What it is
Randall Kaufmann's attractor for the big stonefly and caddis hatches of the American west, and the fly that has become the default top fly for broken water on Australian trout streams. NSW DPIRD's Snowy Mountains guide names a size 12 to 14 Stimulator as an effective attractor dry on the region's rivers in the warmer months, and the same fly does the same job in the Victorian high country, on Tasmania's fast rivers and on any pocket-water stream where a small dry would drown in a second.
Anatomy
From the bend forward: a short tail of elk or deer hair. A long, slim abdomen of dubbing, orange, yellow or olive, palmered with a body hackle of grizzly or ginger wound in open turns and secured with a fine wire rib. A wing of elk hair tied down over the abdomen, its tips reaching the bend, tented over the body like a caddis. A short, thicker thorax of dubbing, often a brighter colour than the abdomen, palmered with a second, denser front hackle. A thread head.
Key features
- Two hackles. The palmered body hackle and the front hackle between them float the fly through water that sinks anything else, and give a buggy, leggy footprint on the surface.
- The elk wing. Hollow hair floats, and the tented wing is the caddis and stonefly silhouette a trout sees from below.
- Colour as a dial. An orange body suggests a stonefly or a hopper; yellow, a caddis or a hopper; olive, a caddis. The Australian convention leans orange, which shows up in tannin water.
- It carries weight. The Stimulator holds a tungsten nymph two feet below it without going under, which makes it the dry-dropper top fly for a gorge.
Typical materials
| Part | Typical material |
|---|---|
| Hook | Long-shank dry-fly hook, 2X or 3X long, size 10 to 14 |
| Thread | 8/0 or 70 denier, orange or tan |
| Tail | Elk or deer hair, short |
| Abdomen | Fine dry-fly dubbing, orange, yellow or olive |
| Body hackle | Grizzly or ginger rooster, palmered in open turns |
| Rib | Fine copper or gold wire, to lock the body hackle |
| Wing | Elk hair, tips to the bend, tented over the abdomen |
| Thorax | Dubbing, often amber or bright orange |
| Front hackle | Grizzly rooster, four or five turns |
Fishing it
Two jobs. On its own, fish it as a searching dry through pocket water: one drift through each pocket, the first cast the one that counts, then move. The fly is big enough that a fish sees it in white water and buoyant enough that you see it too.
Its better job is as the top of a dry-dropper. A Stimulator will hold a tungsten Hare's Ear or Pheasant Tail a couple of feet below it without sinking, and in a gorge that rig covers the fish at the surface and the fish at the bottom of the chute with the same cast. When the dry dips, set. When the dry gets eaten, which happens more than you would expect, set faster.
