Stimulator

[supervdl]

Do you folks fish a stimulator at all? I fish a lot of smaller streams in NEPA. What size and color? When do you use it?

I am thinking of tying some in size 12-14 in yellow for yellow sally and hoppers and orange size 10 for october caddis. Any other ideas?

 

[greenghost]

The Stimulator is one of my favorite searching patterns and one that I always use for fishing brookie streams. The most effective colors for me are black body with orange or red head with sparkle tied in the elk hair--not to imitiate anything speciifc but just more of a general buggy look. I use sizes 12, 14 and even 16 for brookies.

 

[salvelinus]

I like orange, yellow, and olive in size 16. Great for pocket water because they float like a cork.

 

[dc410]

I find the Stimulator very useful as the top end on a dry/dropper rig and use them quite often when fishing small brookie streams. I tie them in lots of different colors but the one I have the most confidence in is probably the yellow abdomen/orange thorax. I usually fish them in size 12 or 14, leaning toward having more size 12’s in the box mainly because I find them much easier to tie on a size 12 hook than the smaller sizes.

If I find the majority of the fish looking up and catching most of the fish on the stimulator I’ll simply remove the dropper which always equates to less tangles and less foul hooked fish. However, many times I find it split very evenly between fish caught on top vs fish caught on the dropper. I always have some small stimmies with me when fishing those small wild brook trout streams as it is a very productive pattern.

 

[Acristickid]

Fishing bid attractors to likely spots and getting great strikes is very exciting and satisfies my fly fishing soul.

 

[sgrim]

Yes to everything said on color, size and reliability.
Recently I've also been using a parachute madam x with the same results.

 

[Tigereye]

"12 and 14 in yellow and 10 for orange"

You nailed it for NEPA

If you tie your own, try one in chartreuse body with palmered grizzly hackle, peacock thorax, and brown collar. Kinda like a Henryville Special on steroids. Size 12. Great generic "bug"

 

[The_Sasquatch]

I always keep a large supply of them. I fish them big (I say on average, I'm chucking a size 10 when I can get away with it), and often in a "dry dropper" setup.

 

[troutbert]

I fish them a lot on freestone wild trout streams, when the flow levels are high, or at least medium high.

I've tried various sizes and colors and my favorite is size 14, yellow body.

They work very well on mountain streams in the west, also.

We stopped at a fly shop in Estes Park, CO and I swear that about half their fly inventory consisted of Stimulators.

They sold a small fly box with an assortment of Stimulators for a decent prize and I bought it, and caught great numbers of trout both in CO and PA on those flies. I have a few left, but they are well chewed!

 

[RLeep2]

I fish a lot of stimulators and have done well on them virtually everywhere I've used them from Oregon to Vermont and pretty much all points in between. I like 12's and 14's best, but have also cleaned up on 10's in high, slightly off color flows. I probably use a yellow bodied one most, but also do well on tan, green and rust, all usually with an orange head.

I have an excess of old Mustad 3906B's and 9671's in sizes 10-16. One of the ways I'm using them up is to tie stimulators on them. I use a loosely wrapped body of cheap 2mm craft foam cut in narrow strips on these heavier hooks. They float pretty high and I like to think the foam is at least part of the reason why. I'll have to run a control with bodies made of regular dubbing to see if this is really true. But I like to think it is...

 

[RisenFly]

When tied on a natural bend hook like a 200R, a 10 is much too big foe the vast majority of brookies I find in streams. It’s just a long shank hook. I would stick to 12-16 sizes. They’re heavily hackled and lots of hair so they float all day and are very visible to the angler. Both great things for brookie fishing.

 

[RLeep2]

I'd estimate that considerably less than 1/4 of the trout I've caught on stimulators have been wild brook trout, particularly in higher flows. The vast majority have been wild browns or bows and cutts outwest.

Hence, there is no too-large-of-a-fly issue for me with fishing a size 10 stimulator.

 

[Baron]

Seems to me this fly and all it dirivatives would be a great warm water fly as well.

 

[LetortAngler]

Good choice. A #12-14 Yellow Stimulator is what I use 90% of the time fishing for small stream freestone Brookies in the summer. A light brush of Froggs Fanny and youre good to go. (Be sure to crimp the barbs, especially for Brookies).

 

[Wild_Trouter]

I have two fly boxes with nothing but Stimulators in a variety of colors/sizes that I keep stocked every season. I probably tie more of those than any other fly over the Winter as it is my most productive pattern. My favorite Stimmy for Brookies is Kaufmann's Royal Stimulator. Because many of the brookie streams I fish are deep in the woods where light is sometimes at a premium, I tie in some hot orange, bright yellow or bright white para post material on top of the deer hair wing for greater visibility in low light conditions. I also like to add rubber legs to mine (Baron- this is the warm-water version you need). Other favorite variations are the Crystal Stimmy, Black, Yellow (With the Yellow, try substituting black hackle and using black or orange/brown deer hair wing to mimic wasps). You really can't go wrong here, and yes, in the bigger sizes, the Stimmy is an excellent in a dry/dropper rig.

 

[larkmark]

Good fly. Could be a stonefly or a grasshopper to trout. Whatever it is they like it. And yes a great dry dropper fly.

 

[Rockfish]

Another thing you might want to try is jay zimmerman’s clown shoe caddis. He actually designed it after getting tired of the bother of tying stimulators which he also felt weren’t particularly durable. Clown shoe caddis are visible as heck (which is great for us with older eyes) and float like a cork plus a pretty quick and easy tie. One of those with a caddis pupa or zebra midge dropper is one of my favorite rigs these days. Recently, I’ve had some luck fishing a #16 clown shoe with a #18 lightly weighted scud on spring creeks like the breeches or Big Spring.

 

[Out4Trout]

These have worked very well for me and I have caught many fish on both of them : )

Tight Lines !!

 

[Baron]

Nice. Why not post your recipe.

 

[timmyt2]

I have never fished one of these, sounds like i am missing out especially as a guy who fishes primarily dries, thanks!!