"Many tyer–anglers have asked me about the origin story of the Stimulator and the name. To clarify erroneous and fictitious claims, here it is!
The pattern that became the Stimulator has its origins on the Deschutes River in Oregon, likely dating back to the 1950s or earlier. My friend, Rick Verheghe (angler-boatman extraordinaire) and I were fishing the Deschutes River near Whitehorse Rapids one memorable evening in 1980.
Rick was having amazing success with a fly labeled Hank’s Special that he salvaged from a dusty fly bin at the famous Oasis Café in Maupin, owned by legendary Deschutes personality Mike McLucas and his wife Gloria.
I had seen the fly there but paid no attention to it, until now. Tying on Rick’s fly was crazy effective.
Back at my tying vise I refined the tying style, tweaked the colors and changed materials, and began fishing it with remarkable success. I shared the fly with David Lambroughton, (renowned angler-photographer and creator of Fly Fishing Dreams calendar) who was guiding for us on the Deschutes at the time. Same success.
One evening in 1981, on our cabin deck overlooking the Deschutes River, David and I were discussing catchy fly names. David mentioned my Simulator name (a catch-all nymph dating to the early 1970s) as an example. That led David, naturally if you know him, to think that Stimulator would be a great name for the fly. He was right!
The Stimulator first appeared in the Kaufmann Streamborn catalog in 1982. Eventually, there were over 120 variations of colors, styles, specific stonefly imitations, and sizes, all produced by Umpqua Feather Merchants—they occupied an entire section of the Kaufmann fly display.
In short, Hank started it, Rick introduced it to me, David named it, I refined it, and along with Umpqua, popularized it.
No others knew of, or were in any way contacted or otherwise associated with designing or naming the Stimulator.
There you have it—the origin of, and naming of the Stimulator!
And, no one ties it like Umpqua!"
- Signature Tyer Randall Kaufmann
