Mary Copperhead Step by Step

 

This fly pattern has been hugely productive for me over the years.  It was first shown to me by Stuart Minnikin as an ideal nymph for fishing Duo, where a small weighted nymph is suspended under a dry fly.  It catches a lot of fish.

The nymph has a strip of mirage tinsel over the thorax which adds just a little attraction without being over the top.  The bead colour for this fly should be copper but I have also had success with pink and orange coloured bead variants.

Put a 2mm or 2.5mm bead on the hook and attach your brown thread. You could go as small as 1.5mm for very subtle nymphs on #20 hooks for fishing under a small dry fly but mostly I use either 2mm or 2.5mm.

Catch in fine copper wire for the rib.

Catch in 3 or 4 pheasant tail fibres to create the tail then wind the thread back to the head of the fly.

Grip the buts of the pheasant tail fibres and carefully wind them up to the head of the fly in touching turns and tie of with the thread, cut of the excess. You need to be especially careful with the first few turns or the tail fibres will get pulled out of line.

Wind the copper wire in the opposite rotational direction to the head of the fly. Winding in the opposite direction allows the wire to sit on top of the pheasant tail fibres and helps to keep them in place. If wound in the same direction it tends to fall into the gaps between the fibres. Tie in the copper wire with the thread and snip off the excess.

Take a piece of mirage tinsel and catch in while winding the thread about one third of the way towards the tail.

Dub a small amount of hares ear dubbing on the thread and wind back up to the head of the fly.

Pull the tinsel over the front of the fly and tie off with the thread immediately behind the bead.

Tie of the thread and you’re done !

Materials used:

Dohiku short wet #16
Copper coated Tungsten bead 2.5mm
Brown thread
Fine copper wire
Pheasant tail
Hends Hare Dubbing, light brown
UTC Mirage Tinsel medium

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