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BrookTroutAngler

Critique my first stimi

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Well I was watching a youtube video today when I realized I had never tied a stimi before- even though its a favorite of mine. I even had the materials and decided to rectify the situation immediately.

 

I saw a video or two that tied them on size 6 salmon fly hooks- perfect if you plan on fishing the Deschutes during a golden stone hatch, but a bit big for Arizona. However, this reminded me that I had some size 8 salmon fly hooks that were given to me and needed to be put to use. I also figured its easier on any given pattern to start out bigger and go down from there.

 

So I whipped up my first stimi with the materials I had on hand. I think it came out alright. Maybe the tail could be a bit longer and a little sparser. I used the largest proper hackle I had.

 

Any thoughts on proportion, neatness, etc.....? Usually the first two or three of any given pattern I tie look pretty ugly (nice oxymoron, eh?) before I get proportions but sometimes a blind sow finds the odd acorn. All in all I'm really happy in how it came out. Usually working with hair is a pain in the but. Score one for big hooks!

 

It was a fun tie even if I'll never fish it in AZ.

 

I ribbed it with fine gold wire.

 

P1000811.jpg

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I like it! It looks like you wrapped the wire with the hackle, personally I counter wrap it to strengthen the hackle, don't know that it's necessary. I see them tied both ways.

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Looks great! I tried a stimulator when I first started tying and man did they come out ugly!... I guess the time has come to retry now that I've got some experience under my belt and a little better technique. Love stimulators for Brooke's.

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Hi BTA,

 

Nice tie!

 

As for the counter wrapped rib - I think you counter wrapped the hackle too. Wrap the hackle and rib opposite one another so that the rib traps the hackle on each turn. If you counter wrap the hackle wrap the rib normally or vise versa.

 

Moscow

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It took me a long time to tie a good stimulator. Although my not-so-good-to-me flies still caught a lot of fish.

Yours is very very good, thanks for sharing.

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A truly great looking fly that is certain to take fish in Arizona and abroad, but simply because you asked, and it is one of my favourite flies to both fish and tie I will offer a small amount of insight. One thing that Randall Kaufmann emphasizes in tying this fly is the necessity to flare the elk hair tail as much as possible, I could'ynt tell you why... although I'm quite sure the fish wont mind. I also appreciate how you ensured that the front hackle is slightly longer than the body hackle, which is another point stressed by the creator of this ubiquitous western fly.

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