How to Tie A Stimulator Fly

A great pattern for matching yellow sallies and other light-bodied adult stoneflies, the Stimulator can be used as an exact imitation or an effective attractor pattern. No matter how you fish this fly, it’s a pattern worth carrying in a few sizes all season long.

📜Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
0:23 - Hook & Thread
0:54 - Tail
2:31 - Underbody
3:08 - Hackle
5:49 - Wing
8:00 - Collar
8:32 - Thorax

~~
FOLLOW US:

[dgracia]

Hey Levi, it would be helpful if addition to specifying TMC 2302 hook if you'd also describe the hook such as "2X long, standard wire, Slightly humped shank, down eyed hook". Although Tiemco has excellent hooks, lots of us have other brands as well. Additionally the straight-eye TMC 200R is what Randy Kaufmann's original pattern called for. Basically the same hook with a straight eye. Usually it's tied in large enough sizes that the down-eye doesn't reduce the hook gap too much, but if you tie it in a size 16 (great for yellow Sallies but tie it with a yellow head instead of orange) that straight-eye hook gives you a significantly better gap than the down-eye which IMO obstructs too much of the gap in small sizes.

Randall also called for yellow Haretron or Antron dubbing for the body instead of floss. Floss works fine of course but the dubbing can save you some time in tying because you don't have to go back and forth so much to level out the underbody like you do with floss. Just dub it a little finer where the butts of the hair come in after tying them down and use a little more dubbing on the thin part of the body. Randall was all about tying flies quickly and the dubbing is quicker. Plus the palmered hackle actually sinks down slightly into the dubbing for extra support to the fibers even after getting wet. Great job on the palmering by the way.

A couple of knit-picking things. You didn't trim off all the butts of the elk hair on either the tail or the wing. There were fibers sticking up even after trimming them. That's no big deal for the head because the antron dubbing and the hackle covered it up. But about half a dozen of the butts from the tail got folded into the same direction as the tips and it made your tail look like some of the tips had broken off. Fish don't care, but that does detract from the appearance of the fly up close.

One last note, Randall designed this fly for the Deschutes River in Oregon. Kaufmann's Streamborn has (had?) a house on the Deschutes at Maupin and would get the Giant Salmonfly (Pteronarcys Californica) hatches there in mid-May to mid-June depending upon the weather and where you were on the River. You'll want to tie this fly in a size 6 for anyplace that has those Giant Salmonflies. Tying them in a size 8 with a yellow head also works well for Golden Stones which usually happen a little later than the Giant Salmonflies. Tying them in a size 8 is also great for the McCloud River in CA where they have a Pteronarcys Princeps salmonfly which is a 2-year bug instead of a 3-year bug, so the #8 is a better match of that one.

I enjoyed your video! It was well done and I'm always happy to see someone tying a whip finish with their fingers too. Thanks!