The Story Behind the Copper John

The Story Behind the Copper John

John Barr is one of the most celebrated fly tiers in the world. His Copper John pattern is one of the hottest-selling flies for one good reason: It catches a lot of fish. To that point, I once fished a remote river in Chile with guide Ricardo Ellena. We spotted a fish that wasn’t very interested in dry flies, so we decided to try nymphs. What pattern? I pulled a red size 16 Copper John from my box and offered it up for my guide’s approval.

“Ah, si,” he said. “That is la mosca assasina (the killer fly), el cobre de Juan (the copper of John).”

I later told that story to John Barr and he laughed. Then he told me how that bug came to be.

Seems he was fishing years ago in the late summer, using a hopper-dropper rig. His bottom fly (a Barr Emerger) wasn’t quite getting down to the fish as quickly and efficiently as he wanted it to.

So J. B. went back to his tying bench and whipped up a pattern that was sure to sink.

He made the body out of copper wire, he put a bead head on it, then he added a few buggy accents such as a wing case and tail. By his own admission, this fly was meant to be an anchor that looked like an insect...sort of.

The funny thing is, once he fished that fly, the trout went absolutely nuts over it. Within a few years, it became Umpqua’s hottest-selling fly pattern worldwide. Thousands of dozens are sold every year, in various shades and sizes.

In other words, the hottest fly pattern in the world came to be almost by default, to make other flies work better.

The moral of the story is that weight is always a critical factor in fly selection. Having a fly that gets in the zone is as important, if not more important, than having a fly that looks natural. Having a fly with appeal, and function, is supernatural.