Ostrich Gnat

[fflutterffly]

I've been looking at the Griffith's Gnat and wondered why it wasn't soley with Ostrich. I tied a few up in black and it looks viable to me, but I have yet to use it on the water. I'm thinking the Ostrich will take on to much water and sink. Any thoughts

[Roadkill]

Think black gnat and fish it dry with floatant or wet and enjoy a great little fly!

[Kelly L.]

Ostrich has great movement. I like to use it on scuds sometimes. You can get it in lots of colors too. It is great right behind the head of a fly too. Some salt water flies use ostrich...but as a hackle, not to be wound, or palmered.

[Old Hat]

I guess I don't understand. Are you replacing the hackle with the ostrich or the peacock body with the ostrich.

[fflutterffly]

I've moved on from the Griffith's Gnat to a different fly. I am using the Ostrich as the thorax, reinforced by spinning it around thread. The body is Stretch Flex Brown wrapped on a #16 scud hook.

[crazy4oldcars]

Ariel,
Inspired by your question, and the fact that I got 4 colors of ostrich herl for Christmas, I tied a couple up to see how it would look as a gnat-ish pattern. The result:



In order to achieve something similar to the grizzly of the original pattern, I mixed colors to see how it looked.
The left one is red, followed by black and tan, followed by olive and tan, with a grizzly rooster hackle.

The middle one is all herl, black and olive, with red and tan in front.

The last one is (I think, it disappeared) olive and black, with a grizzly hen hackle died olive. That one looks kinda snaggly, so it ought to fish good.
The mixed colors look interesting
I should get to fish them before to long, just not for troots.

Kirk

[fflutterffly]

When I did the water testing I found that the Ostrich without hackle for the Gnat "matted." This made it completely unsuitable by itself as a trick fly. and even with the hackle the barbs had a tendancy to 'clump.'

[crazy4oldcars]

Well, da....rn. I got 'em tied, might as well soak 'em. lol
We'll see what the local perch population thinks of them.

Kirk

[Old Hat]

It matted? Did you soak it and then lift it out, or did you put it in the water and "fish it" about? Hey! that rhymes.

I tie a solely ostrich fly for damsels and callibeatis emergers. Solely ostrich except for some front soft hackle. In the water the ostrich is suspended full and then pulsates when I work it. Similar to marabou.

Are you using distilled water? .....just kidding.....

[letumgo]

Kirk - As soon as I saw your flies, I though panfish slayers! I bet the perch go crazy for these. The bright colors and contrast make them look "yummy".

Ariel - I agree with Carl. If you wet the fly and look at them out of the water, the surface tension will tend to compress (matt) the soft fibers of the ostrich herl. However, once the fly is under water, the effects of surface tension are removed and the soft fibers should be very mobile on the fly. Surface tension is only an issue at the water/air interface. When a fly is fully submerged, surface tension should not be an issue.