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

PERMIT ARE GOOD SMELLERS!

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH FLY FISHING?

Did you know that permit actually have 4 nostril's? Hummm! Dat make dem good smellers I think! I think this is just one of the many features that permit have that help them to become one of the most difficult fish to trick into eating your fly! There has been a lot of talk for ever about how head cement on freshly tied permit flies can let off an oder that the permit can smell, thus making the permit turn away and not eat the fly. I have found this to possibly be true but in my observations being a guide I find myself tying flies up on a daily basis and many of them 5 minutes before i leave the house to fish in the morning - FRESH with head cement on them. Then catching permit on them that same day! So with that info I believe that the flies action in the water is what triggers them to eat the fly. If you give the permit to much time to look and smell at your fly in the first place then maybe they can smell the head cement but in the larger scheme of things I would say the smell is less common of an accuse then in the past!

Now I have heard that some fly fisherman like to dip there flies into crab juice to give the fly an actual crab smell. I personally don't believe this to be a factor also. WHY? Well when you take a live crab that is wiggling and swims like crazy when you drop him in the water in front of the permit, the fish comes out of his shorts to run over and pound the lively little crab! Now, if you take live crab and thump it in the head and knock it out, then cast it right away to a permit the fish will not eat it 95 out of 100 times. Why not? It looks like a crab (because it is a real CRAB), and it SMELLS like a crab (because it is a REAL crab). Whats up with that? NO MOVEMENT to stimulate the fish to attack! Personally with that I think you can throw out all thoughts on weather the fish can smell your fly or not. I have and not looked back! Any questions on this let me know! Thanks!

Check it out! Cover #6 baby! I am very excited! What a KILLER photo taken by Jeff Edvalds! Jeff Rocks!

This site is killer to learn about all kinds of fly fishing around the world from the top professionals in the fly fishing industry! This site offers live pod casts all the time and then saves them for future listeners. So if you missed the live pod cast no worries just go back and click on podcast you want to listen to and have at it! Check out the names on the home page of this site to see the large array of fly fishing talent that Roger at Ask About Fly Fishing has accumulated. I have done a bone fish show and a permit show and you can listen to them both on this site page. Check it out! I talk about a ton of different tips, and methods of fly fishing for permit and bone fish from the Florida Keys, Bahamas, Belize , and Mexico! SWEET!

http://www.askaboutflyfishing.com/speakers/bruce-chard/bruce-chard.cfm

FLY CASTING TIP - THE BENEFITS OF OFF SHOULDER CASTING!

The off shoulder cast is an imperative cast to have in your fly casting arsenal! This cast benefits you in so many ways, and I am going to tell you how!

If you are a right handed caster and the wind is blowing on your right side, angling the tip of your rod over your head down-wind off your left side (like in the picture above) - NOT CROSSING YOUR CASTING HAND IN FRONT OF YOUR CHEST OFF THE LEFT SHOULDER - is a great way to get your cast off in a hurry to right side of the flats skiff without having to take your eyes off the fish. I personally like to present my back cast at this time, but for most, it's tough to put the fly where they want without keeping an eye on the fish at the same time. This cast is great for just making a cast without giving the wind a chance to blow your line in the air into yourself while presenting the fly to the fish and then missing the fish. It does actually take some practice, but what cast doesn't! You can use this cast anytime you need to present your back cast -- like when you're casting perpendicular tight to the mangrove trees, or off the front right side of a drift boat fishing the right bank.

You want to make sure that you don't cross your casting hand over your chest while false casting. The reason for this is that your casting stroke length is dramatically hindered by your body being in the way. If you just turn the rod tip to the left side of your head and cast on your right side just like you normally would, you will just move the rod tip at a different angle and be able to keep your normal casting stoke length and not be forced to shorten your stroke length. Plus you are able to keep your casting strength high and not use muscle that has not built any memory for this type of cast since it's a different casting stroke than what is normal. Stay tuned for more killer casting tips!

GUIDE TIP - BEING AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS!

Just when you think you have a great shot at a tailing permit, you lift your rod to make a cast, and 100 cormorants that were sunning themselves on the exposed low tide bank just behind your tailing fish get spooked, and take off slapping their feet on the water as they try to get up enough speed to take off! This in return spooks your permit that you just waded and chased for the last 10 minutes! UGG! Usually there is nothing you can do about it, BUT if you learn to constantly notice all your surroundings, and then plan accordingly, you might be able to avoid such problems. Example - I have learned the hard way, that if I see a group of birds like this near where I am fishing, I will then simply fish away from the birds not giving the birds a chance to come into play at all. BUT, if I do find myself chasing a fish in the area close to shallow water birds, I now know to take the cast much lower and slower if possible while trying to keep an extra low profile and not move too quickly, and try to create a shot as soon as possible, not allowing the fish to get much closer to the birds, or to add the utmost patience and see if the fish will help things by moving farther away from the birds. Sometimes patience pays off big time in this sport! As if this game isn't hard enough already, now we have to look out for birds also! BUT - Just knowing that the birds are there in the first place, and knowing that they could be a potential problem is enough to possibly create an opportunity to catch that

fish of a lifetime!

HUGE BONEFISH IN THE FLORIDA KEYS!

Bonefish run big in the Florida Keys! Many think that the Keys are the best BIG bone fishery in the world - bar none! The average size is 6-9 pounds, world records are being caught every year from 14-15 lbs and up! That dwarfs most other bone fisheries in the world! The reason for this is the ample amount of large shrimp and crab that are available to them to eat. The Keys are loaded with HUGE sweeping turtle grass flats. That provides a killer estuary for all small living creatures to hide and grow big! In the picture above, look at how thick the grass is. This offers shrimp and crab protection from their predators and then in return they live longer having the opportunity to grow big! SO when fish eat lots of big food, they grow faster and bigger themselves.

I'll take huge bones any day mon!