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.

The Elk Hair Caddis

The Elk Hair Caddis, a fly that every fly fisherman/ woman should have in their flybox, if not, you should maybe consider a new sport. Designed by Al Roth to fish the Caddis hatches in Montana, it was first published in 1978, although he had been using the pattern for years before this. An excellent imitation of an adult Caddis that has many variations.

hook: 8-18 standard dry fly hook
thread: 6/0
hackle: grizzly
body: tan/ gray synthetic dubbing
wing: elk hair


step 1: start the thread behind the eye of the hook and wrap the hook body to the back.
Prepare and tie in hackle at the back of the hook.















step 2: attach the dubbing to the thread, making a it tapered towards the head. Wrap the dubbing up to about an 1/8" behind the hook eye, leaving room for the head of the
fly.













step 3: wrap the hackle to the head of the hook, tying it off at the end of the dubbing and cut all the hackle off of the top of the fly. Cut a chunk of elk hair and remove it's under fur
and then place it in a hair stacker to even it.

















step 4: measure out the elk hair, I like mine a little bit longer than the hook. I wrap a loop
around the hair and then attach it to the hook. I make the first few wraps without
much tension to eliminate flaring and then tighten it up to minimize it spinning on the
hook.

















step 5: cut the excess hair off of the front of the hook to create the head. I tend to angle my
scissors so that there is more hair left on top than at the eye. Finish off the fly with a
whip knot. you are done!

















Here you have one of the most useful flies ever. A very buoyant and visible fly, it can be regularly found at the end of my leader. I tie this fly in a variety of colors and wing materials. It can be tied with or without hackle, with a wire ribbing, like I said, lot's of variations. One of my favorite ways to fish this fly is down current and allowing it to skip along the surface of the water. Some of the most vicious strikes I've ever had were trout trying to destroy this fly hopping across the current.

ThunderHead

A Smokey Mountain original attributed to Joe Hall of Bryson City, the Thunderhead is one of the most popular flies fished in the area. Different from the Adams Wulff in that it's tied with opossum fur and was developed in an isolated area to fit the local conditions. I fish this fly all the time, because it is visible and fits a variety of conditions. It's also very buoyant, which is a big plus in the fast water of Western North Carolina streams.

Thunderhead (variation)

hook: mustad 94980 or equivalent (10-20)
thread: gray
tail: moose mane
wing: white calf tail or white antron
body: opossum fur or muskrat
hackle: brown and grizzly hackle

step 1:
Start the thread about an 1/8 of the hook length behind the eye, wrapping it to the hook shank. Tie in the tail, I usually make mine just under 1 1/2 the hook length. I like longer tails.









step 2:
Next, wrap the tail up 3/4 of the hook length to secure and trim excess. Tie in the wing, securing it where the tail was trimmed at. I like my wings to be the length of the hook. During all of this, you want to leave enough room to add hackle and the finish knot at the front of the fly.












step 3: Trim the excess wing and bring the wing into an upright position. Trim the excess staggered to help create a tapered body when adding the dubbing. I use antron because I'm a lazy fly tier. I also don't split my wings, again, because I'm lazy. And frankly, I don't think the fish care!
















step 4:
Add dubbing to the thread, tapered, and wrap up to almost the wing base. Leave enough room for the hackle to be tied in. Tie in one brown and grizzly hackle.














step 5:
Wrap the hackle. I tend to tie this fly pretty heavy on the hackle. Three wraps of each hackle behind and in front of the wing. This gives me enough hackle to trim a little later to clean up the fly.
















step 6:
All that is left is to whip finish the head and trim up the hackle a bit to give it a cleaner appearance. The last step can be omitted, but I like the way in makes the flies look.














The Thunderhead... kinda. I replaced the tail for moose body fur. I like the silhouette it gives the fly and how buoyant it is. I tend to use muskrat, out of convenience for the most part. The antron wing is just a whole lot easier to deal with than calf's tail. I know it's cheating, but the fish don't care, and I am by no means a purist when it comes to tying.

I fish this pattern a lot! I have some as big as size 8 all the way down to 20. I tie them in gray, dingy yellow, green, and brown. I usually fish this as the dry fly with a dropper underneath it, likely a hairy moose. I love this fly! I feel lost when I run out of a particular color or size. I tend to tie them in the dozens now, mountain trout love em! Bluegill like this fly a lot too.

Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail

This is one of my all time favorite nymphs, something I would never be on the water without. If I don't have a Harey Moose tied on, it's probably because I have a soft hackle pheasant tail on. A variation of the pheasant tail, but more versatile in my opinion. This can be a moderately difficult fly to tie. Most of the materials are fairly delicate, which just adds to the difficulty of the pattern. Despite that, it's worth learning to tie!

BH Soft Hackle Pheasant Tail

hook: mustad 9671 or equivalent 1x nymph hook
head: brass bead
thread: black
tail: pheasant tail
ribbing: brass wire
body: pheasant tail
thorax: peacock
wing: grouse

step1:
Slip the bead over your hook and push to the eye. I then place 6-7 wraps of weight on the shank and push the end into the hole at the bead.













step2:
start the thread at the base of the weight and begin wrapping it to secure the weight and wrap the thread to the base to the base of the hook. Now tie in the copper ribbing. Secure it good and wrap the thread back to the base of the hook.













step 3:
Tie in the pheasant tail to the base of the hook. The tail should be the length of the hook, if not a little bit longer. I personally prefer a little longer tail. Don't use too much pressure on the thread to eliminate excessive flaring of the tail.













step 4:
Carefully wrap the pheasant tail up 3/4 of the length of the hook. Wrapping the opposite direction, wrap the brass wire 4-5 times up to the bead and then secure.

















step 5:
tie three pieces of peacock herl after trimming the tips. Twist the herl into a rope and wrap to the bead head leaving room for the wing.














step 6:
Prepare the grouse feather by removing the fuzzy barbs on base of the feather, and all barbs on the inside bend of the natural curve of the feather. Tie in the grouse feather so that the side without barbs is facing the hook.














step 7:
Carefully wrap the grouse feather around the head of the fly, taking precaution not to let the barbs go everywhere. It's OK to cheat a bit by forcing the barbs to lay back by using the thread to hold it down. It's a bad habit, so try not to do it too much. I went through a lot of grouse feathers trying to tie them right!




















This another dynamite fly! I tie it from size 10 to 18, usually in a natural and dirty yellow color. It's a fairly heavy fly, so If it's used as a dropper, something pretty big will have to be used above it to stay afloat. I fish this fly under stimulators and elk hair caddis usually, or as a double nymph rig with a small nymph trailing the pheasant tail. This is also a very effective fly for fishing like a wet fly on the swing. I used to clean up on fish in tail waters by casting across a current and letting it swing up at the end of the drift and then retrieve in quick little twitches. In the end there is really no way to fish it wrong!

The Harey Moose - My Favorite Nymph

So after having the photo's to post this recipe for 3 weeks, I'm finally getting around to posting it. This is a self creation (IMO), although I'm sure someone out there has tied something like this before, but I like to think I have an original thought from time to time. It's a variation of a hares ear and maybe a birds nest. If you have any comments on the design, feel free to share. If you tie it and catch fish on it (which you will!), you must pay homage to me with some photos. : )


HareyMoose
Hook: mustad 9671 1x or equivalent size 8-20
Head: brass bead
Thread: tan or gray
Tail: moose mane
Body: rabbit dubbing/ mostly guard hairs
Wing: mallard flanks

Step1:
Slip the bead over your hook and push to the eye. I then place 5 wraps of weight on the shank and push the end into the hole at the bead.













Step2:
Begin at the base of the hook with your thread. Wrap it up over the weight to secure and wrap back down to the base of the hook. Take a small clump of moose mane, proportional to the size of the fly. I like 1 1/2 times the length of the hook. Wrap the thread loosely around the mane at the hook base and slowly increase the tightness as you move towards the weight.









Step3:
Now this is looking like something! Trim the extra mane and wrap the cut ends for a clean underbody. Wrap your thread back to the base of the hook to secure the mane. Be careful not to use too much pressure near the base, or it will cause the tail to flair out excessively. I like to take the extra step of adding glue to my underbody to make it durable and last longer. With the thread hanging off the rear of the hook, begin dubbing rabbit fur onto the thread. I use as much gaurd hair as possible and make the dubbing thicker and bushier the farther down the thread as I progress.












Step4:
Begin wrapping the dubbing up the hook over the under body. Stopping about midway through the weight, you want to leave enough room for your wings and the head. Next, prepare the mallard flank by pulling off the fluffy stuff at the bottom and cutting as small v in the top of the feather.

















Step5:
Place the mallard flank dull side towads the hook and wrap it in with the cut just a little more to the head than the thread. Use a fair amount of tension, you want the flank to flair out some, but not too much. The end of the wings should extend just past the base of the hook.









Step6:
Cut off the exess mallard flank and dub a small amount of rabbit guard hairs to the thread. Wrap from the mallard to the bead, leaving enough room to tie the whole thing off.











Step7:
The fly is pretty much done. Whio finish the head and cut the thread. Now the most important part. Take a bodkin and begin picking at the fly to make it bushier and buggier. Be careful not to pull too much hair out and try not to get the thread underneath.












Viola! The HareyMoose!

How to fish it:
Anyway you want! My fav is as a dropper below a thunderhead. Sometimes I'll use a big ol' size 8 with some weight and maybe a size 18 pheasant tail tailing 6" behind it to get at bigger fish on the bottom. I've fished it as a wet fly, even as an unweighted emerger in the film. I don't know what it looks like, but ALL fish seem to like it. Don't just use it on trout. Bluegill love to nibble on this, and smallies will slam some of the larger versions. I tie it a multitude of colors. The most common is natural, olive, and a dirty yellow. My most used size is probably 12 or 14, but I do take it down to a size 20.
I hope ya'll enjoy the pattern, this is by far my #1 confidence fly and usually my go to. If you flip through the blog, you'll see this hanging out of ALOT of fishies mouths! It's an easy tie once you get used to the pattern and I can usually tie about 1/2 dozen an hour. At any given time, you can find a 50 or more of these in my main box on a multitude of colors and sizes.

Now quit reading and start tying. Springs comming and it's time to get those box's loaded!