I developed this pattern to look like a live shrimp. After looking at all the cool shrimp flies that are out there I felt something was needed different for casting to reds tailing in the grass. I wanted something with a little meat on it that would set down lightly in the shallow water I am finding these fish, yet I wanted it to appear lifelike. After sitting down with a shrimp I noticed a few things: 1. Their legs and swimmers are copper colored. It is no accident that the Copperhead is a good fly. 2. The antenna are very long and extremely noticeable. None of the other shrimp patterns had such a pronounced antenna as they really have in real life. 3. When a shrimp takes off he moves very fast and his tail curls up under him. Straight shrimp flies don't copy this at all. That is why the under and over wings are there, they are meant to look like a shrimp tail doing it's thing. Anybody who is a decent fly tier (re; neat and tidy) can make these to look really nice. However, I feel that they work better tied a bit ragged, especially when the deer hair body is left a little longer on the bottom than on the top.
