#saltwaterfly

GURGLER FLY - AND IT’S MANY STYLES

The Gurgler for me is one of those  utilitarian flies that every saltwater fly box should have a number of. It being a surface fly it is not an all-purpose pattern for every condition but rather a pattern to be used on relatively calm days and more effective when used during low light conditions or at the start or near end of the day when fish are most likely to feed off the surface.

 The Gurgler is a cheap and easy pattern to tie and is no loss when broken off or when it gets chewed to hell by a toothy predator. Just as good, it is a pattern you can generously hand off to a fellow angler without any sense of loss or sacrifice. It’s a great pattern when the fishing action is fast and furious and holds up pretty well for at time more so than a spun deer hair pattern might. For a floating surface pattern it casts easy given its relatively stream line shape much better than a puffed up wind resistant spun deer hair pattern or a balsa wood popper or worse still a foam popper. And, since it doesn’t hold water it doesn’t get weighty or float any less over time like a spun deer hair pattern is prone to do once it has had time to soak in the water.

  Supposedly, the Gurgler is tied to imitate shrimp given its profile, length and the palmered neck hackle that make up the under body of the fly alluding to a shrimps legs, claws and swimmerets. The thing sparse buck tail tail of the fly is supposed to mimic a shrimps antennae. Though, for fish like redfish, snook and seatrout which all eat shrimp and have fallen prey to the Gurgle it could just as easily appear to said predator fish to be a wounded minnow struggling on the surface. You can even add plastic black barbell eyes to give the pattern more of that shrimp look to either side of hook whichever end you prefer.

 While the buoyancy of the foam allows the fly to float it is the signature flange created towards the front of the fly is where the action is created when the fly is pulled along the surface of the water with short fast strips causing a fly to push and spray the water creating a small surface disturbance and sound hence the name,  Gurgler.

 While I prefer my Gurglers in all white,  colors for a Gurgler can range in every color of the rainbow to include brown and black and combinations thereof but most of the time most Gurglers you will see maintain one color scheme.

 Using a 1/0 hook I’ll use either clear tying mono or at the very least match the thread color to that of the closed cell foam I plan to use. Wrapping to hook shank from the eye back to just before the hook bends with my tying thread I add a thin sparse tail of bucktail about and 2-inches long. Add some crystal flash that matches or compliments your color choice for the bucktail. For a white Gurgler I use a pearlescent flash. Once the tail is secured I take a pre-cut strip of foam over the top of the tail. (Gurgler foam is can be purchased in square sheets and the width of the strip can be measured and then cut with an Exacto knife or box cutter.)  The strip should be quarter inch wide or less and should extend about a quarter inch past the hook eye (to be trimmed later). Next tie both a length of crystal chenille and a matching or complimentary colored neck hackle. In this case white or if you want  get creative and make it shrimpy looking, a grizzly hackle. Wind the hook shank with the crystal chenille and secure the chenille with your tying thread just behind the hook eye. Next palmer you neck hackle forward and in the manner where the hackle lays back towards the hook point. Secure you wound hackle as well with your tying thread in the same spot as the chenille. You will want to trim or rather close crop the palmered neck hackle on along the dorsal of the fly to allow your foam body to lay tight along the hook shank. If you feel the legs from the hackle are too long you can cut the tips off to a desired length or leave it as is. (The palmered hackle can act as a weed guard giving it that snag free effect to your fly which is another attribute of this pattern. That is why it is not necessary to tie on a weed guard for this pattern assuming you don’t trim the hackle so short as to expose the hook point.) At this stage of tying I like to add a small 1/16th of inch in length tuft of red marabou tips to the bottom of the hook just behind the hook eye to imitate the flared gills of a distressed minnow for that extra effect and the confidence a tried-and-true color combination that red-and-white are known for. Now fold over the foam strip so that it lays down along the dorsal of the fly creating the allusion of a shell back of a shrimp and secure the foam  just behind the eye of the hook. Whip finish your thread and use whatever glue or cement you prefer to seal the threads. Once the cement dries trim the foam that hangs over the hook eye to barely cover it creating a flange that allows the fly to push and spray a little water when it is stripped with sharp stripping motions.