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Stimulator

A dry fly, tied #8–16, carried year round. It is tied against 6 named insects in this book, and stands in when nothing is hatching — February–October. Randall Kaufmann.

A high-floating dry fly that works as an attractor and a stonefly imitation at the same time, originated by Randall Kaufmann. It is tied on a 3X long dry-fly hook in sizes 8 through 16 with orange or yellow 6/0 thread: a natural elk hair tail, a body of yellow or orange dubbing palmered with grizzly hackle and ribbed with fine gold wire, an elk hair wing laid over the body, and a thorax of amber dubbing palmered with grizzly dyed brown. Depending on colour and size it reads as a stonefly adult, a big caddis or a hopper, and it is tied here against golden stonefly in June and July at 55 to 68 degrees, little yellow sally from June through August in the same range, green drake in May and June at 52 to 64, June bug and beetle in June and July at 58 to 75, and October caddis in September and October at 45 to 58. It also serves as a searching fly when nothing is hatching, and its buoyancy makes it the steadiest dry-dropper indicator in a fly box. Carried all season for trout.

What it looks like

A drawing, not a photograph, and not traced from one. Its proportions were read off 5 independent reference photographs of the pattern and written down as 6 measured characteristics — wing angle, tail length against the shank, how far a hackle fibre reaches — every one of which had to hold across more than one of them before it could be drawn. What survives across many photographs of a fly is the fly.

An attractor stonefly that floats like a cork. The hackle is palmered the whole length rather than gathered at the head, which is what keeps it up in the pocket water it is meant for. Drawn at #12 — 16.6 mm of shank and 5.0 mm of gape on a Tiemco 100.
#8#10#12#14#1610 mm
The bare hook at every size this pattern is tied in, all to the same scale. There is no industry standard behind a hook number, so these are Tiemco 100 measurements and another maker's 8 will differ a little.

What it imitates

Each of these is the same hatch record the app's own panel reads, so a pattern recommended on a river card in the app is recommended for one of the insects below.

It is also tagged for no hatch at all — a searching pattern.

Tying recipe

In tying order. This dressing is the standard one — these patterns have been in the publicrecord for decades; Randall Kaufmann. — and materials substitute freely: the proportions and the silhouette are the pattern, not the brand of dubbing.

Hook3X long dry-fly hook, sizes 8–16
ThreadOrange or yellow 6/0
TailNatural elk hair
BodyYellow or orange dubbing, palmered with grizzly hackle
RibFine gold wire
WingElk hair, over the body
ThoraxAmber dubbing, palmered grizzly dyed brown

When to fish it

A stonefly adult, a big caddis, or a hopper, depending on colour and size. Also the best dry-dropper indicator in a fly box.

Carried all year. The insects it matches are active february–october, in water from 38°F to 75°F.

Target species

Rivers it fishes well

Rivers with a page here that sit in the regions where the insects this pattern imitates are recorded. It is a claim about coverage, not a report of a fish caught.

Related patterns

Same type of fly, or tied for the same insects.

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