Gray Stimulator 02/23/2022 Photo Album

My post of 1/29/2020 does an excellent job of updating on my favorite applications of the gray stimulator. It also describes some of the pitfalls to avoid while tying stimulators, and a review of Charlie Craven’s video on www.charliesflybox.com will ensure that any tier avoids these missteps.

Excellent

Stimulators comprised a large proportion of the flies in the fly box that I lost last September, so I turned to the vise and cranked out six additional size 14’s. Gray is a favorite all around body color for me, as it seems to work well across a broad spectrum of natural body hues of stoneflies and caddis. I produced six additional heavily hackled flies for the upcoming season.

Zoom the Pile

Yellow Stimulator 02/22/2022 Photo Album

If you click on my 02/21/2017 post on the yellow stimulator, you can read an interesting narrative about some of my early success with this fly. My devotion to this fly endures six years later, and I examined my supply and churned out another batch of four to increase my inventory to adequate levels.

Yellow Stimulator

The yellow stimulator in sizes 14 and 12 are especially effective during yellow sally and golden stonefly emergences, and these tend to peak in the late June until mid-July time period; however, I often knot one of these bushy imitations to my line outside the prime yellow stonefly time period. Guess what? They work throughout the season.

Hair Stacker Added

Stimulators are not exceedingly difficult to tie, but some precision at several key points can improve the output significantly. No tier is more precise in their instruction than Charlie Craven, so I usually review is tying video, before I dive into stimulator production. His method follows the classic approach including using fine wire to bind down the palmered hackle. I personally do not like applying wire to a dry fly, so I skip that step and tie in a saddle hackle in front of the tail and wind forward. Otherwise, i follow his steps without deviation.

Klinkhammer BWO 02/21/2022 Photo Album

Background information and a materials table may be found in the following two posts: 03/06/2021 and 02/23/2020. I lost my fly box during 2021, and this put a dent in my supply of Klinkhammer BWO’s, so I devoted some hours to replenishing my supply with six additional versions.

A Thing of Beauty

My primary BWO imitation is the CDC BWO, but on occasions where the trout ignore the CDC style, I resort to Klinkhammer BWO’s. Sometimes it produces, but at other times it is also avoided. I concluded that the tough blue winged olive days occur when the wind is strong, and the adult mayflies bounce and skip on the surface of the river. It is very difficult to imitate the erratic movement with a fly, but I have on occasion prompted a response with a quick twitch or lift in front of a sighted trout. Even after forty years of fly fishing, I continue to experiment and learn new tricks.

Six New Klinks

Chubby Chernobyl 02/12/2022 Photo Album

Just what the world needs, another large foam dry fly. That is an apt description for the increasingly popular chubby Chernobyl. My post of 02/08/2022 provides ample links to all things chubby, and I recommend that you inspect it, if you are intrigued by this awkward looking fly.

A Spikey Version

The chubby Chernboyl looks like a classic Chernobyl ant when viewed from below; however, the angler’s view is an image of a large clump of white poly yarn. Initially when I used this fly I was turned off by the tendency of the poly to get saturated with water, but after observing some guides, as they applied fly floatant to the wing, I found the solution to my limp wing misgivings.

Trout View

Over the past two seasons I placed a chubby on my line more frequently than a fat Albert, and I have experienced some success with it. My confidence began during several trips to the Yampa River in a previous June, when large fish crushed the gangly imitation bearing an ice dub tan body. Of course this was a development that I could not ignore, so I tied a batch.

Side View

I counted my supply of these monsters, and I realized that I had adequate quantities of the large attractors with yellow, gray, and green bodies; but I did approach my vise to manufacture three additional versions with ice dub tan bodies. Hopefully these flies will attract hungry trout during 2022.

Hippie Stomper 01/30/2022 Photo Album

I cannot find enough superlatives to describe this valued weapon in my fly fishing arsenal, so I will just say, “Wow”. Check out my post from a year ago, for an update and click on this link to my post of 11/18/2018 for a materials table. The story of my introduction to the hippie stomper can be found in my 01/13/2018 post.

My success over the past year surpassed even my highest expectations, and I am a confirmed believer in the hippie stomper. The stomper delivers results year round, and I use it solo and as part of a dry/dropper and double dry rig. It is small enough to minimize the impact on the water, yet buoyant enough to support two size fourteen beadhead nymphs. In a double dry fly configuration  I position it first and trail a smaller dry, and it enables me to track the smaller fly quite well. I recommend using a short dropper of six to twelve inches, should you wish to experiment with the double dry approach.

From the Side

What does a hippie stomper imitate? It is hard to know; however, I believe it is first and foremost a terrestrial. However, it could easily be taken for a stonefly or a green drake. During the western green drake season I often knot a hippie stomper with a peacock body to my line along with a nymph dropper or another dry fly during the hours that precede a hatch. I believe that the peacock hippie stomper is close enough to a green drake adult to draw attention or looks prior to the actual hatch. This technique enables me to hedge my bets, as I test for what the trout are tuned into.

A Clump of Stompers

As I generally forget the tying steps from year to year, I have settled on the fly tying video from Andrew Grillos to refresh my memory. Andrew is the creator of the hippie stomper, and it represents his signature fly and one of the most popular in the Umpqua Feather Merchants’ catalog. Simply Google Andrew Grillos to find the video.

A Different Angle

As you might imagine, heavy usage produced significant shrinkage, so I tied twelve new models with peacock dubbed bodies and five with olive ice dub bodies. The olive body flies are the first to go on my line during green drake season. I cannot recommend a fly more highly than the hippie stomper.