The judging of the 2024 Sowbug Roundup fly tying contest has been completed and I had the great fortune of winning THREE more fly tying awards: Best Dry Fly, Best Traditional Wet Fly, and Best Tenkara Fly. All of the winning flies were mounting in a nice frame and the end result looks like this.
The full details of all the contest entries I submitted can be viewed here.
Best Dry Fly
The “Best Dry Fly” award went to my entry called the Hornberg. This is an old dry fly pattern (it could also be fished as a streamer) which was originally tied by Frank Hornberg of Wisconsin in the 1920’s. I think the ornate wings made of long mallard flank feathers and jungle cock eyes were what caught the attention of the judges.
Best Traditional Wet Fly
The “BestTraditional Wet Fly” award went to my classic wet fly entry, the Claret Bumble. This is a very old English wet fly that apparently dates back to the 1500’s. Yes, that’s an old fly pattern! It took me a while to find the right color of claret dubbing to build the body and apparently the judges thought so too. The blue-dyed guinea feather hackle at the front didn’t hurt either. It made the fly look impressive even to me.
Best Tenkara Fly
The “Best Tenkara Fly” award went to my tenkara kebari entry the Quilled Body Sakasa. Tenkara is a style of fly fishing that originated in Japan. In addition, a Sakasa style of fly means that the hackles are facing forward which is the reverse of the way a fly like this would be tied otherwise. Let me be the first to say that I am not at all experienced in this style of fishing but the fly was fun to tie. I suspect it was a winner due to the low amount of fly entries in this category.
Presentation of Awards
The fly tying awards were presented at a banquet called The Sowbug Shindig. Here I am pictured with my award plaque.
Darrell: Nice tying and congrats on award, and past ones.Just spotted this post many months after your award. Love the Hornberg fly. It pulled many fish up for me in upstae NY/ Adirondacks. Also like your tie on that traditional wet fly. Nice tying.
Bob
Thanks for the kind words, Bob. I really appreciate it. I take some time picking new and interesting patterns for these contests. The Hornberg was one that I had never heard of but definitely looked impressive. I had never tied a Bumble before either and it turned out well too.
I used to fish Hornbergs a lot…..one of my “go-to” streamers for New England stream fishing. Nice looking flies!
Thanks, Ted and that’s very interesting. I had never heard of the Hornberg until I found it and tied it for this contest.
Congrats, see you Sunday!