The fly box · No. 22 of 36
Copper John
Small stonefly and mayfly nymphs, loosely; above all a heavy, bright nymph that gets down fast.
- Kind
- Nymph
- Hook sizes
- 12–18
- Season
- Spring, summer, autumn
- For
- Trout and grayling
- At the vice
- An involved tie
The dressing
| Hook | 2X-long heavy-wire nymph hook, barbless, sizes 12–18 |
|---|---|
| Thread | Black, 8/0 (70 denier) |
| Tail | Two brown goose biots, split in a V |
| Body | Copper wire in touching turns over a smooth tapered thread underbody (medium wire for size 12, fine for 16–18) |
| Rib | None added; the wire turns form the segmentation |
| Hackle | Legs of mottled brown hen back or partridge fibres, a small bunch each side of the thorax |
| Wing | Wing case of thin dark flexible film with one strand of pearl flash on top, coated with epoxy or UV resin |
| Also | Gold brass or tungsten bead, 2.0–3.3 mm to suit the hook; thorax of peacock herl; a few turns of lead-free wire pushed into the back of the bead |
Tying it
- Slide on the bead, wrap lead-free wire behind it and push the turns into the bead.
- Lay a smooth thread taper to the bend and tie in the two biots so they curve apart.
- Tie in the copper wire along the whole body and wind it forward in tight, touching turns to the thorax.
- Tie in the pearl flash and the film strip, then two or three peacock herls.
- Wind the herl as a thorax and tie in a small bunch of hen fibres along each side.
- Pull the film and then the flash forward over the thorax, tie down behind the bead and whip finish.
- Coat the wing case with a drop of epoxy or UV resin and cure it.
Fishing it
Use it as the working fly of a two-fly rig in fast, deep runs and plunge pools, where a lighter nymph would be swept over the heads of the fish. Hang it three to four feet under a large, buoyant dry, or fish it on a short line with a smaller nymph tied 40 cm behind. Tippet of 4X (0.18 mm) to the Copper John and 5X (0.15 mm) to the trailing fly is sensible. Dead drift it close to the stones and expect to lose one now and then; that is where it belongs.
Where it comes from
John Barr of Colorado worked on this fly through the 1990s, wanting a nymph dense enough to pull a second, lighter fly down beneath a floating dry. The abdomen is solid copper wire wound over a tapered underbody, so the pattern sinks quickly with little bulk, and the hard, glossy wing case throws back a point of light like the gas beneath a nymph’s skin.