The Copper John is an excellent searching pattern. They can be tied with many different colors of wire. Red, and chartreuse are very popular.
Materials Needed:
Hook: Standard nymph hook
Bead: Copper. Tungsten, or brass. (I'm using a size 5/64 bead on my size 16 hook)
Thread: Black UNI
Tail: Brown goose biots
Body: Copper wire
Flash: Pearl tinsel
Legs: Mallard flank died black
Thorax: Peacock, or synthetic peacock dubbing.
Start by mashing the barb, and placing the bead on the hook
Start your thread just behind the bead, and wrap evenly to the hook bend.
Wrap a few times to build up a little bump.
Making this little bump helps to keep the goose biots separated.
Select two goose biots and put them back to back as shown...
Measure your goose biots. The tail should be the length of the hook shank.
Tie in the goose biots with a soft wrap, followed by a few tight wraps.
Trim the tag ends of the goose biots.
Tie in the copper wire, and wrap your thread to the tail.
Try to keep your thread wraps as even as possible.
Wrap your thread to the bead, and then evenly wrap your copper wire toward the bead.
Tie off the wire, and break, or cut the tag end off.
Tie in your flashback.
I cut an angle in the flash where I am going to tie it in to cut down on bulk.
Dub some synthetic peacock dubbing onto your thread, and wrap to create the thorax.
Select some dyed black mallard flack to tie in as legs.
I like to keep the fibers attached to the stem of the feather as shown. This way, it is much easier to start over if you mess up.
Tie in the legs....
...and cut off the tag ends.
Fold the flash over the thorax, tie it off, and trim the tag end.
Whip finish.
