Has anyone used turkey tail feathers for the wingcase on a copper john. Only reason I’m asking is I don’t have any thinskin and It’ll take 2-3 weeks to get it. What about pheasant tail??
go for it!
it gets epoxied anyway!!
Think black plastic trash bag. That’s what I use for thinskin. 
I haven’t but I don’t see why you can’t. The main thing about the Copper John wingcase is the strand of Flashabou and the epoxy bubble (I use UV Knot Sense). On most of the different colors of Copper Johns, Barr recommends black Thin Skin, so if you have any black feathers you could use them to make it look a little more like the original. The trash bag idea is a good one, too.
Joe
you can also use a goose biot for the wing case
Substitution is the name of the game. Give it a try.
I’ve always used pheasant tail for the wingcase. I tie in flashabou first and then the pheasant tail.
Ive only epoxied a few of the copper johns. I normally just use a drop of sally hansens which absorbs into the pheasant tail and cements it all. Doesn’t leave it all shiny like an air bubble but the fish don’t care. If I really want an air bubble around the nymph, I give it a coat of frogs fanny.
It’s all about experimenting. Have fun!
All of my copper johns get tied with a piece of cassette tape for the wingcase. It’s a rich dark brown, shiny, and probably free if you have any old cassettes you don’t want/need anymore. If not, a nearly endless supply of the stuff should cost you about $1.
I tie mine with a piece of crystal Flashabou first, then the tape. Epoxy over the top and it looks great.
why not try peacock herl???
I think I’ve read that John Barr uses Thin Skin because the epoxy adheres to it better than some other materials. And it apparently adheres to one of the sides a lot better than the other.
Joe
You can try it, Fly tyer.
I don’t think I have any flashabou with either, I may have to make an order. I should be able to get in 2-3 weeks.
Thanks for the input.
Jkilroy
Fly Tyer,
Since the thorax on most Copper Johns is peacock herl anyway, instead of also using it as a wing case you could probably just add the strand of Flashabou and then the epoxy and leave out the wing case altogether. Probably work just fine.
Joe
I have a tendency to “cheat”, if you will, on various patterns, mainly because I like to tie a few flies and fish them immediately afterward. I have used flat pearl tinsel for wingcases on many flies and have gotten good results with them. I use the UTC spool. No, I don’t epoxy the copper johns that I tie in this manner, but I think the idea of the bubble is to create enough flash, by magnifying the flash from the krystal flash strand, that it looks like the gasses you find in the natural insects wing cases. The tinsel is all flash, so I feel like that has served the overall purpose.
I have used just the flashabou…I like that…
But I have gotten now so I use swiss straw…I have a lot of that…and no matter what you use… I would suggest that you consider a finger nail polish that has silver glitter flakes in it…it substitutes for both the flashabou and epoxy…in one easy step
electric tape
In my experiance not using some kind of film (thin skin, plastic bag strip or any of the other fine suggestions by others) resulted in the epoxy oozing into the peacock hearl thorax and making for a very sloppy fly. The film acts as a barrier and helps to control where the epoxy flows…
Swiss straw, or Raffia, works fine. I love the idea of using nail polish with silver flash. Raffia can be found at nearly any craft store, even Wally World, and it is available in a wide variety of colors, even pearl, for very cheap, so you could buy some black and pearl, cut the pearl very thin, and use it for both the wing case and the flashabou. You can also check around and since stores are all ready getting christmass stuff in, get some fine silver garland and you will have your flashabou in silver that way. For the matterials you are looking for I don’t think you will need to do a mail order unless craft and department stores are also a long way away.
Daren
Use your turkey or pheasant tail and if you don’t have the flashaboo you can use different christmas garland or my wife bought some little girls feather boas at Dollar General that had silver and pearl flash in it. Instead of the epoxy or Hard as Nails try Loon Knot sense. It will set instantly and not soak in to anything and is nice and shiny, just expose it to sunshine.
Update…
The Swiss Straw thing I mentioned above [incidentally Raffia is different]…I just tied up some Water boatman with it and fished it…it was pathetic…didn’t stand up to one or two fish without shredding… had coated it with Black Wet & Wild nail polish…maybe that’s weak stuff… but I’ve added epoxy on top of it for the next time I fish them…
Depending on what I was tying and if I was going to use epoxy I would add glitter flake to it and not have to use flashabou