Judging

Jesse Riding

Every year hundreds of new patterns cross the desk of Jesse Riding, Rainy’s warehouse and purchasing manager. In addition to working directly with new and existing innovators, Jesse finds time to develop his own patterns (with more than 50 under his belt). Jesse is going to give us years of experience evaluating new patterns and will work directly with the winners to make sure their patterns are spot on for production.

Bob Story

That’s Bob. Owner of Feather-Craft. Along with putting together our 100 page catalog, Bob gets to wade through thousands of fly patterns each year to construct what we think is a pretty darn good selection of flies. That and being in this industry for his entire life, he has seen it all. The good the bad and the ugly when it comes to flies. His input will help us pick winning patterns that our customers will love.

Mike Allison

Mike Allison is one of our favorite manufacturer reps. In addition to Rainy’s, he reps for many top notch companies in the industry. He knows his way around the vise too having a handful of patterns in production himself. Since Mike works everyday with shops employees and owners, he has a pulse of what shops are looking for and what is selling well- all of which will help in choosing winning patterns.

Judges will be looking at five key points when choosing a winner(s).

• Materials: We need to be able to source ALL of your materials if your pattern is going to be tied in production.

It needs to be easy to access too. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to tie a pattern that is tied on a discontinued hook or a tying material that is impossible to find (fly fishing magazines take note). And while using a rare feather from a personal collection may look cool, it won’t get your fly a serious look.

Here’s a good test. Go to Google and type in the name of the material. If you can’t find a fly shop that is carrying the material, it isn’t that easy to find. Now if you are using something like a plastic baggie for a scud back, that’s fine. Just no commercial grade carpet fibers you snagged from work.

• Getting it wet: Looks good dry, but does it look good when it counts? All flies that make it to the end are observed underwater for actual colors and action.
• Competition: Are there like flies readily available? If there is a large supply of a similar looking or kinds of flies, there will not be the demand to make it worth taking it to production.
• The People: We are making all patterns available with material lists because we want people to tie them and to use them. We will be doing the same as much as we can, but there are strengths in numbers. If you tie a pattern that you found here and it works, post a comment, we want to know!

The more positive comments and ratings a pattern gets will get your patterns noticed by the judges. Got a few buddies that have used the pattern? Have them post their successes.

• Original Design: We know that a lot of flies these days are variations of existing patterns. There is nothing wrong with improving on an existing fly. That happens every day, in every industry worldwide. Just make sure you are improving it and giving it your original touch.While using Velvet Chenille instead of Ultra Chenille for a San Juan may be effective, it isn’t what we’re looking for.

Contest winner(s) will be announced within the first two weeks of January 2012. 

All patterns submitted before November 1, 2011 will be entered into the 2011 Fly Tying contest.  All patterns submitted November 1 or later will be entered into the 2012 Fly Tying Contest.  Also, all patterns that are not chosen for this years contest will automatically be considered for the 2012 contest.