The Stimulator

Another very effective around here, the stimulator is a fly that I tend to fish a little later in the season. They generally make their first appearance at the end of my leader in May when the yellow sallies begin to hatch around here and become more common as we get into hopper season. A fairly big fly, it's a favorite of mine to hang heavy dropper nymphs off of. An acceptable imitation of a hopper, so I fish it quit a bit in the summer when I'm near fields.

The stimulator is not much more complicated to tie than the elk hair caddis, but it does include additional steps and I think that proper proportions are very important on this fly. I prefer non bleached elk hair and I'm starting to tie them with x-stitching thread to get a tighter, cleaner look. This fly can be tied in a variety of different color combinations. My favorite combos are yellow and olive, yellow, orange and yellow, black and yellow. Seeing a pattern here?

Stimulator

hook: Mustad C53S long curved 3x shank (8-16)
thread: Tan 8/0
Tail : elk hair (I'm using bull elk hair natural)
body hackle: Brown hackle
body: green rayon x-stitch thread
wing: elk hair
head: yellow rayon x-stitch thread
hackle: grizzly

step 1: start your thread about an 1/8" back from the hook eye and wrap to the back of the
hook. I tend to start my thread where I want to put the wing in at. Take a small clump
of elk hair, remove the underfur, stack, and tie in as the tail. I generally make my tails
about a third of the hook length. Trim the excess hair off at the point that the wing will be tied in at and then wrap the thread back over the the leftover hair to clean it up.











step 2: tie the rayon and then the hackle towards the back of the fly.










step 3: wrap the rayon towards the tie off point for the wing. Get the wrap tight and even.
Next, wrap the brown hackle the opposite direction to the same point on the hook.












Step 4: Take a larger clump of elk hair and tie it in as the wing. Keep the first few wraps loose to keep the hair from flaring excessively. After securing the wing, trim it in a tapered
fashion towards the hook eye, leaving room to finish off the fly.













step 5: Tie in the grizzly hackle and rayon thread in front of the wing. Wrap the rayon thread to the hook eye and then follow that with 2-3 wraps of the grizzly hackle, leaving room to
finish off the fly cleanly.












There you have it, the stimulator!










This one is olive/ yellow, one of my favorite combos for this fly. I've found that the smaller sizes can be absolutely deadly in the right situations. I keep sizes 12- 16 in my box at all times and a few larger ones in another box for those, "just in case" moments. With some rubber legs tied in at the wing, I've had bass and bluegill devour this fly in a size 6 pattern. They seem to be particularly fond of them tied in a red/ yellow combo with chartreuse legs.