GURGLING THE CAPE

May 21, 2004 - Thank you Jack Gartside. For those of you that are not familiar with this original and somewhat eccentric fly fishing partisan, Jack has been responsible for developing some of the most successful saltwater patterns here on the East Coast. One of his more popular creations is aptly dubbed "The Gurgler." It is nothing more than a conglomeration of closed cell foam, bucktail, hackle and a touch of flash for spice. When employed in conjunction with a floating, or intermediate fly line it has the propensity to plop, fizz, splash, gurgle and displace just about as much water as sliders and poppers many times it's mass. This is all accomplished with relative ease due to the fly's castability quotient, a trait common to many of Jack's patterns.

Over the years I have become a huge fan and promoter of this fly simply because it catches fish under a variety of conditions. This previous weekend while fishing with Cape Cod roomies Mark Kralian and shore guide Dave Pearson, I made the resolution to lash a 1/0 White Gurgler to the business end of a 10 weight floater and witness what a 6 or 7 hour session of prospecting some inshore real estate would produce.
From first light, through the bottom of low tide, and well into the incommer the fly produced fish after fish, which a one point led Mark to comment, "looks like your having a lot of fun." While my comrades where enjoying similar success with sinking delicacies, it was the ease of presentation and voracious surface takes that had them shaking their heads. "Calling them up" is what Mark tabbed it while he gazed toward me and detached yet another liberal scrap of eel grass from his imitation.

Now granted most of the specimens could be categorized as typical schoolies, falling in the 14-18" category, but the last 2 hours produced many fish in the mid twenties to just about keeper size. We all viewed the session as a means of "getting it out of our system" prior to opening up the sight-fishing season toward the end of May.

While I have utilized surface flies to some degree in the past, I am beginning to embrace their effectiveness as universal searching patterns, which should be particularly important to wading anglers in general. I'm not promoting the notion that other conditions wouldn't warrant opposing tactics, but it's certainly a welcome diversion from the more conventional Clouser Minnow and 350-grain line.

Good fishing and safe wading,
JB