Fishing The Griffith's Gnat

Trout guru, acclaimed fly fishing author, instructor and film maker GARY BORGER lauds the qualities of the Griffith’s Gnat and how this evergreen fly has evolved.

- Gary Borger

It was the summer of 1936, and George Griffith was fishing Michigan’s Manistee River, without success. Fish dimpled the surface, but all of George’s flies went totally unnoticed. Suddenly a voice behind him called out, “I can tie ya a fly that’ll catch them fish.” George turned quickly to see a man who had just walked down from the lodge in the background. “Well, go ahead,” George said. A few minutes later, the man reappeared with the progenitor of the now famed Griffith’s Gnat. The fly had a red tail, peacock body palmered with a grizzly hackle, split wings and more hackle wound at the head. It worked.

I won’t say that George was a lazy flytyer; really he was more inventive and perhaps a bit curious. At home he began to experiment with the fly. First he removed the red tail, and found that the fish liked the fly just as well. One step saved in the tying process. Next, the fly lost its wings, and then the front hackle, and still it worked just fine. In fact it worked even better, having been reduced to nothing but a peacock herl body palmered with a grizzly hackle.

“What size do you like the most?”

I asked George.

“Size 16,” came his reply.

“Me too,” I acknowledged.