RIP, Jack Gartside

This news has circled around the fishing blogosphere in the last day or so, but we also wanted to acknowledge the passing of legendary angler and fellow Massachusetts native Jack Gartside. Most knew him as an innovative tyer and all-around fishing fanatic, and we here at Spinoza Rods crossed paths with him on at least one occasion.

It was a TU gathering out here in the Berkshires and Jack came out to do a presentation on striper fishing. As always, he went through a lengthy slide presentation (which boasted, as I recall, more than a few bawdy images and I definitely remember Jack chain-smoking through much of it). At any rate, it was also one of the better presentations I’ve heard, utterly free of hyperbole and deeply informed by Jack’s extensive experience prowling around the New England coast. At the end of it, I remember buying one of his small booklets entitled “Striper Strategies”. Like Jack, the book itself was nothing fancy but it remains one of my favorite reads on the subject, full of practical advice and insight.

Well, we must have gotten to talking about the Red Sox too, and being a college baseball player at the time I was keen to hear him talk about learning to tie flies with Ted Williams. Jack must have got a kick out of that, because when I took the book down off the shelf tonight I noticed inscribed inside the front cover: “For Jonas — The next MVP shortstop — Happy Fishing — Jack Gartside”.

-Jonas

PS - another nice piece on Jack here by Dave Souza: http://www.heraldnews.com/article/20120402/News/304029489