Yellow Sally Stimulator Pattern & Tying Instructions

Here, author, blogger and fly tier Matt Grobert is going to tie a Yellow Sally stimulator. It's a great summertime pattern and works well in many different areas. Matt starts with a size 14 #270 Dai-Riki hook. These hook have a ring eye and a great looking natural curve. For tying thread he's going to use Olive 6/0 Danville. Start your thread on the hook shank, leaving a hook eye space behind the eye. Take wraps rearward to halfway between the point and the barb. For an egg sac, Matt uses bright orange rabbit fur dubbing. You just need enough to form a small ball just above the hook barb then wrap your thread halfway up the shank. For the rib of the fly, which also holds down the hackle, Matt uses fine gold wire, a 6 to 8 inch piece will do. Tie the gold wire in securely and wrap rearward to the egg sac before taking a few wraps back up the shank. For the abdomen of the fly, Matt uses a nice bright yellow rabbit fur. Make a fairly long noodle on your tying thread but keep it relatively thin as Yellow Sallys are rather slender. The abdomen should extend to between half and 2/3rds the length of the hook shank. Select a yellow hackle with barbules about 1 1/2 times the hook gap in length and snip off the butt. Strip about a 1/4 of an inch of fibers off to expose the stem. Tie the hackle in with the shiny side of the feather facing the eye of the hook. You do this in order to get the hackle fibers angling slightly rearward. Take 6 or 7 open spiral wraps before stopping at the egg sac. Then pick up the gold wire and, using a zig-zag motion, wrap it forward in an open spiral to form a rib and lock down the hackle stem. At the front of the thorax take a few good firm wraps to secure the wire and then helicopter the wire to break it off clean. Carefully snip the tip of the hackle off close at the egg sac. With your tying thread, form a gentle taper at the front of the abdomen. This will give you a level space to tie in the wing. Grab a small clump of bleached elk hair and snip it free from the hide. Put it in your stacker, tips first, and give it a real good stacking. The wings on Yellow Sallys are very thin and almost see-through so go easy on the amount of elk hair. With the tips aligned, pull the hair from the stacker. Measure it to form a wing that extends to the back of the hook bend. Take two loose collecting wraps followed by a third with more tension. Make sure the hair stays on top of the hook throughout this process. The idea is to create just a mildly flared wing, not one that's sticking straight up. Lift the butt ends with the thumb and index finger of your left hand and snip them off at an angle, close to the hook shank. Take more wraps of tying thread to create a smooth tapered area on which you're going to build the thorax of the fly. For the front hackle, Matt's going to use Cree, but grizzly will work just fine. Prepare the hackle in the same way you did before. Once again tie it in with the shiny side facing forward. This time, however, the hackle will be wound forward instead of back. With the same dubbing you used for the abdomen, create a shorter dubbing noodle for the thorax. Try to get the noodle to start just behind the eye then continue rearward. You can use the dubbing noodle to contain the flare of the elk hair. Complete the thorax by winding forward just behind the eye. Get hold of the hackle with your hackle pliers and take 4 or 5 open spiral wraps forward before carefully tying the stem off. You can then snip away the hackle tip. Add a 4 or 5 turn whip finish, snip or cut your tying thread free and your Yellow Sally is ready to fish.