Size 14 Yellow Stimulators

If the size 12 Stimulator is the big-water hammer, this size 14 is the everyday workhorse. It's the one that lives in the top row of the dry-fly box from the first stonefly rumors of spring through the last hopper days of fall. Tied with premium Whiting grizzly saddle hackle and a buoyant Nature's Spirit Stimulator deer-hair wing, it floats like a cork and casts like a dream.

What makes the Stimulator special is its refusal to be just one thing. In yellow it suggests golden stoneflies and Yellow Sallies; to a trout looking up, it's simply a big, buggy meal worth moving for. That versatility makes it the ultimate prospecting fly — tie it on when you're covering new water, fishing between hatches, or just want to find out who's home.

It's also a first-rate hopper-dropper indicator: the deer hair and hackle support a tungsten nymph underneath without breaking a sweat. Dead-drift it along grassy banks, skate it through tailouts, and hold on.