The venerable Griffith’s Gnat.
Editor’s note: The following is exerpted from TU’s book, “Trout Tips,” available online for overnight delivery.
More than 50 percent of a trout’s food, in most places in North America, is comprised of midges—those tiny bugs that are seemingly everywhere. Some of us don’t like fishing patterns that small, but remember that midges cluster, thus the relevance of the Griffith’s Gnat or the Grizzly Cluster. I’ve even thrown a size 14 Blue Dun into a midge hatch to let the natural bugs take a ride, and ultimately fed a big brown trout a midge meatball.
And, unless you’re working subsurface midge patterns like the Black Beauty, at least once in a while, you really aren’t in the game.
— Kirk Deeter