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Florida Keys Flats Fishing Charters and Guide Service - Florida Keys Permit Fishing
Florida Keys Bonefish	Florida Keys Tarpon	Florida Keys Permit	Florida Keys Backcountry	Florida Keys Shark Fishing	Florida Keys Fly Patterns
Come and stalk the flats for the most sought after fish in the Florida keys. Spin or fly tackle, this type of fishing is a challenge to most.	Experience the incredible power and acrobatics of the silver king. Fish sizes range from 10 - 200 lbs!! Weak hearted need not apply.	Sight-cast big permit on the flats. Expect long battles and heart pounding action while these fish tail and root for their prey.	An adventure into the Everglades National Park for species like Redfish, Snook, Trout, Sharks and much much more.	Battle Hammerhead, Bull, Lemon and Black Tip Sharks in shallow water on light tackle or fly gear. Join me sight casting big sharks on the flats.	Check out some of the patterns I use to catch our great Florida keys species like bonefish, tarpon and permit. Go take a look right now!

Florida Keys Permit Fishing

Dan with his first Permitt.

Known as the trophy of the flats, Permit are pound for pound one of the strongest fish in the world. Their primary diet consists of mainly crabs but are known to eat shrimp and other small fish. Also found on shallow water flats and deep channel edges, Permit are also fast runners and when hooked can easily take 150 yards of line on their first run and use their wide bodies to bulldog you to no end.

Prime Permit Time

March and April
March and April is when the Permit are pre-spawning and invade the flats before they spawn on the offshore reefs and wrecks. Strong tide bring better fishing and calm days bring Permit to the surface for the ultimate challenge. Permit are by far my favorite fish to catch bar none.

Summer Months and the Fall - With little traffic on the water and many calm days, the summer months are a great time to catch Permit. All of the fish are back from spawning and can be found in large schools on the flats and channel edges. This is a great time to catch a Permit on the fly! The fall, especially this year, has been the most increbile Permit fishing I have ever seen.

Permit Photos

Fly Fishing for Permit

Ryan Curley with his first Permit on fly!

Flippin the Chicken

Fly fishing for permit is very difficult but enjoyable. Many people have dreamed of catching permit on a fly. The anticipation after the fly has landed is incredible. It feels like time is standing still. Once the fly is taken, hang on and be prepared for a ride of a lifetime. Crab patterns are key to success. I use a fly that I tie called the Fuzzy Merkin and the T-Pak Crab. Perfect sinks rate is important. The fly must imitate a fleeing crab and imitate it well. Permit have huge eyes and can spot a fake in no time. Close casts and the "in your face" method are usually the best. You really want to have the fish react with out thinking. Click here for the fly tier's bench

Fly Equipment Used

Thomas and Thomas Horizon Series
9,10 weight fly rods

Scientific Anglers Mastery Series

Gamakatsu #SC-15

Seaguar Fluorocarbon Leader

Favorite Permit Flies

The Ultimate Permit Fly selection for the Florida Keys
	The Fuzzy Merkin Difficulty - 4 of 5 An inverted Merkin Permit Fly.
	The T-Pak Crab Difficulty - 3 of 5 Great fly for BIG Bonefish and Permit

Florida Keys Fishing Videos

Permit Fishing with Joe Leskoske
Joe caught 3 Permit in one day and we have it on film!

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Underwater Baby Tarpon
Mike Hill catches a baby tarpon on fly. We dunk the GoPro Camera to see what its like Underwater. No Sound.

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Black Tip Sharks on Fly
Warren Stern rips up on some Black Tip Sharks on fly for the first time.

Part 1

Part 2

DOA LURES - CAL JERK BAIT
Something I put together for my favorite artificial bait.

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Tarpon on DOA CALs
The Deckers, father and son rip up on some medium sized tarpon on the DOA CAL Jerk bait. This video has some of the most amazing tarpon jumps.

Part 1 >

Part 2 >

Tarpon on Fly
Rob hooked up with his first tarpon on fly

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Tarpon on Fly
Doug Nix with his first tarpon on fly. Doug was throwing a gurgler pattern.

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Bonefish on Fly
Todd Paikin with some insane bonefish footage, fighting a 10.5 lb Bonefish on fly and a 13 lb. Bonefish on light tackle. Choose below.

Bonefish on Fly >

13lb. Bonefish >

Tarpon on Light Tackle
DOA strikes again! Justin hooking up with some a nice Tarpon on 10 lb gear. Awesome Tarpon jumps. Slow Motion Video

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Big Tarpon and Permit
Roger Moore from England, catching big Tarpon, Permit and casting to some Sharks on fly.

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Bonefish and Permit
Denis pursuing his Grand Slam. He scored with two big bonefish and a awesome Permit.

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Bonefish on Light tackle
Elizabeth with her first monster Bonefish ever and Tom caught himself a big Bonefish as well.

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Permit and Tarpon
Joe Leskoske pursuing another Grand Slam catching the holy grail, the Permit and some baby Tarpon

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Tarpon, Snook and Bonefish
What can you say about the DOA Lures! They are devastating. Tim and Val pursuing the incredible Super Grand Slam catching Snook, Tarpon and Bonefish.

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Fly Tier's Section - Fly Patterns, Tips and News

Florida Keys Fly Patterns

Florida Keys Bonefish Flies

The Gotcha
Difficulty - 2 of 5
One of the most popular bonefish flies around!

The Tasty Toad
Difficulty - 3 of 5
One of Captain Harry Spear's very popular bonefish flies.

Bonefish Slider
Difficulty - 2 of 5 Certainly one of my favorite bonefish flies.

Deer Head Shrimp Difficulty - 3 of 5
One of the sweetest looking shrimp flies around!

The Abomination
Difficulty - 2 of 5
Great fly for Bonefish, baby Tarpon and Redfish

Florida Keys Tarpon Flies

The Inhaler
Difficulty - 1 of 5
Definitely one of my go to baby tarpon flies.

The CD
Difficulty - 4 of 5
The best laid up Tarpon fly, hands down.

The Tarpon Toad
Difficulty - 2 of 5
You all know about the Tarpon Toad, this was the original.

The Mrs. Howell
Difficulty - 2 of 5
Great Tarpon fly for the Islamorada Backcountry.

Florida Keys Permit Flies

The Fuzzy Merkin
Difficulty - 4 of 5
An inverted Merkin Permit Fly.

The T-Pak Crab
Difficulty - 3 of 5
Great fly for BIG Bonefish and Permit

Florida Keys Redfish Flies

Florida Keys Snook Flies

Redfish Seaducer
Difficulty - 1 of 5
Talk about a fly that can catch some redfish!

The White Widow
Difficulty - 2 of 5
This is a great all around bait fish pattern fly.

Florida Keys Shark Flies

The Mad Pumpkin
Difficulty - 2 of 5
The one and only shark fly. This fly is deadly in all black.

Go to the Fly Tier's Bench >>

Fly Tying Resources

Dr. Slick Fly Tying Scissors

Wow. What can I say. I just received my Dr. Slick Razor Scissors about 5 days ago and I am super impressed. They are probably the sharpest scissors I’ve had to date. Razor Scissors are adjustable-tension scissors made of j2-surgical steel with a lifetime guarantee. How can you beat that? They are available in 2 sizes, a 4 inch and a 5 inch. Check out all of Dr. Slick products. They have a lot of fantastic high quality fly tying accessories. Visit the Dr. Slick website

Fly Fishing Message Board

If you are interested in chatting it up with some other fly anglers, go check out “Fly Honkey” Most of these guys are from Texas, so becareful. They always think their fish is bigger that yours. Go there now, you’ll find a lot of useful information there. I promise.