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In my opinion, the Stimulator is one of the best flies for using as an indicator. It floats high, is super buoyant, and mimics a large range of bug species. I could be wrong, but I believe it was originally created to be a stonefly imitator, however it can easily mimic hoppers, and even large caddis if tied to the correct sizes. Being very buoyant means that you can drop a bead head nymph behind it, or another small dry fly. This thing will hold up a large variety of other flies. Also, being such a large size, fish tend to hammer this fly hard! Some of my best strikes, where the fish literally came out of the water, have been with a stimulator. Using different colors of hackle, and dubbing can give you different effects. For my local streams in Colorado, this orange/brown body, with tan/grizzly head works great! But your local streams and rivers might vary. The hook commonly used for this fly is one with long shank, but with a curve to it. The hook I used is from Firehole sticks, but common hooks you can find at most fly shops will be Daiichi 1270 or TMC200. Of course you can use whatever you want, get creative! However a different shaped hook will give it a different look, and won't have that traditional Stimulator body curve to it.

So this fly worked wonders for me last time I went and fished. The fish were destroying it on the top water, and almost coming out of the water after it. It was being hit hard! And I only don't have it anymore because I lost it, and not because it came apart. Its quite durable actually. So as promised here is the list of materials and step by step listed below. Materials.... Hook: Daiichi 1270 in size 18 Thread: Veevus 10/0 in olive Tail: White Polypro Yarn Ribbing: Veevus 140 Power thread in brown Dubbing: FTD's Skeeter Fuzz in caddis green Wing: Primo Deer Hair Strips died yellow or gold Hackle: Genetic Rooster Cape in Olive Head Cement: Bone Dry UV Curing Resin Step by Step.... Step 1: Start your thread half way down the bend of the hook. Step 2: Tie in a strand of 140 power thread Step 3: Tie in a few strands of polypro Step 4: Tie both the thread and polypro down deep into the bend of the hook Step 5: Dub a tapered noodle onto your thread with your dubbing Step 6: Wind the dubbing up the hook shank creating a tapered body Step 7: Make spaced wraps with the thread up the abdomen to create ribs Step 8: Trim off a fair amount of deer hair Step 9: Prepare that deer hair by removing the underfur, and aligning the tips in your stacker Step 10: Tie the prepared hair onto the top of your fly insuring the hair extends to about the end of the hook Step 11: Trim off the waste of the hair Step 12: Clean up the head Step 13: Dub on a bit more dubbing and create a bit of a tapered head Step 14: Prepare an appropriate sized hackle feather by cutting off the fuzzy parts, and snipping off the lower fibers. Step 15: Tie in the hackle so the shiny side is facing you Step 16: Wrap your hackle around the head as many times as you can to create a very thick and bushy head Step 17: Capture the hackle carefully insuring not to trap any fibers, pull all fibers rearward, and then tie back up onto the hackle a bit to insure no fibers are caught and facing forward. Step 18: Trim off the waste hackle Step 19: Whip finish your fly Step 20: Cement the head Last step: Fish your fly!