Let's face it, we all hate strike indicators.  I know some people can turn a blind eye to the 'worm dunking' visual similarities of and vouch for their fish striking assistance, but in we all know that they look cheesy, they cast terribly and their use is too one-dimensional.  That's correct, strike indicators can be two-dimensional.  Take this for instance.

Some Hoppicators I recently tied up.

The Hoppicator.  Mikey Wier, who I've admired as an angler for quite some time, originally tied the Hoppicator as an indicator fly with so much damn foam on it that it could suspend up to three flies below. We've all used hopper dropper set up's before and they're by far one of my favorite set ups to fish. But ultimately adjusting the length (depth) of your dropper flies is a re-rigging nightmare.  So the Hoppicator has mono loops tied directly into the skyscraper of foam so a simple loop-to-loop connection can attach the Hoppicator to your leader and the tag end of the loop-to-loop passes through the tail mono loop to then attach your tippet and your flies.  Genius.

Hot Head John & Black John

Hot Head John

Hook: MFC KBL 7000 or MFC 7045 (pretty much anything you want size 14-20)

Thread: Black 8/0

Tail: Black Goose Biots

Under Body: Thread Base

Abdomen: Black Ultra Wire

Thorax: AZ Black Synthetic Dubbing

Wing Case: Lrg Pearl Tinsel & UV Epoxy Back

Head: Fire Orange Cyclops Bead

The Hot Head John under UV light.  Check out the glow!

Black John

Same as Hot Head John except with Black Tungsten Bead Head.

Electric Bubble Bug

Stoned Possie

The Truckee River is a veritable minefield of basement deep holes, car sized boulders with overhangs big enough to hide submarines and speedy pocket water that creates the trickiest of drifts .  The simple technical solution to these problems is weight, deep-sea fishing style weight.  But in all honesty I despise crimping lead --even the lead-free birdie friendly kind-- on to my leader.  It's a pain in the ass, slides around easily and compromises the line.

So the general solution for myself is to load down flies with tungsten and non-toxic wire wrap. A heavy lead fly I've grown to admire on the Truckee is the Possie Bugger.  It gets a lighter dropper down quickly and although it doesn't quite resemble anything, it's natural movement can spark strikes.

Inspired by the Possie Bugger, I tied up some Possie styled Stoney looking buggies.  Generally a lot of stone flies don't seem to have the movement I like, so I tried to imitate some of the movement of the Possie Bugger with the psuedo-look of a Stone fly.  All in all a lot of my own successes on the Truckee have been brought not on realistic imitations but on impressionistic styled flies, natural movement and presentation.  So hence my trial at the Stoned Possie, something that will hopefully get deep, wiggle around a bit and resemble a little trout appetizer. 

Stoned Possie

Hook: MFC 7002 

Thread: Black 6/0

Weight: Non-Toxic Lead Wire

Tail: Natural Rabbit 

Rib: Black Ultra Wire

Abdomen: Dark Fox Squirrel Dubbbing

Throax: Arizona Synthetic Peacock Dubbing

Legs: MFC Centipede Legs: Med. Clear/Tan

Head: Gold Tungsten Bead

Luminescent Stoned Possie (LSP)

Hook: MFC 7002 

Thread: Black 6/0

Weight: Non-Toxic Lead Wire

Tail: Natural Rabbit (Fluffy Bunny Furs) 

Rib: Mirage Opal Tinsel & Black Ultra Wire

Abdomen: Australian Opossum

Throax: Arizona Synthetic Peacock Dubbing

Legs: MFC Centipede Legs: Med. Clear/Tan

Head: Gold Tungsten Bead

Adding the Opal Tinsel ribbing adds to my Sparkle Theory on the Truckee --
"Fish like Sparkles".  Well I guess it's not a theory, more like and idea I'd like to believe..