Griffith’s Gnat: How to tie this great dry fly pattern

The Griffith’s Gnat is a versatile fly pattern for catching trout and grayling feeding on midges (emerging and egg-laying). This fly was developed by George Griffith, a famous American fly fisherman.

It’s a fantastic fly for a beginner to tie because of its simplicity and usefulness for fishing on rivers and stillwaters.

A great fly for your river and Stillwater fly boxes.

In the United Kingdom, black midge flies and other little insects of a similar size are frequently seen in rivers and stillwaters. Usually, hatches occur during the evening and in the morning during the height of summer.

So, let’s take a look at what gnat and midge fly patterns I have in my fly box…

How to tie the Griffith’s Gnat dry fly

The fly is very simple to tie…

Essentially consisting of a peacock herl body and a grizzle cock hackle wound along the body (palmered). Therefore, a great dry fly for beginners to start their fly-tying journey.

Tying material list:

• Hook – Kamasan B402 (#16 & 18)
• Thread – Black 8/0
• Body – 2 strands of peacock herl
• Hackle – palmered genetic grizzle cock

Step-by-step tying instructions:

Step 1. Place the hook firmly in the vice and start the thread 1mm behind the eye. Wind the thread in touching turns down the hook shank and near the bend tie in a genetic cock hackle feather.

Step 2. Tie in 2 lengths of peacock herl and wind the thread up the hook stopping 2 mm before the eye.

Step 3. Carefully wind the peacock herl in touching turns along the hook shank, tie off with the thread and trim the waste.

Step 4. Palmer the cock hackle over the peacock herl, tie off near the eye and trim away the waste. Form the head of the fly with the thread, whip finish, and varnish.

In addition to the standard pattern, I also tie a variant with added sparkle, which is a great midge fly pattern…

Griffith’s Sparkle Gnat:

Step 1. Place the hook firmly in the vice and start the thread 1mm behind the eye. Wind the thread in touching turns down the hook shank, catching in 2 strands of pearl crystal flash as tails.

Next steps – Proceed to tie the fly as per steps 1 to 4 of the standard pattern above.

How to fish the Griffith’s Gnat

On UK rivers and stillwaters, this classic dry fly works well whenever fish are taking small flies on the surface, e.g. black midges, black gnats, small insects, etc.

During summer on the Welsh Dee, it’s often the only dry fly (size 18) that trout and grayling will take confidentially.

Equipment-wise, I use a 9ft 5# rod for dry fly fishing. Attached to the floating line is a 9ft 5X copolymer leader tipped with a 3 to 4 ft length of 3lb fluorocarbon. Fuller’s mud is applied to the fluorocarbon tippet to remove its shine and make it sink. Whereas, Mucilin grease is applied to the remainder of the leader.

I use a double dry fly leader set-up when it’s difficult to see small dry flies in broken water.

The leader is constructed by tying a large sight-fly on the point of the leader and the gnat on a dropper 2 ft above the point fly.

On heavily fished waters, it is sometimes advantageous to trim the hackle on the bottom fly to make it sit lower in the water. Often this will improve hook-ups.

Finally, I hope this article stimulates you to tie the Griffith’s Gnat and test it on your local fishing location or take a trip to fish the Welsh Dee, where it catches fish when other flies fail.