Black Pennell

Wet Fly

Tied By Christian Andrews

Hook: #12 – 14 wet / nymph

Thread: black

Materials-

tail: Golden Pheasant tippet

rib: silver wire

body: black thread

front hackle: stiff black (but it’s a wet fly) 2x gape

Notes:

Mary Orvis Marbury has the brown, green, and yellow pennell illustrated by her father Charles Orvis in her book Favorite Flies and Their Histories (1892). It is possible she did not include the Black Pennell because H. Cholmondeley-Pennell himself said the best colors (or maybe that’s “colours”) to fish are brown, green, and yellow.

Notes:

The body is firm and slim, just thread wraps.
The front hackle is sparse, per Cholmondeley-Pennell’s description, slightly longer to 2x the hook gape.

The fly can be tied in the colors he preferred: brown, green, and yellow. Per the illustrations by both H. Cholmondeley-Pennell and Charles Orvis, the tail, body, and hackle on these are the named color. There is no rib in the illustrations.

https://flyvault.net/wp-content/uploads/formidable/13/brown-pennell-150×150.jpg, https://flyvault.net/wp-content/uploads/formidable/13/green-pennell-150×150.jpg, https://flyvault.net/wp-content/uploads/formidable/13/yellow-pennell-150×150.jpg