Would anyone by chance know the GIMP equivlent of "Smudge Stick"????

I'm no photoshop expert, but try the smudge tool. No, really, it's the picture of a hand near the bottom of the list of tools.

I did but it didnt have the same effect.

I've never even heard of the smudge stick...

Is it a tool or a filter?

The smudge tool by itself probably won't produce the same effect. If you go into your brush settings whilst inside the smudge tool you should be able to get a desired effect, (the brush settings are located on the right hand side usually with little tabs.). If you can't find it, you should use the tabs at the top, click on "window" and then "brushes". Inside the settings, you can change things such as opacity, scattering of the brush, thickness, roundness. It's pretty extensive, if you post up an example of what the smudge stick can do i may be able to reproduce the effect.

Now, i don't know how accurate this image below is. However i typed in a relative search to your question and found this image. If you edit the settings to look like the image and mess around with the brush a little bit, you might find it works like the tool your describing. Although, this isn't my image however so it might be a complete waste of time.

I can't believe i didn't think about this before actually. If you go into your filters, check out artistic and click on "Smudge Stick", it should come up with a similar effect.

Thats just it, I dont have a smudge stick thing in my filters. (Which it is a filter not a tool.) I will try that brich thing though.