Fishing for and catching permit on the flats in The Florida Keys has to rank as one of my favorite if not most challenging fishing experiences I can do. Permit do everything you'd want a challenging target to do except they don't jump but they do grow big, (up to 60lbs but average size is between 15-to 30-lbs on the flats) they tail in shallow water and once hooked they run forever and fight to the bitter end. I consider permit an incoming high tide fish. You can find them working and exiting the flats or feeding on the edges of channels as tide recedes but they are definitely worried about getting trapped in shallow water and you won't find them on the flats shortly after the tide starts to fall. But on the last hours of the incomer is prime time for permit. I find permit tail best in the late afternoon when most fisherman have gone home and the boat traffic is nearly non-existent. The flats just west of Key West are permit heaven as far as I'm concerned and well worth the 4-hour drive it takes me to get there from my home in Fort Lauderdale.