Umpqua 40053 Fishing Lure, Colorado, Stonefly Nymph, Steelhead, Trout, Brass/Copper, Red Lure

When I first started nymph fishing in the 1970's my favorite fly was the brassie. The fly sank fast and it caught fish. Nymph patterns evolved greatly in the following years but when I started designing the copper john I thought back to the brassie that I used when I first started fishing with an indicator. I thought that a shank wrapped with copper wire might be a good place to start. I then added other materials so it would look more like a fly. After many designs and material changes I ended up with a pattern that I thought might work. It had a stonefly nymph style biot tail, a copper wire abdomen, peacock herl thorax, partridge legs, a turkey quill wing case with a strip of pearl flashabou pulled over the top which was coated with epoxy and a brass bead. I felt the fly was ready to be field tested. I tied a 3 ft section of 4X tied to the hook bend of the hopper and attached the prototype nymph (no name at that point) and added 10 in of 5X off the hook bend of the nymph and attached a dropper that represented an immature stage of the revealing aquatic insect activity at the time.