BIG RED!

Its big red time, and I don't mean pass me a piece of gum! This 25 lber was tailing in 3ft of water and ate a huge tarpon fly! NICE!! In the winter months the shallow bays and flats of the north gulf of Mexico near LA, and AL fill up with big schools of HUGE redfish! These fish look like copper submarines on the flats. When they open there mouth you can almost fit you head inside. Unreal! The numbers of these huge fish can be high at times but I was happy with getting this one, big, single redfish on my 3 day fishing trip! My buddy I was fishing with landed 3 of them. I hooked a couple others myself as well but didn't land them. You can fish for giant tailing black drum, huge sheepshead and these big reds all in the same area. This fishery is KILLER!

captpermit@aol.com - www.brucechard.com

CHARDY'S CHOAKER CRAB FLY!

Here is the long awaited recipe for the famous Chardy Choaker Crab Fly! This fly is a proven killer for permit and bone fish around the world from Mexico, Belize, and the Florida Keys! Don't ask me why but they gotta have baby!

Ingrediance

• size 2/0 Gamakatzu SC15 Hook
• Natural deer hair
• tan select craft fur
• pumpkin seed sili legs
• cree or variant feathers
• hot orange or peach cactus chenille
• 17 pound Rio saltwater hard mono for weed guard
• med size lead eyes
• chartreuse 3/0 Danvills flat waxed thread
• sally Hansens hard as nails for glue
• and last but not least the one and only - awesome Regal vise

Instructions

1. - Tie lead eye on bottom of hook shank (hook point down in the vise) about 1/4 inch behind eye
2. - wrap thread back to bend of hook
3. - wrap on med sized chunk of tan craft fur making the fur about 1 1/2-2 inches long
4. - palmer about 4.5 wraps of hot orange cactus chenille and make a small ball at base where you tied on the craft fur
5. - then marrie 2 separate sets of thick salt water sized cree or variant feathers and then splay the to sets out opposite each other using the ball of chenille as a spacer to help spread
6. - then flip over fly so the hook is up and tie in 4 strands of pumpkin seed sili legs so they extend over the back of the craft fur
7. - next take a small to medium sized swatch of natural deer hair and pinch on hook just behind the lead eyes (note - behind the lead eyes but on the opposite side of the hook). Make sure that the fine tips of the hair are facing the back of the fly and make 3 loose thread wraps and cinch down on the deer hair to flair it out. Do not let the deer hair spin though. We are not spinning deer hair. Just hold against hook tight while you cinch with the thread to flair it out
8. - trim front part if deer hair so just the fine tips are left. Leave a nice shape body.
9. - next move forward of the lead eyes and finish by adding a double weedguard by doubling over a single piece of 17 pound Rio Saltwater Hard mono. Trim, and leave about 1/2 inch above hook point.
10. - whip finish and coat thread with Sally Hansen hard as nails

Any questions please ask!

www.brucechard.com - captpermit@aol.com

TAILING BONES ARE THE BEST!

Bonefish have become one of the favorite saltwater fish to target on fly by many experienced fly anglers, and novices. They live in super shallow areas and in certain places with mega numbers. This along with there lightning speedy runs makes them a fav to fish for. I believe that the Bahamas hold some of the world best bonefishing. That is why I host my Ultimate Fly Fishing Bonefish School in South Andros Bahamas at the Andros South Boenfish Lodge! The bone in the pic above is feeding in about 4-5 inches of water, and was taken in South Andros. You can see this in plentiful numbers in South Andros. Bones love to go as shallow as they can to get to the little crabs and shrimp that live and take cover in the mangrove tree roots. This fish is belly draggin he is so shallow! This sight makes for great fun, for when the bones are this shallow they are extra spooky and call for a much stealthier presentation. So I like to make a very wide loop when casting to shallow talliers and have very even power all the way through the wide loop. This will allow the fly to land very softly thus not spooking the fish! On the other hand when the bones are this shallow with there tails out of the water the only reason their are exposing themselves so much is to feed aggressively. So with that the bones are usually very apt to run over to eat your fly IF you can get it near them with out spooking them! Much more to come on this subject. Thanks!

From the makers of the fly fishing movie "DRIFT" - Confluence Films has produced yet another sweet fly fishing film called "RISE". The trailer was debuted on a large screen at the Simms party at the Fly Fishing Retailer show in Denver Last Friday night. The trailer is awesome starring Capt Bruce Chard himself. Watch the "RISE" trailer here -

http://www.confluencefilms.tv/films.php

captpermit@aol.com - www.brucechard.com

WHAT DRAWS TARPON TO THE FLORIDA KEYS MORE THEN ANY OTHER PLACE IN THE WORLD?

This is is a cool pic of some rolling tarpon in the Florida Keys! Why do such large numbers of tarpon in all sizes travel so far to come to the Florida Keys? I think its food, and warmth! Just like all of us humans we search out warm areas during winter month even if its for a short time. If we can afford it we make any excuse we can to travel south in the winter time. I think that tarpon think a lot like us humans do. Much more then we think!

We don't really know a lot about tarpon. We are learning more about tarpon and there habits everyday with the help of the BTU (Bonefish-Tarpon Unlimited). I am going to share with you why I believe so many tarpon travel to the Keys! I mentioned above I think food and temperatures are what make these fish come to the Keys in such large numbers. The Keys have such a vast amount of shallow water flats intertwined with deep water channels that enable the water temperatures to increase quickly in the winter time on sunny days making this area a great place for bait fish to grow and live. This in returns draws the large amounts of tarpon into large pre spawning staging areas as early as Christmas time! The tarpon will then stay in these areas till the water temps reach near 80 degrees (usually mid March - Mid April) then they will move to there migrating routes and start to travel almost on a daily basis. The Palolo Worm hatch is also a huge source of food and or excitement for the tarpon every year! Palolo worms like to hatch in late May till late June and often create feeding frenzies like no other! I notice that the tarpon like to move a lot more after the worms hatch is over which I think means the worms have a lot to do with why the tarpon are in the Keys in the first place. I am not sure if we will ever know the truth about this but that's what makes it so fun!

PERMIT HAVE HUGE LIPS!

NOT JUST FOR KISSING CRABS!!!

These big white lips are the last things that many little Crabbies want to come across in there lifetime. Usually with the sight of these big juicy white lips comes a quite strong sucking feeling much like a hoover vacuum! Then poof, the crab is nothing but a pile of crushed shells being flushed back into the water. A number of points about these big white lips are worth talking about in the fly fishing world. I think learning about the actual fish and its anatomy, lifestyle and habits are VERY important to upping your catch ratio. So how does knowing about these big puffy lips help us catch more fish? Well they are BIG WHITE PUFFY LIPS to put a fine point on it. When hunting for permit on the shallow flats it has been a common know that you can usually see the large, black, forked tail of the permit before you can see the slim profile of the permit body. But what about on a darker cloudy day? Then throw in some darker bottom as well. UGG! It can be hard to spot that DARK BLACK tail in the limited light and on the darker bottom. Guess what then sticks out more then anything! YES THE LIPS! These big, white, rubbery permit lips make it easier to see a permit on darker days for sure! Sometime from a great distance if the light is just right! The white color of the lips against the dark bottom in the lower light will show up like a lite up christmas tree. Use this tip to help yourself identify a possible permit in some darker conditions.

The photo above can also show the angler how thick the permits lips and mouth really are! Anglers can then learn that a good stout hook set is needed even with the laser sharpened hooks that we have on the market today. This will all be covered on future blog posts, along with hook gaps, hook sizes, fly size, material on the flies and how that effects the fly movement and much more so stay tuned! If you have not subscribed to my blog, and wish to learn more please do so on the top right email entree. Thanks!

www.brucechard.com

CHARDY IS FEATURED IN THE BEST FLY FISHING MOVIE EVER PRODUCED!

"RISE"

WOW! The new fly fishing movie "RISE" is going to be KILLER! Filmed by the unbelievable, 3 time EMMY award winning cinematographer Chris Patterson (Warren Miller Ski Films), and produced by one of the top minds in the fly fishing industry, Yellow Dog Fly Fishing Adventures' start up man, Jim Klug! Together, Chris and Jim started Confluence Films and produced the world famous 2008 fly fishing movie "DRIFT". Then creating yet another magical fly fishing masterpiece this year, Confluence Films looks to have produced what could be the best fly fishing movie ever made. Loaded with off the chart fly fishing porn, "RISE" is 70 minutes long and was shot on professional 16mm movie film, and then digitally mastered in HD! Los Roques, Florida Keys, Idahos - Henry's Fork, Alaska, New Orleans, and Patagonia wrap up all the destinations in this stellar fly flick! My buddy Capt Joel Dickey and I are hosting and fishing the Florida Keys Tarpon segment of this movie, and I have heard that this could be the best tarpon footage ever captured on film. "HINT" - You might even see some palolo worms if you're lucky! I can't wait to see it myself! For those of you that will be attending the Fly Tackle Retailer Show in Denver next week, be sure to come to the Simms party to see a special preview! "RISE" will be available for purchase on

November 1, 2009 @ www.confluencefilms.tv Check it out!!

www.brucechard.com - captpermit@aol.com

WORLD CLASS TARPON NUMBERS!

A PROSPECTIVE PHOTO!

If you look at the photo above very closely you will see a HUGE school of mature, migrating tarpon bumping off the defined shallow water edge, moving to the left! I took this photo from an airplane a number of years ago. The Florida Keys offers the absolute BEST tarpon fly fishing in the world! Fly anglers can expect to see these huge schools of tarpon on a daily basis during certain times of the year. The extreme size of the tarpon (50-160 pounds) swimming in an average shallow water depth of only 4-5ft is an increadible sight to behold to say the least. Endless gallons of gin clear water covering miles of sandbars, grass flats, deep water cuts, and channels are some of the reasons most fly anglers have been returning for decades. To get an up close and personal look at over 200 giant tarpon swimming within 100 ft of you is enough to give even the most poised fly anglers buck fever. The school above is one of those schools, for there is over 200 fish in the above school, and the string of tarpon is over 100yds long! SWEET!

captpermit@aol.com - www.brucechard.com