Stimulator

Dry fly imitating stoneflies and caddis, for trout and grayling. Intermediate. Randall Kaufmann.

An elk hair tail and wing, a yellow abdomen with a palmered brown hackle and wire rib, and an orange thorax with a grizzly hackle.

Materials

Steps

  1. Attach thread Attach the thread at 70% of the way along the shank with a few turns and trim the tag end.
  2. Wrap thread Wrap the thread to the start of the bend in touching turns.
  3. Tie in: elk hair Tie in a bunch of elk hair so the tips reach well past the bend (the gape from the tie-in point). A short, flared bunch, about a gape long.
  4. Tie in: gold wire Tie in the gold wire with a few firm thread turns.
  5. Dub: yellow dry fly dubbing Twist a thin noodle of yellow dry fly dubbing onto the thread and wrap it forward to 62% of the way along the shank. Thin, with a slight taper.
  6. Tie in: brown cock hackle Tie in the brown cock hackle with a few firm thread turns.
  7. Palmer: brown cock hackle Palmer the brown cock hackle back to 5% of the way along the shank in 6 open turns.
  8. Wind: gold wire Wind the gold wire forward to 62% of the way along the shank in 6 turns through the brown cock hackle. The first turn traps its tip. Through the hackle, the other way, to protect it.
  9. Tie off: gold wire Tie off the gold wire with a few thread turns and trim the excess.
  10. Trim: brown cock hackle Trim the tip of the brown cock hackle close to the body.
  11. Tie in: elk hair Tie in a bunch of elk hair so the tips reach just past the end of the bend (2.4× the gape from the tie-in point), angled about 14° up from the shank. Let it flare out round the sides of the body. About twice as much hair as the tail, flaring over the top half of the shank.
  12. Trim: elk hair Trim the butts of the elk hair flush.
  13. Tie in: grizzly cock hackle Tie in the grizzly cock hackle with a few firm thread turns.
  14. Dub: fire orange dubbing Twist a thin noodle of fire orange dubbing onto the thread and wrap it forward to 92% of the way along the shank. Thin, to just short of the eye.
  15. Wind: grizzly cock hackle Wind the grizzly cock hackle forward to 92% of the way along the shank in 4 turns.
  16. Tie off: grizzly cock hackle Tie off the grizzly cock hackle with a few thread turns and trim the excess.
  17. Whip finish Form a small head, whip finish with 5 turns and cut the thread.

History

Randall Kaufmann's own account: in 1980 his friend Rick Verheghe did well on the Deschutes with a fly labelled "Hank's Special" from a bin at the Oasis Café in Maupin. Kaufmann refined it, David Lambroughton suggested the name in 1981, and it first appeared in the Kaufmann Streamborn catalogue in 1982; he says no one else was involved. Jim Slattery of New Jersey tells a different story (in Rusty Dunn's SWTU article): Kaufmann phoned him about his "Fluttering Stonefly" of the late 1970s, said he had slimmed the wing and shortened the front hackle, and agreed to the name Slattery suggested. Neither account has been independently confirmed. Kaufmann published it in Tying Dry Flies (1991), with the fly on the cover. He also says the style was not new: he mixed the Improved Sofa Pillow and the Royal Trude.

Fishing it

A high-floating searching fly, easy to see even in broken pocket water, and often the dry in a dry-dropper rig. It imitates stoneflies of all sizes; sizes 12 to 16 also do for caddis, and the largest pass for grasshoppers.

Sources