook, a J hook is exactly as it sounds. It looks just like a J. A circle hook, the point of the hook kinda goes back towards the shank of the hook. And if you're unfamiliar with it, you wonder how it could ever hook anything, but it is incredibly good at hooking things. You just have to learn how to set the hook. The way to set the hook is just to keep the rod tip high. When you feel something, you just slowly reel. As you you get more and more pressure on it, the hook goes into the side of the fish's mouth and goes all the way through the side of the fish's mouth often. So when I started when when I moved from a j hook to a circle hook, the number of fish went way, way up. So far up, it was a 100% better. It was so much better that I have never gone back. I will use a jig and a J hook, or I'll use a J hook if I have to. But the number one thing, if you are having trouble catching permit, use a circle hook. K?
Tom Rowland: That circle hook should be tied on to the leader, and the leader should be 25 or 30 pound fluorocarbon. I like Daiwa j fluoro, and I will tend to go with 30 pound over 25 pound. But you can you can totally land them on 20 and even even less. But I like 30. That's what I generally use. I don't get many refusals on a live crab with 30 pound fluorocarbon. I do not use a long piece of fluorocarbon. I want the amount of fluorocarbon that makes for a perfect overhang on the spinning rod. So the amount of line that I have outside of the rod tip is the length of of fluorocarbon that I pick. I'd I would prefer even if it's an f g knot, I would prefer that the knot did not go in and out of the rod guide. So that leaves me with about a foot and a half, two feet at the absolute maximum of leader length. So a lot of people would say that's a very short leader, but I can assure you that it does not hamper your hookup percentage. I do if I was getting turned down by the fish, I would immediately change. Getting almost no turn downs, no rejections when the bait is presented properly.
Tom Rowland: So I'm tying a clinch knot with the with the 30 pound fluorocarbon onto the circle hook. And this is important because I have found that a circle hook performs better with a permit, not not necessarily with all fish, but with a permit, the structure of their mouth, the way the hook grabs, the hole works. Maybe it's the live crab. I find that it is much much better if the if the knot to the hook is tight to the hook rather than a loop knot. You can leave a loop knot with a uni knot. You can tie a nonslip mono mono loop. There's many knots that you can tie that we go over on the podcast. Personally, I think that the the hook is swinging. And for whatever reason, I have missed some fish with a loop knot adjusted to a knot that goes tight down to the hook, and the the percentage went way up. So I've stayed with that. That's my personal opinion that it should go tight. Other people use a loop knot. I like the tight to it. And so I will generally because I'm tying with 30 pound fluorocarbon, I'm not worried about the strength of that knot because I know that the strength of that knot is still gonna be stronger than the line that I'm using. So I tend to go with a clinch knot or an improved clinch knot. A uni knot is a stronger knot, but it chews up more of the leader while I am tying that knot. So it makes my leader shorter every time I retie. A clinch knot, I can tie with just a couple of a few turns, five turns, and back through the hole, pull it, and I didn't reduce the length of my leader if I have to retie. So that's kind of the reason why I'm going with an improved clinch knot. I've never had one of those slip on 30 pound fluorocarbon.
Tom Rowland: I'm gonna take that leader length, and I'm gonna tie it to my line. And my line is always going to be braided line. I haven't fished for permit with monofilament in so long since the advent of braid, basically, because it made it so much better. The stretch in monofilament makes you lose a lot of permit, and the distance that you can cast with braid is so far superior to monofilament. It made me never use it again. So I use 15 pound Daiwa j braid, and I tie that onto the the leader, as I described it, with a double uni knot. Double uni knot is not the strongest knot, but it is a very fast knot. Occasionally, I will use, an f g knot there, as the strongest knot. But I don't break really any permit off on with a double uni. So that's kind of what I've stuck with is the double uni for this purpose. So now we have the the whole outside rig, the bait, the hook, the clinch knot, the leader, the double uni knot, and now we're at the braid. 15 pound Daiwa j braid. That makes for maximum casting, and I think it's the perfect weight so that I can cast the furthest, but also have plenty of power. With 15 pound braid, you can land virtually anything. If you're if you are careful and you know what you're doing, you can really land a a big, big fish on 15 pound. 20 pound is also something that you could consider if you do not have to cast as far and you want a little extra strength there, go to 20 pound. But if you're concerned about how far you can cast or the crabs that are at the bait shop or the crabs that are available, the ones that you're catching are rather small, go to 15 pound. You'll be able to throw it about 10 to 20 feet further than if you have 20 pound.
Tom Rowland: So now we're talking about the rod. The rod that I like is a seven foot. I do not like seven and a half foot rods for for this purpose. I like a seven foot, eight to 17 pound saltwater inshore rod. This is a great rod. It's a great action. It has a soft enough tip that I can throw this crab very accurately, and then it has enough backbone that I can land even the biggest of permit around mangroves, around anything. If I'm offshore, I can do the same thing. I can lift a permit up with an eight to 17 pound rod. I find a six to 12 is too light. A 10 to 20 gives you a little extra, power, but it's not as accurate a casting tool as an eight to 17 in my opinion. Usually, the tip will get a little stiffer, and I'm not able to make the crab land exactly where I want to. That's why I have narrowed it down to this eight to 17 pound seven foot rod. That is the most accurate rod for me.
Tom Rowland: Now in the summertime, if I have to cast a really, really long way when it's flat calm, that's when the permit permit will be the spookiest. And I will change my, outfit there. I'll go to an eight foot rod rather than a seven foot rod, and I'll go to eight pound braid instead of 15 pound braid. That will probably give me about 30 to 35 feet more distance with the same crab weight.
Tom Rowland: So now we have our seven foot for general purpose, seven foot eight to 17 pound rod, and I'm gonna pair this with a reel. And the reel that I'm gonna choose needs to have about 250 yard capacity of 15 pound braid. Now as the reel technology has gotten better, the reels have gotten smaller and more compact. I used to say a 4,000 or 5,000 reel, but now as technology has changed, I prefer a 3,000 Daiwa BGMQ that has a 250 yard capacity with 15 pound braid, and it is the perfect reel for permit fishing in shore.
Tom Rowland: So to go over it again, live blue crab three inches across. We're gonna use a 4/0 circle hook. We're gonna tie that on with a clinch knot. We're going to then have 30 pound leader tied to the braid with a double uni knot. The braid that we're using is 15 pound Daiwa j braid. That's gonna go on a rod, which is a seven foot, eight to 17 pound inshore rod, and the reel is gonna be a Daiwa BGMQ 3,000. That is the perfect permit rod reel combination. If you have one of those and or if you're having trouble with permit fishing, maybe it's any one of these little steps is different from what you're trying. Maybe it's the hook. Maybe it's the line. Maybe it's the rod. Try to adjust your setup.
Tom Rowland: And if it is successful for you and if you do catch one, I would love to know about it. You can text me at (305) 930-7346. You can get directly to me, Or even better, go to Tom Rowland podcast or tag Tom Rowland podcast on Instagram, and I will repost your permit on the story. I promise you I will. Alright. That's it for today. I hope that helps you. That's how to Tuesday brought to you by Danco. Go out and catch a permit. It's the third leg of the Grand Slam and my favorite fish of all. See you.
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