I have added more colors of Jamieson’s wool yarn to my inventory. You can quickly jump to all the wool yarns I have available in the Fly Tying Materials section of my online store.
Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift – New Colors
I have added these colors of Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift super fine yarn to my store.
Scotch Broom
Paprika
Wren
Yellow Ochre
This is really great stuff for tying nymph bodies and also for some dry flies. The pictures below describe the new colors better than I could.
The judging for the 2023 Branson Expo Fly Tying Contest is complete and I am humbly able to report that I won three more fly tying awards – Best Wet Fly, Best Articulating Streamer, and Best In Show.
Best Wet Fly
The first award winner was my wet fly entry, the Pink Lady. This fly won the Best Wet Fly award. It is a “wet” variation of an old Catskills Style dry fly of the same name.
The body of this fly is wrapped with pink floss and ribbed with gold tinsel. The tail is made from a golden pheasant neck feather. The wings consist of slips from a pair of gray mallard wing feathers. They are delicate and it is not easy to get them tied onto the fly and still look decent. These wings look pretty good and were good enough to win an award, in my humble opinion.
2023 Branson Pink Lady
Best Articulating Streamer
The second award winner was my articulating streamer entry, the Big-Eyed Sempermouse. This fly won the Best Articulating Streamer award. An articulating streamer is a streamer pattern with one or more articulating joints in the middle which give a more realistic presentation in the water. This particular fly has one joint in it which was formed by connecting the rear hook to just the shank portion of the front hook with a nylon braid.
The body of this mouse fly pattern is made from several wraps of synthetic fur which was made by the Semperfli company, which contributes to the name of the fly. The tail is made from gray chenille and the head is made from 6mm thick foam. Oh, and it has big eyes.
2023 Branson Big Eyed Sempermouse
Best In Show
The third award went to my Dusty Miller. This fly won the Best In Show award. That’s quite an honor to know that I tied the overall best fly in the contest!
This fly pattern is a very complicated salmon fly and it is certainly a very “busy” looking fly. The list of materials for this one is so long that it is hard to fit on one of my fly tying cards. Needless to say it takes a good bit of time at the fly tying bench to complete – a couple of hours at least for each one.
This one also happens to be a repeat winner, so to speak, because it also won the Best In Show award earlier this year at the Sowbug Roundup.
2023 Branson Dusty Miller
The Upcoming Expo
I will be attending the Branson Fly Fishing Expo on Thursday, July 27th where I will be demonstrating a few fly tying techniques to anyone who would like to see them.
Another day, another fly tying contest. It kind of seems that way anyway. Preparing an entry for each contest division, and tying two flies each definitely takes some time and planning. This time it is for the Branson Fly Fishing Expo to be held July 27-29 in Branson Missouri. Branson is really a fun place to visit in the summer. There are a lot of things to see and do.
If you’ve read some of my past blog posts, you would know that I really enjoy fly tying contests. As I did earlier this year, I decided to enter every single category in the contest. I really enjoy going out and finding new fly patterns that I had never tied before in order to complete my lineup.
The entries were due on June 1st. The judging should be completed by July 1st.
2023 Branson Expo Contest Entries
Here are my entries for this year’s fly tying contest.
#
Category
Fly Pattern
Reason For Entering
1
Nymph
Realistic Mayfly
A good-looking, moderately difficult mayfly nymph pattern and one I had never tied before. Great legs!
2
Dry Fly
Regan’s Mayfly Spinner
A very impressive-looking dry fly pattern and one I had tied only once before.
3
Wet Fly
Pink Lady
This is one of the nicest looking wet flies in my “Classic Wet Fly Collection”.
4
Traditional Streamer
Dahlberg Diver
An absolutely amazing looking fly and one I had only tied once before. It is indeed a large and awesome fly.
5
Articulating Streamer
Big Eyed Sempermouse
This is one of the only articulating fly patterns I am familiar with. It turned out okay this time.
6
Bass Bug
Braided Blue Damselfly
I love how this one looks when it is completed. The “damsel blue” color is eye-catching.
7
Salmon/Steelhead
Logie
I entered a smaller salmon fly pattern for this category and saved the big one for category #9.
8
Saltwater
Lefty’s Deceiver
I entered this one before but wasn’t happy with it. This year’s entry is better. The red bucktail looks amazing!
9
Best In Show
Dusty Miller
This fly won a Best In Show award earlier this year. For this contest it is a category so I tied and entered it..
The Lineup for 2023
The lineup is a little hard to follow because of the size of some of these flies but it goes in “top down, left to right” order with three flies in each column.
The judging of the 2023 Sowbug Roundup fly tying contest has been completed and I had the fortune of winning THREE fly tying awards: Best In Show, Best Warm Water Fly, and Best Wet Fly. All of the winning flies were mounting in a really nice frame and the end result looks like this.
2023 Sowbug Award Winners
Best In Show
At the top of the frame is my salmon/steelhead fly entry, the Dusty Miller. It is a very old and fairly ornate salmon fly of European origin. This fly was given the “Tom Schmuecker Best In Show” award, being voted the top fly in the entire contest. This year is the first year that the award became named for Tom Schmuecker, the president of Wapsi – a fly tying material company located in Mountain Home, AR. Unfortunately, Tom passed away a few weeks before the contest but his son Joe was able to attend the banquet and present the award. Very sad.
2023 Sowbug Best In Show
Best Warm Water Fly
At the bottom center of the frame is my warm water fly entry, the Dahlberg Diver. This fly won the Best Warm Water Fly award. It’s a fairly large fly, being just over 6 inches long, so I think that’s what got the attention of the judges. The head of the fly was made with tied/packed/trimmed deer hair of three different colors and the tail contains some really nice looking grizzly dyed saddle hackles.
2023 Sowbug Warm Water Fly
Best Wet Fly
In the top row of the frame just to the right of center is my wet fly entry, the McGinty. This fly won the Best Wet Fly award. It was invented many years ago by someone named McGinty. The body of the fly is wrapped with alternating strands of yellow and black chenille, making it resemble a bumble bee. The wings consist of feathers taken from the iridescent blue/white patches on a pair of mallard wings. They are quite delicate and it is not easy to get them tied onto the fly and still look decent. These wings look okay (not great) but they were still good enough to win an award.
2023 Sowbug Wet Fly
Presentation of Awards
The fly tying awards were presented at a banquet called The Sowbug Shindig. Here I am pictured with John Berry, a fishing guide in the Mountain Home area, who was one of the judges for the contest.
Sowbug Roundup is a three day fly tying and fly fishing show that is held in Mountain Home, Arkansas. The next event will be held Mar 23rd, 24th, and 25th, 2023.
As I have mentioned earlier, I will be a fly tying demonstrator at this year’s Roundup. The difference between this year and earlier years though, is that I have a plan! I prepared some presentation boards that show the topics and the flies I will be demonstrating. It really helps me when I plan ahead.
Day 1 – Tying Materials: Natural vs. Synthetic
On Day 1, I will be tying very similar flies, side-by-side, with one version containing mainly natural materials and one with mainly synthetic materials. There are no right or wrong tying materials but I will be highlighting the differences. The board below highlights those differences.
2023 Sowbug Expo Day 1
Day 2 – Winging Dry Flies
I commonly use five different methods of tying wings on dry flies. On Day 2, I will be demonstrating those methods. Some are old and some are new, some are easier than others, but they all produce a different look. The board below highlights the five methods I use.
2023 Sowbug Expo Day 2
Day 3 – Body Styles
I will only be demonstrating fly tying in the afternoon on the third day so the plan is pretty limited. Also, if you’ve been at Sowbug on Saturday afternoon the crowd clears out pretty quickly. I think everyone is just anxious to get their traveling underway.
Because of the limited time, I don’t have a presentation board prepared for Day 3 but I will be tying flies with two different body styles: Trimmed and Woven.
Trimmed
For the trimmed body style, I will be tying flies that are mainly constructed with deer hair that is trimmed to a shape that really makes the fly.
Muddler Minnow
Dahlberg Diver
Woven
My “go to” woven fly is called a Polish Nymph. This fly is tied by weaving two different colors of floss, one on the top and one on the bottom, and creates a really realistic-looking caddis larva. The technique used is called a Shuttle Weave (I think!). One strand of floss is held in each hand and they are crossed over without ever letting go of them. It’s really amazing to watch.
Polish Nymph created by Vladi Trzebunia, the 1989 Polish Gold Medalist
Sowbug Roundup is a three day fly tying and fly fishing show that is held in Mountain Home, Arkansas. The next event will be held Mar 23rd, 24th, and 25th, 2023.
I will be a fly tying demonstrator at this year’s Roundup. Part of the duties of a demonstrator is to donate three flies for the auction. The flies will be put into a framed collage and sold at the Fly Tyer’s Dinner on March 24th.
For my auction flies, I have chosen three flies from Mary Orvis Marbury’s magnificent 1892 book Favorite Flies and Their Histories. It’s a revolutionary book for its time and one I refer to often.
One of my flies is from the Lake Fly section, one is from the Trout Fly section, and one is from the Bass Fly section. Here are my flies as well as the images from the book where they came from.
No. 40 Royal Coachman (Lake Fly)
No. 40 Royal Coachman
40 Royal Coachman – Created by John Haily of New York City, a professional fly-dresser, in 1878
No. 143 Grizzly King (Trout Fly)
No. 143 Grizzly King
143 Grizzly King – A variation of John & James Wilson’s “Professor” wet fly
No. 273 Mather (Bass Fly)
No. 273 Mather
273 Mather – Created by C. F. Orvis; named by A. N. Cheney in compliment to his friend, Mr. Fred Mather
Sowbug Roundup is a three day fly tying and fly fishing show that is held in Mountain Home, Arkansas. The next event will be held Mar 23rd, 24th, and 25th, 2023. This is the 26th year that the North Arkansas Fly Fishers (NAFF) have put on the Sowbug Roundup. The first Sowbug had 20 tyers and 150 attendees. The 2019 Sowbug had over 140 fly tiers and over 1000 attendees. The official name is actually the International Sowbug Roundup, a Celebration of Fly Fishing. You can read about event on their official webpage by clicking here.
Part of the Roundup is a fly tying contest. Your entries were due last Friday, February 10th. An announcement with the rules of the contest can be found here.
If you’ve read some of my past blog posts, you would know that I really enjoy fly tying contests. As I did last year, I again decided to enter every single category in the contest – except for the Youth Category of course. I really enjoy going out and finding new fly patterns that I had never tied before in order to complete my lineup.
2023 Sowbug Roundup Contest Entries
Here are my entries for this year’s fly tying contest.
#
Category
Fly Pattern
Reason For Entering
1
Nymph
Atomic Stone
A good-looking, moderately difficult stonefly nymph pattern and one I had never tied before.
2
Dry Fly
Regan’s Mayfly Spinner
A very impressive-looking dry fly pattern and one I had never tied before.
3
Wet Fly
McGinty
A fairly easy fly to tie but very difficult to get it to look right. I don’t think I did very well this time.
4
Warm Water
Dahlberg Diver
An absolutely amazing looking fly and one I had never even thought about tying before. On a size 2/0 hook, it’s HUGE!
5
Smallmouth Bass
Gartside Gurgler
This is a classic bass fly pattern that I had never tied before. I think they turned out like they are supposed to.
6
Bass
Muddler Minnow
I have tied this one before but have never really had it turn out well. I think this pair did though.
7
Streamer
Barr’s Meat Whistle
The name alone convinced me to enter this one. It’s a new pattern for me.
8
Saltwater
Lefty’s Deceiver
I entered this one last year but wasn’t very happy with how it turned out. This year’s entry is much better.
9
Salmon/Steelhead
Dusty Miller
This pattern is similar to the one I entered last year, which actually won an award. Unfortunately, this year’s entry isn’t as good.
10
Tenkara
Grave Digger
The name alone convinced me to enter this one. I guess the colors resemble a famous monster truck of that name.
The Lineup for 2023
The winners of the contest will be announced on Friday March 24, 2023 at the Sowbug Roundup Shindig which will be held at St. Peter the Fisherman Catholic Church in Mountain Home, AR.
I’ve expanded my wool yarn product line a little and here are the updates. You can find all the wool yarns I now have available in the Fly Tying Materials section of my online store.
Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift
I added three more colors of Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift super fine yarn. In addition to Oyster, Salmon, Heron and Ivy from my original post, I now have Burnt Umber, Leprechaun, and Purple Haze. The first two came from the wonderful recommendation from a reader. The last one I picked because it’s called for in a Tenkara kebari pattern called the “Grave Digger”. The name of the fly alone sold me on that one!
I’ve been on a quest to find a suitable replacement yarn for Frank Sawyer’s infamous “Killer Bug” fly pattern, since they quit making Chadwick’s #477 back in the 1960’s. Even the black market for that one is running out.
I recently came across a thread on the Classic Fly Rod Forum of someone else’s quest on the same topic. (Apparently I’m not the only one looking!) There are several great photos that compare the different types of yarn the author tried and in the end he recommended “Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine” yarn in the color “#1214 Steel Cut Oats”. It looked really promising until I went looking for UAF-1214 and … that color has been discontinued! Ugh.
Berroco Ultra Alpaca
I did see though, that Berroco Ultra Alpaca (not the “Fine” type though) yarn was available in that color so I went ahead and ordered a skein of UA-6214. It’s a medium yarn and has a different blend of materials but perhaps its fairly close to the color of UAF-1214.
Pictured below is that Berroco Steel Cut Oats yarn on the left and what I had ordered previously, Patons Classic Natural Mix, on the right.
It’s been said that the yarn color for the Killer Bug should resemble rare meat red and the Berroco definitely has a little more of a pinkish hue to it so that one might work out better.
There are a few other substitute yarns mentioned in the thread, one of which is Jamieson’s #195 Moorland, but that one seems too dark and doesn’t have the pinkish hue. Too bad because Jamieson’s yarn is thinner and a little easier to tie with.
