Saltwater Trips 2002
May13th I headed for Key West Florida, rented a car and drove to Little Torch Key by big Pine and stayed at the Dolphin Resort. A really nice place to stay with a great staff to help you. Capt. Bruce Chard has been my guide for the past 6 seasons and in my opinion he really knows the flats and how to fish them. My first four days I jumped 23 Tarpon but only got 3 to the boat! Great action but they were strong fighters. I did break off a couple because Sharks were chasing them.
At the end of the four days I flew to Miami, Nassau and then on the Andros town to fish at the Andros Island Bonefish Club.
This is a great place to go with the chance of getting a 10 lb. bonefish. It's very well operated with a great staff, lodging, food & guides. The weather was overcast and quite windy but we still got out and caught some nice fish.
Then I went back to Florida with Brian Flechig, who owns Mad River Outfitters in Columbus, Ohio to fish for Tarpon again with Bruce Chard for 3 more days. We really jumped some nice fish and had a truly great experience. The night fishing was exceptional except for the fact that we broke several off because of Bull Sharks. It really is hard to imagine that you could be fighting a hundred pound plus fish and something is trying to eat it! We still got some great fish in and we could not have asked for a nicer trip. I then headed for home for 3 days to re-group and return to fish with my good friend Rodger Glaspey on his first official Tarpon trip.
The next 5 days were so good it's hard to put it on paper. One night we jumped 17 Tarpon! As we were winding down Bruce said to make this your last cast. I said wouldn't it be great to end this day with a nice Permit! Bruce said "what did you say?" So I repeated it and made my cast, within 30 seconds I had a strike and set the hook. You guessed it! A 10 pound Permit, my first ever and I called it! This was the first time anyone had caught a Permit at night fly fishing with Bruce. After a few photos back he went. Our total was 59 tarpon jumped in 5 days.
My friend Gonzalo Cortes from the Fly Shop in Santiago, Chile along with Pablo and Jamie were on my last trip. The weather changed a lot. The wind blew, big rain, lots of clouds, weak tides were all strikes against us. Even at that, Bruce Chard got us into 31 jumped Tarpon. The season total for us while in Bruce's boat was 137 jumped Tarpon. I did manage to get 15 to the boat. Bruce knows his fish and the flats. If you are looking for some action on BIG Tarpon you should give him a call.
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