The Gartside Gurgler

I am particularly happy and proud to present this fly for you to ad to your pattern book. You see, Jack was the first teacher I ever had when I first started tying flies some dozen years or so ago when I lived in Jamison City, Pennsylvania.

Barry and Cathy Beck who at that time were the owners of Fishing Creek Outfitters, and my neighbors in Benton, hosted a 2 day tying class taught by Jack over a bleak mountain weekend in February.

Had I known that he was teaching an intermediate to advanced class I might have thought twice about enrolling, but, as Thomas Jefferson once observed, "with ignorance and confidence, success is assured." Having rather substantial quantities of these requisites, I plunged headlong into fly tying. And thanks to the patience and understanding of one Jack Gartside, who no doubt wondered why I had chosen to start in the middle rather than at the beginning as most people would have done, I was inducted into the fraternity of feather sniping, hair spinning, and colorful language we call our hobby.

Now Jack Gartside is a very well educated individual. He is a true genius in every sense of that oft over used phrase. He is also, and I have said this to him personally, and with much affection, one of the most delightfully eccentric individuals it has ever been my pleasure to meet.

He can be seen in magazines previously printed scanning the flats from a beach chair. As proud as any so called "captain" poling from the platform of a flats skiff.

He has been known to fish the deeper waters of the flats from the back of a rather large and tall inflatable giraffe. Yes, I said an inflatable giraffe.

He goes beyond road kill acquisition of materials. His fox patterns were spawned from a womans wrap purchased at a Goodwill Store for a quarter. He was actually shopping for a weeks wardrobe on a trip to Florida when he made the find. Yes, he very often buys his clothing at Goodwill or a local used clothing outlet. After all, the more you can save on the non-essentials, the more money you have available for that which truly enhances the quality of life... fishing.

This fly, the Gartside Gurgler, is just one of the hundreds that this very gifted man has designed in the pursuit of piscatorial nirvana.

It was intended as a striper fly as tied here. It can be white as shown for daytime, or tied in black for night fishing. These are the basics, the "jumping off point" as it were.

One thing Gartside inspires is creativity and the freeing of ones imagination. To look into the face of convention and simply say, "no thank you!"

Tie this smaller, in yellow and go after any of the 40 sunfishes. Or a bit larger, in green for bass in cover. (Certainly you can add a weed guard.)

As Lefty Kreh says of his deceiver, "It is a way of tying something, not just a pattern." I am sure Jack would offer you the same advice. do as you will with the fly, make it work for you where you fish.

This is not just another saltwater fly. Although it is deadly. The "Gurgler" is not a popper, and it is not a slider. It is used in those situations where a loud pop will scare skittish fish, but where you want to let them know of it's presence.

If you want or need a "slider", as I frequently do on the water, simply cut off the collar and you have an instant slider. OK, enough of the talking, now let's tie the "Gartside Gurgler."