How effective...

[lostnwilderness 0]

This question stems from a parking lot debate, the water was too high to wade and there was an awful big cooler full of beverages. How effective do you consider the stimulator to be? I have friends that swear by it. I understand it can represent a fairly wide variety of adult insects and I have had success with it but I have never found it to be a top 5 dry fly for me. I am just wondering others opinion. Second part, what is your favorite color scheme for it?

[SILKHDH 0]

I have used it in the Arkansas at Salida Colorado & lower Rio Grand in Colorado below Rio Grand Res. during stone fly hatch with great results. Browns and rainbows. Color was to match hatch. Some insects were olive and others were orange. Depended on the elevation you were at. That's my two cents.

[phg 0]

Here in the southeast, and size 12 orange stimulator is a "must have" pattern. It's close enough to a lot of the larger stone flies and small hoppers to work in a variety of situations. It's also a good top fly for a dry and dropper rig. I often use it, or an orange palmer, as a searching pattern when nothing obvious is happening.

[Steiner 0]

Orange Stimulator is always in my box for northern Idaho.

[riffleriversteelheadslayer 0]

Michigan requires an orange, tan or olive in the summer size 10-14 great for the hoppers then when the hexes hatch fish a size 4-8 in yellow

[whatfly 0]

There's a reason why you will find this pattern in most fly shops across the country. It works. From the #6-4's for big stones, to #12-16 for caddis, the Improved Sofa Pillow...err, I mean the Stimulator...is an effective ripoff...errr, I mean pattern. I do not use it much on technical waters, but a great fly, both as an imitative and general attractor, in fast water. Other than orange and yellow for the early season stone fly hatches, gold and olive are my favorite colors.

 

Oddly enough, in some circles, the Stimulator is a popular trolling patterns, but that's another story...

[Ebrant10 0]

For mountain brook trout streams i find this to be about the only fly i use anymore.

[utyer 0]

I fish a lot of western rivers (big and small,) and most of them have good populations of various stoneflies. I have had good success with the Stimulator during these hatches. I have orange, yellow (antique golden really,) and a lime green. They all produce well for me. They will work for a hopper imitation as well. They aren't particularly effective in slower moving streams, but they are great in fast water.

[Ephemerella 0]

Yellow stimulator w/ grizzly hackle is a match-the-hatch pattern for larger stoneflies in the Northeast. After getting frustrated one afternoon in the Upper Connecticut River, I sat down, and immediately a big yellow stone fly alighted on my sleeve. I rummaged around in my fly box and put on a big #6 yellow stimulator w/ grizzly hackle. Tossed the fly in at the head of a seam that was behind a rock and let it drift about 4 feet. BAM! A nice 14" brown slammed it in what otherwise appeared to be dead water. They have continued to work, in this size, despite being obnoxiously large flies.

-Peter

[oldtrout58 0]

I do not leave home without them. I try to hit the golden stone hatch on the Upper Sacramento River every year and sometimes run into a salmon fly hatch. I tie them in yellow, shades of gold-brown, and orange.

 

I've tied them for the October Caddis hatch too, but I haven't done well fishing dries for this hatch.

[Crackaig 0]

Over the years I've tied hundreds of Stimulators for customers (that's not a lot, many patterns its in the thousands), and a few for myself. One customer insists they are the best dry for the mayfly hatch on the Irish Loughs.

 

My mileage varies. I have fished them on river and still water as an act of faith. We don't have significant stone fly hatches, so one of its primary uses is ruled out from the start. Over about the last 15 years I've used it on and off, I have have only ever risen one fish to it. I don't doubt that it is a pattern that deserves its reputation. I just don't think it is a good fit for my fishing. I have better imitations of caddis for those times I would fish a small one to fish feeding on caddis flies, and no stone flies to speak off. However I do enjoy tying them. If my situation was different I have no doubt that they would have a place in my fly box..

 

Cheers,

C.

[Jimboha! 0]

Can be very productive, both dry and wet! My favorite color scheme is weird: royal red body fore and aft, bleached white elk hair, grizzly hackle. Works well as a strike indicator with nymph dropper(s) or with smaller dry flies in tow. I fished all day long (my arm almost fell off...) with this pattern on the South Fork of the Boise and caught over 100 cutthroats last July.

 

Jimboha!