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

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!