Available Dates for 2008:

February 2nd - 9th, 2008 - OPEN
March 24th - 30th, 2007 - FULL

Dates don't work for you? Contact us, we will be happy to set up a Custom Belize Experience for you!

Price: $2,950

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Deposit: $1,500

Trip Details:
The problems that Permit present to the fly rodder are unparalleled within the sport of saltwater fly fishing and the difficulties associated with catching a permit on a fly rod are well documented. And yet, more and more anglers are taking up the challenge.

Most fly rodders come to fly fishing for permit through bonefishing. They’ve usually spent untold hours on flats throughout the Caribbean, and other locations, developing their saltwater skills by catching and losing, many, many bonefish.

Enter getting serious about fly fishing for permit! There are so few permit caught on a fly rod, when compared with the other traditional flats species, that many fly rodders tend to leave the permit to the hardened flats veterans, choosing instead to focus on the more easily caught species. This is a shame, because with a little bit of knowledge and yes, some luck, landing a permit on a fly rod is quite possible. If you are interested in learning as much as possible about this enigmatic fish and then applying this knowledge while chasing permit, the TCO Belize Permit School is the place to be.

We have put this year’s trip together with a couple of things in mind. Our first objective is to create a “permit culture” environment where dialogue and a free flowing exchange of ideas and information are being analyzed and discussed. To this end there will be a series of informal classroom sessions (where Belikin Beer is usually the beverage of choice) followed by what is usually a quite lively question and answer period. All classroom time is in the evenings, after dinner, and usually lasts no more than an hour.

If you’re looking to enhance your saltwater fly fishing skills in a challenging and highly informative setting, the TCO Permit School is sure to please. With only 10 spaces available, we have purposely kept the school small, to ensure a relaxed and unhurried week.

The odd time the sickle fin of a permit would present itself for a brief moment and the angler will nervously make the cast, only to spook the fish by a variety of transgressions. He or she coughed, moved to quickly, cast too close, couldn’t cast far enough: so many the little things that bonefish, in all their decency, will usually forgive an angler for. After catching hundreds of bones, and often times many more, the skills are fairly well honed and the angler is looking for a more challenging chase, where his or her skills will really be put to the test.

This year’s school is located on Southwater Caye, in the heart of some of the best permit waters in the world. We’ve chosen this location specifically because of the high number of permit that live in this area year round. Seeing 25 to 50 fish per day is common and there are few places better that will consistently give fly rodders the opportunity to get quality shots at this skittish fish.

School Topics include:

• Permit habitat and tendencies
• Tides
• Presenting the fly
• Fly selection
• Leader and knot construction
• Playing the fish

The second goal we have for the Permit School is to have our guests apply this knowledge when they hit the flats with a fly rod in hand. To that end, the price of the school includes five full days out on the water, experiencing first hand the complexities of fly fishing for permit. After a week with us at Permit School, anglers will have a good handle on fly fishing for permit and will have seen more fish in five days than they likely will have in all their other flats experiences combined. A critical component to the TCO Permit School, are the guides that we’ve selected for the week. Each of the guides are “permit oriented”, in that they spend approximately 150 days a year guiding specifically for permit. Our school firmly embraces a hands-on philosophy and we feel that our guests learn far more by being out on the water with our guides than they would with endless hours of classroom time.

The TCO Belize Permit School includes:

• Round trip airfare from Belize City to Dangriga - 20 minute flight
• Round trip taxi service from the Dangriga airstrip to the docks - 5 minutes
• Round trip water taxi service to Southwater Caye - 25 minute boat ride
• Seven nights accommodation at the Blue Marlin Lodge (2 guests per room)
• Six days of guided permit fishing with a BFFE guide
• Three meals per day for the duration of the week
• Nightly permit education

The TCO Belize Permit School does NOT include:

• Return airfare from your point of origin
• Fly fishing equipment
• Alcoholic beverages
• Gratuities: $25 to $30 per day per person for guide and $10 to $20 per day per person for wait staff
• $20 US Belize City airport departure tax

Blue Marlin Lodge:

The Blue Marlin Lodge offers vacationers simple pleasures to help them relax. It's no secret that truly phenomenal dive and fish locations are few and far between. The southern atolls, the barrier reef, and the cayes off the lower Belizean coastline offer an untainted mecca for divers and fishermen to explore and preserve. Rooms are air conditioned and each contain private bath beach.

Blue Marling Lodge offers our guests the best fly fishing, diving, and relaxing on their private island. Dining on lobster, fresh fish, conch, and other exotic seafood is standard fare on South Water Caye. Drinking fresh juice and fruity tropical cocktails is the way we cool down in the Caribbean shade.

There is NO better place in the WORLD to cast to tailing permit!
For those who want to challenge themselves by chasing permit, this is an excellent place from which to base for a week. There are several good permit grounds to the north of Southwater Caye as well as in the Blue Ground Range of cayes, which is located directly to the west of Southwater. To the south, the countless saltwater permit flats are the finest in the world. These pristine flats hold incredible numbers of permit, and can be counted on for numerous quality shots while wading. We even have a couple of secret lagoons back on the mainland which hold good numbers of this enigmatic fish. It's not uncommon to see 40 - 60 permit a day... catching them is a different story! Although they are more willing to eat a fly here versus the Florida Keys, they are still permit! If you practice A LOT and can throw a fly 50 feet with accuracy, you will hook a Permit!



Tarpon fans will delight in the year round resident schools of fish that live within a half hour of the lodges. In the spring, both the Tobacco Caye and Southwater Caye channels become active feeding zones for the migratory tarpon that run the reef. In the spring, both the Tobacco Caye and Southwater Caye channels become active feeding zones for the migratory tarpon that run the reef. Fifty minutes due east of Southwater Caye, is the Glovers Reef Atoll. This incredible fishery has just about everything that a fly rodder could hope for.


Bonefish are right out the backdoor!
There is a beautiful white sand, hard bottom flat located on the west side of South Water Caye. This flat can be waded after a guided day of fishing. (like you will need more fishing time!?) There are also numerous other Bonefish flats... although this is not the ideal place to target Bonefish, you will still see them. But, with Permit tailing all around... who can think of Bonefishing!