I have just been put in charge of the fun and games tying contests for our club picnic. We have had tying blind folded and tying with ski gloves in the past.
Other ideas I have in mind are - tying without a vise, tying left handed (except for lefties), and drawing colored pictures of lesser known or older patterns , ie., Professor, Queen of Waters, and Butcher.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Remember we’ll be outside at a picnic.
Thanks,
Jim cramer
Jim,
Here is what we do every year at the Smallmouth Rendezvous. Everyone gets and envelope with a hook and materials to tie one fly (no particular pattern). Everyone ties a fly using only the materials in the envelope and their own thread. We have a time limit on tying, usually 15 minutes, and then the flies are collected and judged. The envelopes are numbered so the judge doesn’t know who tied which flies. It is interesting to see what people come up with in these contests.
Steve
“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went”-Will Rogers
Jim,
Large quantities of Kentucky Bourbon come to mind. On the serious side, how about getting some shark hooks (8/0 to 14/0) and having your tyers dress those with an Adams. For the second round, some #28 to #32 might be fun. 8T 
You had better learn to be a happy camper. You only get one try at this campground and it’s a real short camping season.
Jim,
Perhaps a speed event. Provide maraboo, hackle, chenille and a hook and see who can tie a couple of wooly buggers the fastest. This can be done in heats, so that you have a bunch of little races. Perhaps groups of four, with the top two moving on to the next heat. Or it can be done based on time. I dont know how many participants you will have, but I am sure you can taylor it to your needs.
Sounds like a fun club.
Have fun, Jeff
and let us know what you end up doing.
Hi,
What about having people having to find all the material they use to tye the fly (apart from say hook and tying thread). So, if you need feathers, you have to find some that were naturally discarded, etc. Dandylion fluff could be used, and so on. That could produce some interesting flies and substitute materials!
[This message has been edited by JeffHamm (edited 20 June 2006).]
Jim,
How about this-Teams of two, 1st person can only handle the thread, the 2nd person can only handle the materials?
So the 1st person can only handle the thread and the 2nd person holds the material for the 1st person to tie with thread.
Puff
Fly fishing is to fishing as ballet is to walking.
Ban the bobbin
How about a progressive tie. Each tier completes one step and passes the fly on to the next person.
Fish more, work less!
Take a look at the “limited materials” swaps in the swap board here…the host gives a very short list of materials. The materials rarely work as-is for a complete pattern and some head scratching is needed to come up with a viable pattern.
It’s a great mental exercise and a very good challenge to convert that mismatched materials into something resembling a usable fly.
This is probably pretty much the same suggestion as biot midge’s envelope suggsetion above but it lets you see some existing swaps done along those lines as well as what sort of mismatched materials have been used (pics of the most recent limited materials swap are available online I think).
I saw a show on cable TV once where these Famous (so-called) chefs were in a contest. I think it was called “The Iron Chef”, or something similar. The Emcee told them what materials, they could use, and they had to come up with custom dishes, to be judged by the audience.
How about a similar contest with fly patterns. Limit them to a few materials and have them design a fly, to be judged by the on-lookers.
Semper Fi!