Hard to believe the original Brassie was a scud imitation, eh? The copper wire body was simply wrapped around the hook and a thorax of heat shrink tubing was utilized for the thorax. And according to Gary Borger a throat of pheasant tail was applied in some variations. Now there are so many variants it would be hard to name them all. I'll keep it simple... However, a lot is owed to Ken Chandler and Tug Davenport for coming up with the Brassie in the late 1960's.
When I first started flinging and tying flies in the mid 1970's copper wasn't remotely difficult to find A tier could simply buy a small spool or salvage rotary telephones, scrap household wiring, guitar pick-ups (or any magnetic current device), etc. Colors ranged from bright to dark cooper with some extremely bright wire appearing orange! My favorite shade was a darker carmel color- somewhat of an "antique" shade. However what was difficult was procuring different colors of copper.
Sometime in the late 1970's/early 1980's (I don't remember) colored copper wire was becoming more common in fly shops, but it was restricted to red and green. Nowadays the color selection is pretty amazing with different shades and hues depending on the distributor. It is not uncommon to see one manufacturer/distributor to have a bright but matte finish while another has a bright and shiney finish. It will pay to experiement with these finishes/shades/hues... Believe it or not the fish in certain waters can get pretty persnickety, And I've seen it happen more than once when exchanging notes and patterns with my fellow anglers. This may be one of the reasons a lot of anglers have a love/hate relationship with this pattern.
Remember the beginning of this blog post when I mentioned numerous variations? Let me give you just a few to get you started:
1) The original Brassie was simply copper wire. So changing colors anywhere from natural earthtones to wild fluorescent colors is an obvious choice.
2) Although the original thorax was heat shrink tubing (doubtful anyone is still utilzing this material) peacock herl became the obvious choice with tiers/anglers. You may also run into and/or try muskrat in gray or black for the thorax. My preference will remain natural materials and I am partial to the under fur of Australian opossum (as pictured below) for it's action in the water. Don't overlook the newer synthetics- mainly material such as Ice Dubbing or finer cuts of similar material.
3) Utilizing two colors of wire has become increasing popluar. Not only does segmentation still exist, but it is highlighted by the lighter colored wire.
4) Nowadays I simple wrap the wire around the hook (I do not tie it in) and apply UV resin to "bombproof" the pattern. This keeps the body thin and gives a translucent appearance; which. I feel adds more effectiveness to the pattern.
Materials
Hook: Any standard shank nymph or curved hook, sizes 14-24 (Pictured TMC 2488 size 20)
Thread: Appropriate to color of wire and hook size. (Pictured 14/0 red Veevus)
Body: Copper wire color of choice and diameter appropriate to hook size. (Red Hend's 0.14 diameter) A thin coat of UV resin may be applies.
Thorax: Peacock herl is the most common material. Various natural hairs or synthetic are viable substitutes. (Pictured is the under fur of Australian opossum spun in a dubbing loop.)
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