Jack Gartside is known for many iconic fly patterns like the Gurgler, The Sparrow, and the Soft Hackle Streamer, just to name a few. Jack was a prolific fly designer and produced hundreds of unique fly patterns. Over the last few seasons, I have been tying and fishing some of Jack's lesser-known flies. The subject of today's post is one of those flies, the Gartside Bass Bug.
The smaller Gartside Bugs along side the Gartside Bass Bug. I use the same tying method for some of my frog patterns.
The Gartside Bass Bug is a spin-off of another one of his flies, the Gartside Bug. The Gartside Bug is another warm water favorite. Smaller in size, it makes an ideal topwater bug for panfish. Gartside Bass Bug is a supersized version of this smaller fly that is deadly on a wide range of larger gamefish. You can tie it in a wide range of colors and sizes. It catches its share of largemouth bass, but it really shines when used for smallmouth. Jack claimed that he had a reliable report from one of his customers who claimed to catch over five hundred smallmouths on ONE of these flies before it became too chewed up to fish it any longer!
Five hundred fish on a single fly is something I have a hard time swallowing, but I can attest to the fly's effectiveness, having caught several dozen smallmouths in one day on a very plain-looking size six, brown Gartside Bass Bug. Many of these fish took the fly on a dead drift with no movement imparted to the fly whatsoever.
The Gartside Bug and The Gartside Bass Bug evolved into his popular Gurgler pattern.
The pattern is very reminiscent of the world-famous Gurgler. However, it looks like a Gurgler with its lip removed. This change gives the fly a different action when retrieved. The more streamlined shape lets you pull the fly beneath the surface when you hold the rod tip low or skitter it across the top with the tip held high.
Jack tied the fly with a wide leading edge. I usually trim the foam to a more streamlined shape, giving the fly a more subtle action when retrieved. This more aerodynamic head casts a little easier and allows me to swim the fly erratically side to side if desired.
One feature of Jack's that I do not regularly include on my flies is the cinch material. Jack's flies had a racing stripe of flash material that ran down the center of the foam shell back he called a cinch on many of his foam patterns. This material had no bearing on the overall effectiveness of the fly but was there to cinch the foam down in place ( decreasing wind resistance) and make the pattern more durable. I have not found it necessary to include this extra step in my flies.
I use the tying technique used in both the Gartside Bug and Bass Bug for my some of my frog patterns.
The Gartside Bass Bug is just as versatile as its more famous cousin, the Gurgler. You can tie the fly with varying thicknesses and widths of foam. Tie it wide and short to imitate a frog or long and thin as a floating baitfish pattern. Throw a thin tail on it, and you have an excellent mouse pattern. You can experiment with body materials to get a wide range of different effects and add rubber legs to both the tail and body for even more movement. Tie it with water-absorbing body materials and thinner foam, and you can create a fly that fishes just under the surface. Keep the foam thick and use water shedding synthetics, and you have a fly that casts like a dream and will float like a cork all day long.
The Gartside Bass Bug is a great pattern for a beginner fly tier and has enough possible variation to pique the interest of veteran tiers. It is not a flashy fly by any means, but they are easy to tie, and they work incredibly well, and few of them deserve a spot in your fly box.
If you are interested in tying one up for yourself you can find the pattern recipe here.