Expanded from The 2020 CURRENT | By Eric Schmidt

Gurglers are great flies for both warm freshwater and saltwater applications. They are fairly easy to tie and fish well with good movement and gurgling sounds to attract more attention. Through trial and error fishing for bass, I found that replacing the traditional bucktail with rabbit strips for the tail added more movement and more strikes. I also add rubber legs in the tail and on the body for even more movement. They can be tied in a multitude of colors, flashy or dull and marked up to look like any number of critters that fish eat.

Pattern Design & Recipe by Eric Schmidt

Materials
Hook | Umpqua S415 BN5x size 2/0
Thread | 3/0 Uni Black
Tail | Purple rabbit strip, Blk rubber legs, Purple Krystal Flash
Underbody | Purple Estaz, Purple saddle hackle
Body | 4MM Black foam
Legs | Black rubber legs

Dress the hook with thread back to the bend.

Tie in a rabbit strip at the back of the hook.

Cut the rabbit strip to about twice the hook length.

Tie in 6 strands of krystal flash on top of the tail. Trim Krystal Flash to match length of rabbit strip.

Tie in three rubber legs on each side of the tail

Apply a thin line of super glue to the hook shank. This will lock the foam into place in the next step.

After trimming the foam to shape, tie it in leaving a small space behind the hook eye. Criss-cross tight wraps of thread to pin the foam to the hook.

Tie in your hackle at the base of the tail.

Tie in the Estaz at the base of the tail and wrap it to the front of the hook where the foam ends.

Palmer wrap the hackle to the front of the hook still leaving a small space behind the eye of the hook.

Trim hackle on the top side of the fly to make room for the foam.

Fold the foam to the front of the hook and secure with four or five tight wraps of thread to form the head of the fly.

Tie in three rubber legs on each side of the fly where the thread wraps form the head of the fly. Trim legs.

Trim foam to shape

Time to fish.