Fly of the Month - September, 2010
Stimulator

Tying Instructions

1. Start by crimping the barb of the hook in the vise jaws, or with a pair of flat pliers. Tie on your tying thread, and bring the thread to the bend of the hook. Select a small clump of deer or elk hair. Stack the hair, trim it, and tie it in as a tail. Take care not to use too much pressure at first. Using too much force, may cause the hair to flair out.
2. Tie in a piece of copper wire. This will be used to rib the fly. Next start to apply dubbing to the fly. Use wax if you can't get the dubbing to adhere to the thread. Wrap the dubbing forward to create a nice body that tapers forward. You will need to dub just over halfway on the hook shank.
3. Take a piece of brown dry fly saddle hackle. Prepare the hackle by stripping off a few fibers from the stem. Tie in the hackle where you finished dubbing. I like this fly to sit low in the water, so I use a shorter length fibered feather. You can use longer hackle if you wish.
4. Wrap the hackle backwards towards the tail of the fly. Once you reach the point where the copper wire is tied in, wrap the copper wire forward in the opposite direction of the hackle. The copper wire will lock the hackle in place, and add durability to your fly. Tie the wire down, and trim the excess. Trim off the excess hackle.
5. Select, and prepare another clump of deer or elk hair. Using the same technique as above, tie down the wing. Be sure to leave ample space to form the head of the fly.
6. Take some more brown dry fly hackle, and prepare, and tie it in front of the wing. Add some orange dubbing to your thread, and wrap forward, building up a heavily dubbed head. Use a rabbit dubbing for the head to obtain a spiky look to the head of this fly.
7. Finally, wrap the brown hackle forward, and tie off the excess, and trim. Add a whip finish to the fly, and a dab of head cement to secure it. Be creative in the color combinations you choose.

Variations

The Stimulator is more of a pattern than a particular fly. Various combinations of colors can be used for the abdomen and thorax, as well as the hackle. Try various color combinations and various sizes.