THE GRUBBY GERT

David Hutton
Palmetto Fly n Fish
Jan 21, 2022

Matt O'neal at Savage Flies* unearthed a neat, but obscure fly the other day - the "Grubby Gert."
I had never heard of it, and felt a little disappointed at that, because it is one of those two-material flies that should be more popular than it is.
It also has a cool name.
But, as Matt points out, there is very little info on the Grubbie Gert, so there's even less awareness among fly tyers.

Matt does tip us off to one bit of Grubby Gert lore, however, explaining that the fly is featured in the book, "Flies for Bass and Panfish," by Dick Stewart and Farrow Allen.*

Here's how it appears in that work:

I have the 1992 first edition of this book, purchased several years ago. It is wholly out of print, now, with the last reprinting date being 2004.
So, if you wanted to refer to THIS instructional, before now, the only place to get a copy was on the used market. 
To make matters worse, these are the only written tying instructions for the Grubby Gert that I know of.
(Yes, I said, "tying instructions" - the word, "recipe" makes me cringe)

The Gaines Company

Its current anonymity aside, the Grubby Gert had a pretty good commercial run, back in its day.
But more on that in a minute. First, lets look at where the fly comes from.

Grubby Gert is an original pattern of the Gaines Tackle Company, of Gaines, PA. 
You'll notice I said that in the present tense... that's because Gaines is still in business, quietly plugging along in the background of the angling world.

Gaines was founded in 1947, and they..."remain a fully Made in USA domestic manufacturing business, not an importer."
They offer several lines of lures and flies, and some of you real old-timers may remember George Phillips' "crippled" hard baits - Gaines still makes and sells them. 

They also have this to say: "Our products are available to you through any dealer who chooses to stock them. If your favorite store does not have what you need, or tells you that they cannot get our products, we suggest you have them call us… Or you may call or write us and we will be happy to send you a catalog and ordering information."

See the link in the resources section for getting your own catalog.*

When it comes to flies, the current Gaines Company has its stock in trade with poppers - they offer a dozen or so different ones.
Chief among them is a popular pattern you probably HAVE heard of, "The Sneaky Pete."

SNEAKY PETE
Photo courtesy of Fly Fishers Paradise Online*

The Grubby Gert
But, while poppers may be their gig nowadays, back in the 1970's, Gaines featured a quartet of subsurface flies called the, "Grubby Bug" series.

Ward Bean, founder of Warm Water Fly Tyer, alludes to this when he features one of the 'Grubby Bug' patterns on his site...

"The Hum Bug... developed by the Gaines Company years ago, is one of four panfish patterns in their "Grubby Bug" series.
The other three patterns are the Grubby Gert, the Marabou Miss, and
the Nifty Nat." *

Fast forward to 2022, and the Grubby Gert is nowhere to be found.
In fact, the Humbug appears to be the only one of the "Grubby Bug" series that is still kicking.
It can be seen and purchased along with several of the Gaines poppers at Roxanne and Terry Wilson's excellent site, Breambugs.com.*

But, that appears to be the end of the Grubby Bug flies in mainstream offerings. Gaines says they'll make their flies available to any shop that wants to sell them... and it seems few do.

Therefore, if you want a Grubby Gert - and you should want a Grubby Gert - you're probably gonna have to tie your own.

Enter Matt O'Neal
Fortunately for us, Matt O'neal tied up the Grubby Gert over on Savage Flies, just this week. So, we have an excellent fly tyer who really breaks it down for us.
Click on the video link below to watch Matt whip one out... 

By the way, if you don't know Matt O'neal's, "Savage Flies" you need to.
According to Matt - "It is a project with the mission of encouraging and teaching fly tying to as many people as possible. The channel is named after one of my western Maryland homewaters, the Savage River."

It is one of my favorite channels on Youtube.
Matt teaches, he demonstrates, he gives away lots of freebies... all funded by the little bit of money he makes off Amazon, Youtube, etc.
Check him out, support him, and tell him I sent you.

My Own Grubby Gert
Inspired by Matt, as I usually am, I tied up a half-dozen Grubby Gert flies, to get the feel of the thing.
It's not a difficult fly to tie, although positioning the slippery kiptail wings can be a little fiddly.

I did make a few minor modifications to the original:

Variation 1:
Tail and Wing - Chartreuse kiptail 
Body - Craft store, "pipe cleaner" chenille fuzzy stick 
Dubbing - Hareline Ice Dub, "UV Peacock Eye UV"

Variation 2:
Tail and Wing - Bright red kiptail
Body - maroon chenille
Dubbing - Fly Tyers Dungeon "Black Leech"

PS I'm using the older, colloquial term, "kiptail," but I mean calf tail.
Same stuff, different name.
 

Variation 1

                                        Variation 1 and 2

Angling Tips

I haven't had a chance to fish the Grubby Gert yet, so I am including excerpted and edited fishing tips from Ward Bean. These are actually for the Humbug, Grubby Gert's stablemate in the old Grubby Bug series.
They are undoubtedly quite similar in their approach, so I present them here...

---

"Fish the Hum Bug/Grubby Gert parallel to weed lines, fallen trees, and other structure.

But remember, these are slow sinking flies.
Cast them out and let them settle in the water slowly, before stripping it back in, subsurface. Often times panfish will hit it on the fall."


So there you have it - a Grubby Gert compilation....possibly the only one of its kind, now... or ever.

I hope you like it, I hope that you learned something, and that you'll share it with your friends. 

Thanks for reading and Tight Lines,

David, Palmetto Fly n Fish

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* Resources - credited, in general order of appearance:

https://scandicangler.com/author/savage-flies/

"Flies for Bass and Panfish," Dick Stewart and Farrow Allen, 1992, © Mountain Pond Publishing, ISBN: 0-936644-11-7

https://gainesflyfishing.com/catalogrequest.html

http://warmwaterflytyer.com/patterns4.asp?page=16

https://breambugs.com/

https://www.flyfishersparadiseonline.com/product_p/gp17.htm

©All rights reserved, David Hutton and Palmetto Fly n Fish