Copper John
Invented by John Barr in the mid 90’s. It’s easy to tie and very effective when you need a heavy simple nymph pattern. By changing the color of the Copper Wire you can easily make variations to cover different situations better.
Mr. Barr ties his fly to a TMC 5262 2x long nymph hook but I like to use a shorter one since I mostly use this pattern on small flies when I need them to sink well and I like the look of the shorter ones. TMC 3769SP-BL #16 has proved to be a good choice and it’s also barbless so I don’t lose time de-barbing it. The pattern is pretty straightforward to tie but I can give you couple suggestions. Be sure to make a smooth tapered underbody for the fly to achieve the correct shape and get the copper wire to sit nicely. You can flatten the first one or two turns of wire to get even thinner body from the back.
Use only the minimum amount of threadwraps to secure the materials in place so that you don’t get a huge gap between the head and the thorax.
For instructions how to tie this fly I recommend you get John Barr’s book “Barr Flies: How to Tie and Fish the Copper John, the Barr Emerger, and Dozens of Other Patterns, Variations, and Rigs”
Copper John
Hook: TMC 3769SP-BL (or 5262 as in the original)
Head: Gold Tungsten Bead
Weight: Lead (or leadfree) wire to the front part of the fly
Tail: Biots
Body: Copper Wire
Wingcase: One Pearl Flashabou strip and piece of Thin Skin
Abdomen: Peacock Herl
Legs: Mottled Brown Hen
Coat the wingcase with epoxy after you’ve finished the fly. I usually let the epoxy to go over the body a bit to make it even more sturdier fly.
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