Gartside Gurgler — Shrimp Gurgler

By Jack Gartside, 1980s, submitted by Mike Cline.

Description

Fundamentally, there couldn’t be a more straightforward, simpler fly to tie than a Gurgler Fly. Conceived in the 1980s by fly tyer Jack Gartside for New England stripers, the Gurgler has been adapted to just about any species in fresh, salt or tropical waters that will respond to a top-water fly. Australians have an idiom—Down the Gurgler—that characterizes efforts that have been a waste of time and/or money or items lost, never to be found again. In the case of the Gartside Gurgler fly, efforts in tying and fishing this simple fly will never go “Down the Gurgler”. The original gurgler fly was tailed with white bucktail with a bit of flash, a under body of palmered grizzly hackle and a 3mm white foam body. The classic folded foam body with a short lip in front of the hook eye hasn’t changed in the 40 years this pattern has been around. What has changed however is the adaptation of the myriad of synthetic flash materials available today to this versatile pattern. Most of my experience with the Gurgler pattern has been on saltwater flats in Florida for Speckled Trout, Snook and Redfish but it is easy to see how the pattern has been adapted to bass, trout, panfish, and northern pike to name just a few.

Tying Process

The addition of a small rattle under the foam body increases the effectiveness of the gurgler. The major variant is the Shrimp Gurgler where the traditional tail is replaced with eyes, shrimp antenna, legs and mouthparts. (Photo #2)

Materials

• Body: Overbody: 2-4mm foam
• Body: Underbody: Crystal chenille or equivalent
• Tail: Any combination of hair, bucktail, flash, marabou, etc
• Thread: UTC 140

Hooks

• Any lightweight saltwater or freshwater streamer hook

Fly types: Bass/Warmwater, Saltwater