Beadhead Copper John

One of the most effective ways to cover water columns in the river or in still water is to use a dry dropper set up. This means that you have a dry fly rigged first as your “top” fly and add a length of tippet, most commonly from the hook’s bend, and trail a “dropper’ behind underneath the surface of the water.

A common combination would be to have an elk hair caddis as a top fly and a copper john fly as a dropper. Some of the best flies to use in this rigging are a rubber leg copper john or the zebra copper john. In this situation the fly on top stimulates the fish to want to eat. The fish will first see the angler’s fly and most of the time it will rise to take a second look. If the fish refuses the dry fly, the dropper fly of the copper john fly will be close behind to give the angler another option to stimulate a fish to eat. The copper john fly pattern in this rigging is most times as small and realistic as you can get away with while your top fly is sized to make sure you can float your copper john nymph. The copper john fly is often fished in a large size to be easily visible to the angler. Using a top fly gives the angler one of the best chances of keeping eye contact with the rig in faster waters which is important because it is acting as your indicator for your copper john trout fly as well. If the fish eats the copper john fly, your fly will stop or go underwater. The extra buoyancy of the top fly is good because it gives the angler a wider range of copper john fly pattern weight options to choose from.

*Click an image to view that product’s info and sizes*

If the water is flowing fast, you will need a heavier copper john nymph to get down. Whereas if it is a slower stream, you are able to get away with a lightweight copper john fly or a totally unweighted copper john fly. Some prefer copper john fly fishing with an unweighted fly version because they believe that it gives the copper john fly the most realistic action. The weight range of the copper john fly pattern is achieved with the beads used. Some of the beads will be brass and some tungsten. The tungsten beaded copper john fly will get down to the bottom of the river much faster than a fly with a brass bead. It is very common to find a full weight and color range of the copper john flies in a well-versed anglers fly box. Some of our favorite color patterns are the red copper john, the green copper john, the black copper john, chartreuse copper john and the blue copper john flies.

Look at our full selection of Copper John fly patterns to see the tremendous range of colors and style variations we carry.

Trout Season from Sage Fly Fish on Vimeo.