It’s early morning, the cool time prior to the impending heat of a sweltering summer day. I’m sitting at the local laundromat, watching my guide shirts and stinky socks hypnotically tumbling around and around in circles of frothing suds. My mind wandering, I think about all the different flies that I have fished over the years. I have fished so many different flies — in with the new, out with the old.
Lately, though, I have resurrected one of my favorite old top-water bass flies, the Gurgler, invented by Jack Gartside. Tying on the Gurgler is like reconnecting with a long-lost friend who was easy to get along with and with whom you shared some memorable parties. Of course, I can’t just leave the original alone. I like the new tweak that my friend Bruce Waechtler added to the deadly Gurgler pattern. He added a reversed cone in the front, just behind the hook eye, to cause more surface disturbance. Here is how to tie it.
Select a size 1 Gamakatsu B10S stinger hook and slide a 7/16-inch or larger cone disc, such as made by Pro Sportfisher, over the eye so that the wide portion faces forward. Insert the hook in the vise. Attach a strong chartreuse or fluorescent orange thread behind the eye and wrap about a 3/16-inch ball of thread to prevent the cone from slipping off the eye, then tie off and cut the thread. Push the cone forward against the thread ball, reattach the thread, and create another ball behind and tight to the cone, securing it in place. Tie off the thread and cut it off again. If you want, you can add painted eyes and a painted mouth to the cone. Also, if you’d like the fly to push more water and create more of a pop, fill the cone scoop with UV cement, then set the glue with a UV light, making sure the cone face is perpendicular to the shank.
Now reattach the thread behind the cone and proceed to make a craft-fur tail.
Cut a clump of white fur, add some chartreuse fur on top, and secure the fur behind the cone, leaving two inches of fur extending beyond the bend, and wrap back to the hook bend. Return the thread to behind the cone, attach four strands of pearl Flashabou on each side of the shank, and wrap back to the bend leaving them extending a little longer than the craft fur. Wrap the thread forward again to behind the cone. Next comes the foam portion of this fly. Using 2-millimeter or 3-millimeter white foam, cut a section 1/2 inch wide and 3-1/2 inches long and taper the ends. Secure the foam on the shank at the bend, leaving an inch of foam extending back and over the fur tail. Add some cement at the tie-in point, then advance the thread forward to the cone.
Now attach some UV chenille behind the eye, wrap it back to the bend and then forward again to the cone and tie off, snipping away the excess chenille. Fold the forward portion of foam over the chenille body and secure it behind the cone, then fold back what’s left, making sure the last fold extends forward of the cone around 3/16 of an inch, tightly securing it behind the cone with the remaining foam extending back over the body. Tie off, whip finish, and cement the thread. You are finished.
Tie this version of the Gurgler in different colors and sizes. Cast it in your favorite bass pond or lake or in the Delta. Pop it hard or twitch it. You won’t be disappointed.
I encourage you to dig into your graveyard of has-been patterns and give them a second life. Your flies are your friends. Take them for a trip. They still work. Reconnect.
— Andrew Guibord
