There’s a website out there called FeedSpot and it aims to rank the Top 40 Fly Tying blog websites. Part of their mission is to get subscribers to join the club and more actively promote their blog sites. As of yet, I have not done that.
Here is what the FeedSpot Top 40 page looks like. It’s a very nicely laid out page with the rankings and a little information about each blog.
FeedSpot Top 40 Heading
And here I am at #6!
FeedSpot #6
My blog has moved up and down in the ranking a little, probably dependent on how often I post a blog entry and how useful the information really is. I started out somewhere in the high 20’s but #6 is definitely the highest rank I’ve obtained.
Take a look at FeedSpot and let me know what you think.
I finally put together a page that logs all my fly tying awards. It’s a little longer than I was thinking (NINETEEN awards) but you can view the page here: Fly Tying Awards. The link also shows up at the top of my home page.
A preliminary part of the Sowbug Roundup was yet another Fly Tying Contest. I had plenty of time to prepare for it this time so I entered every category. You can see all of my entries at a previous post located here.
After spending a considerable amount of time tying the flies … I won another award! It was the Best Soft Hackle. Here is my winning entry:
Best Soft Hackle – Violet Mendori Jun
The award winner for the Best Soft Hackle was a fly called Violet Mendori Jun. This is actually a Tenkara style fly but I guess it was good enough to win the Soft Hackle category.
The fly is actually quite simple but I guess most soft hackle flies are. Besides the hook, the material list includes a violet thread abdomen, a silver wire rib, a gray ostrich herl thorax, and a hen hackle feather dyed dark claret.
2025 Sowbug Best Soft Hackle
I was quite impressed with all the other winners . They were indeed worthy of their respective awards!
Sowbug Roundup is a three day fly tying and fly fishing show that is held in Mountain Home, AR. The event will be held Mar 27th, 28th, and 29th. As I have done so in previous years, I will be a fly tying demonstrator again this year.
The theme for this year’s expo is Euro Nymphing, and I like to plan my demonstrations around the theme of the event. To make things run smoothly for me, I have put together a plan, so I have prepared some fly tying cards that show the flies I will be demonstrating. It really helps me when I plan ahead!
Day 1 – Perdigon Nymphs
On Day 1, I will be tying Perdigon Nymph. The word perdigon comes from the Spanish word perdigonnes which means pellet in English. The idea is to have a fly that sinks very quickly like a lead pellet. Thus perdigon nymphs are constructed with oversized heavy beads and very smooth bodies so there is very little resistance to sinking quickly in the water column.
The Perdigon Nymphs I will be demonstrating are as follows:
Blue Flash Perdigon
Body Quill Perdigon
Butano Perdigon
Gasolina Perdigon
March Brown Perdigon
Micro Glint Perdigon – Peacock
Peacock Perdigon
Peacock Flash Perdigon
Rainbow Warrior Perdigon
Spanish Bullet
On some devices, you can scroll through the Perdigon Nymph Fly Tying Cards I have prepared here:
Day 2 – Euro Nymphs
On Day 2, I will be tying Euro Nymphs. These nymphs are part of a more general style of European nymphs. They are usually a little larger and somewhat more developed that Perdigon Nymphs .
The Euro Nymphs I will be demonstrating are as follows:
Euro Stonefly – Golden Stone
Euro Stonefly – Little Black
Higa’s SOS – Black
Higa’s SOS – Olive
Holographic Frenchie
McKenna’s Rumble Bug
Mohawk Pheasant Tail – Green
Mohawk Pheasant Tail – Red
McKenna’s Sexy Walt’s
Sexy Walt’s – Chartreuse
Sexy Walt’s – Pink
On some devices, you can scroll through the Euro Nymph Fly Tying Cards I have prepared here:
Day 3 – Euro Dry Flies
On Day 3 I will be tying Euro Dry Flies. These are simply dry flies with enough natural flotation to support a Euro Nymph and/or a Perdigon Nymph below it. The nymphs would be tied off the hook bend of the dry fly using a foot or two of tippet.
The Euro Dry Flies I will be demonstrating are as follows:
Corn-Fed Caddis
Front-End Loader Caddis
Improved X-Caddis – Olive
Stimulator – Yellow/Red
Humpy – Yellow
On some devices, you can scroll through the Euro Dry Fly Tying Cards I have prepared here:
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 27th, 28th, and 29th of 2025.
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 Friday, March 28th.
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 of the book. Here are the flies I have chosen:
2025 Sowbug Auction Flies
And here are the original images from the book where they came from:
No. 64 Lord Baltimore (Lake Fly)
64 Lord Baltimore – Created by Professor Mayer of SIT in Hoboken New Jersey in the 1800s
No. 116 Orange Coachman (Trout Fly)
116 Orange Coachman – The original Coachman was created in England in the 1800s and named for the lord’s coach driver who invented it
No. 273 Mather (Bass Fly)
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 at the Baxter County Fairgrounds in Mountain Home, Arkansas. The next event will be held Mar 27th, 28th, and 29th, 2025. This is the 28th 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 more about event on their official webpage by clicking here.
Part of the Roundup is a fly tying contest. Your entries were due Friday, February 7th. 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 all twelve categories 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.
2025 Sowbug Contest Entries
Here are my entries for this year’s fly tying contest.
#
Category
Fly Pattern
Reason/Rationale For Entering
1
Nymph
Gilled Baetis Nymph
A very realistic-looking nymph baetis pattern and one that I had never tied before. I like the nymph skin on the top of the abdomen and thorax.
2
Dry Fly
Royal Coachman
The most popular dry fly pattern in existence. It’s a classic.
3
Soft Hackle
Endrick Spider
A Scottish wet fly named for the River Endrick. A spider is a simple soft hackle pattern and this one is primarily tied with pheasant tail fibers and a partridge feather.
4
Wet Fly
Red Arsed Green Peter
A Scottish loch-style wet fly which is a little complicated to tie. I wasn’t all that happy with how this one turned out.
5
Smallmouth Bass
Ol’ Mr. Wiggly
This is a foam-bodied bass fly with a lot of wiggle to it. I think this one tuned out the best of all twelve of my entries.
6
Bass
Whitlock’s Waking Minnow
There’s a lot of deer hair in this pattern created by the late Dave Whitlock of Oklahoma.
7
Warm Water
CJ’s Freaky Frog
An eye-catching foam frog fly pattern that looks very realistic. CJ are the initials of the Ozark-local fly tyer who first tied it.
8
Salmon/Steelhead
Dun Wing
A nice salmon fly pattern from Mary Orvis Marbury’s book “Favorite Flies and Their Histories”.
9
Saltwater
Ally’s Shrimp
This is the most popular and famous saltwater shrimp pattern around. It was created by Alastair Gowans.
10
Streamer
Gray Ghost
A streamer pattern developed by Carrie G. Stevens of Maine in 1924. She developed many of the extra-long streamer patterns. This one is tied on a 9X-long hook.
11
Tenkara
Violet Mendori Jun
This is a nice Tenkara-style fly but with swept-back hackle instead of the more popular swept-forward. The key to tying this fly is having claret-dyed hackle.
12
Euro Nymph
McKenna’s Rumble Bug
This is one of my top five Euro nymph patterns. I fish this one regularly and with good success.
The Lineup for 2025
The winners of the contest will be announced on Friday March 28, 2025 at the Sowbug Roundup Shindig which will be held at St. Peter the Fisherman Catholic Church in Mountain Home, AR.
If you’re into wild turkey hunting then this is something you won’t want to miss. The NWTF Convention & Sport Show is sponsored by the National Wild Turkey Federation and will be held in Nashville, TN on February 12-16, 2025.
I’m not too much of a turkey hunter but I have gotten involved with this in a different way. I was contacted by the SD & ND Regional Director of the NWTF to donate some flies for their Black Hills Cast & Blast package. The package is a fully supplied trip to South Dakota’s Black Hills for both trout fishing and turkey hunting. You can bid on the package at the convention this week during the auction.
There are many items included in the package, such as lodging, guide service, fly rods, coolers … and of course … my tiny part: TROUT FLIES. The photo below is what I donated to the package:
2024-25 National Wild Turkey Federation Fly Donation
So if you are the successful bidder on the package, four dozen of my flies will be included with the trip. I have fished the Black Hills area a few times before so my fly collection includes several patterns that have been successful for me. The nymphs range in size from 12 to 18. These are the sizes I commonly fish with. The dry flies range from sizes 12 to 22, with each successive pattern being one hook size smaller. The first three patterns are mainly attractors and the last three target specific mayflies or midges.
Nymphs
Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear
Mohawk Pheasant Tail Nymph
Sexy Walt’s Worm
Gordon’s Fire Starter Nymph
Prince Nymph
Skinny Nelson
Dry Flies
Royal Coachman
Adams
Purple Haze Parachute
Blue-Winged Olive
Morgan’s Midge
RS2
I think the lucky winner(s) of this package will have great success with these flies!
A preliminary part of the Branson Expo was yet another Fly Tying Contest. For me it was a short turn-around bit because I found out about the contest about August 1st and the entries were due by August 15th. In addition (subtraction actually), that didn’t leave me much time for tying since there would be at least 3 days needed for shipping.
At any rate, I whipped up a few of my recent favorite flies and … lo and behold … I won three awards! They were Best Dry Fly, Best Wet Fly, and Best Bass Bug. Here were my winning entries:
Best Dry Fly – Hornberg
The award winner for the Best Dry Fly was a fly called the Hornberg. The pattern was developed by Frank Hornberg of Wisconsin in the 1920s.
Hornberg
Best Wet Fly – Claret Bumble
The award winner for the Best Wet Fly was a fly called the Claret Bumble. Bumble style flies date back to the 1500s in Derbyshire Ireland. A ‘Bumble’ is simply another description of a palmered fly where the body hackle is wrapped in open spirals.
Claret Bumble
Best Bass Bug – CJ’s Freaky Frog
The award winner for the Best Bass Bug went to a fly called CJ’s Freaky Frog. The pattern was developed by Chad Johnson of Dally’s Ozark Fly Fishers. It is a floating fly that is typically used when fishing for bass in water with Lilly pads. The wire weed guard between the front of the fly and the hook point help to keep it from snagging.
CJ’s Freaky Frog
I must admit that these three flies had won awards for me before but that was at a different contest and in a different state. However, my rule is not to win a repeat award with the same fly in the same contest so I’m good here. I will just not submit them again next for this contest time around.
The author prepares for the 2025 White River Fly Fishers Expo contest in Branson, MO, by tying entries in various categories. They enjoy the challenge of finding new patterns and have submitted a diverse lineup, including classic nymphs, dry flies, streamers, and a saltwater pattern, with entries due by August 15th.
