Fly of the Month – September

Hutch’s Pennell – (I. Hutcheon) – Wet Fly

Hook:    Kamasan B175, sizes 12 to 16, or similar.

Thread: Black Veevus GSP, 50D, or any fine flat black thread.

Tag: Small flat silver tinsel.

Rib: Small silver wire.

Tail: Golden pheasant tippet fibres dyed hot orange.

Body: 2 Strands of peacock herl.

1^st.  Hackle: Black hen.

2^nd. Hackle: White cock or hen.

TYING

Photo 1. Secure the hook in the vice, and starting at the eye, wind on a short bed of thread and remove the waste thread.

Photo 2. Tie in a length of flat silver tinsel and continue to bind down the tinsel with touching turns of thread to a little way round the hook bend, then return the thread to opposite the barb.

Photo 3. Apply a tiny drop of superglue to the thread wraps around the bend and wind the tinsel over it in slightly overlapping turns stopping at the barb. Secure the tinsel with a few turns of thread, cut off the waste tinsel the same length as the body and bind it down with touching turns of thread. Return the thread to the silver tag.

Photo 4. Align the tips of a few golden pheasant tippet fibres, cut them from the feather stem and using waxed thread, catch them in on top of the shank as a tail, approximately the same length as the body. In similar fashion, catch in a length of silver wire, followed by 2 strands of peacock herl and bind down all the ends with touching turns of thread, stopping about a head length from the eye.

Photo 5. Wind the peacock herl up the shank in the opposite spiral to the thread, tie it down securely at the head, and remove the waste herl.

Photo 6. Counter wind the silver wire in an open spiral over the herl body as a rib, secure it with thread at the head and worry off the wire.

Photo 7. Isolate the tip of a black hen hackle and trim off the majority of the tip leaving a small triangular stub. Using well waxed thread, tie in the hackle by the stub and wind on 2 or 3 turns of hackle, secure it with thread, and remove the excess hackle.

Photo 8. Repeat the previous step using a white hen hackle ensuring that no more than 2 turns of hackle are used.

Photo 9. Form a neat head, whip finish, and remove the thread. Varnish the head to complete the fly.

Tying Tips

• Golden pheasant tippet feathers are highly distinctive. Their bright orange colouration, contrasted by two black parallel bars at their tips, means any imperfections, either in the feathers themselves, or through poor tying technique, are instantly noticeable. As a result, many tiers find these feathers quite a challenge, so hopefully the following will be helpful.

Start by choosing a tippet feather where the distance between the tip of the fibres and the bottom of the second black bar is the same length as the body of the fly being tied. This means that when the fibres are tied in at the bottom of the second black bar, the tail is automatically the correct length. This minimises the chance of the fibres becoming misaligned and makes it much easier to replicate tail length on further flies. Once a suitably sized feather has been chosen, prepare the feather by pulling off all the poorly marked outside fibres from both sides of the stem and then stroke all the remaining fibres together to align the black bars.

There are two simple ways to keep the fibres aligned. The first option is to hold one side of the prepared feather by the aligned tips, count the number of fibres required, usually somewhere between 4 and 6, and while keeping hold of the tips, simply cut the fibres from the feather stem.  The fibres can then be offered to the hook and tied in at the second black bar. Once all the fibres from one side of the feather have been used up, the second option can then be used. Simply select the number of fibres required starting at the bottom of the stem and cut away the section of the quill with the required number of fibres still attached. This keeps the fibres aligned and once tied in, the waste, including the small section of quill can be cut off.

• The body of this fly should be relatively slim so try to use peacock herl with a short flue and for smaller hook sizes, use just a single peacock herl.
• Peacock herl is a delicate fibre, particularly near the tip, so to avoid unexpected breakages, always trim an inch or so from the tips before tying them in.
• To make the body more robust, the delicate peacock herl is usually wound in the reverse spiral to that of the thread, and then ribbed in the opposite spiral. This causes the rib to travel across the herl rather than sinking down into it, which helps to hold the herl more securely, and also makes the rib much more visible. The herl can also be wound over some superglue for added protection but avoid touching the body until the glue has had time to set.
• To prepare the hen hackles, grasp the feather tip in your fingers or in a pair of fine hackle pliers and stroke all the other fibres back to isolate the tip section. The tip can then be trimmed off to leave a short triangular stub about 1mm. in length. The feather is then tied in by the triangular stub with the good side of the feather facing the eye using well waxed thread. This saves cutting the feather in situ and avoids any lumps and bumps when forming the head.
• An interesting variant, regularly used in Orkney, has a small, white deer hair muddler head instead of the white hen hackle, which transforms the fly into a very effective emerger pattern.

Fishing hints

• This wet fly pattern was devised by Ian Hutcheon from Kirkwall on mainland Orkney, where it has gained great acclaim as an early season midge representation.
• The fly is usually fished on the top dropper of either a floating or slow sinking line, while the retrieve can be anything from a slow figure of eight to fast pulls, depending on the prevailing conditions and the species of trout being targeted.
• Despite this pattern’s early season reputation, my experience of the fly on Coldingham Loch has been confined to the months of July and September, when in desperation during very difficult conditions, a slowly retrieved size 16 has been one of the very few patterns to bring some fish to the net.