Here's the judge's verdicts then, a few thoughts on their choices, and their 'Judges Pick'....
Wee Jimmy
1st. No. 35
Caught my eye right from the off, its got the X-Factor....that rare combination of realism and inherant life. I'm sure the shrimp feeders at Grafham will approve.
2nd. No. 9
Lovely combination of colour and something to stand out from the crowd during a hatch of buzzers. Fish catcher written all over it.
3rd. No. 4
More of a general purpose fly than the first two, and beautifully put together. The body colour the tyer has used let it down for me, but as a template, it really has a look about it.
4th. No. 39
I'm not usually a fan of ultra realistic patterns of this type .They are too 'dead' for my tastes but this one captures the grace and elegance of the real thing in a nice way and I could see myself tying it on if my usual scruffy things are not working.
'Jim's Pick'
A toss up between 21 and 53 with
No. 53 just shading it. For no better reason than thinking they could both have been picked out of my own flybox.
George Barron
I've based my choices on the patterns seeming to be close to something life-like first and technical imagination second. Some great ideas in the 55 to play around with in the future....congratulations to all that spent the time at the vice.....well organised fun comp, in a good cause.
1st. No. 47
I like the general shape here, not too bold or over-dressed but looks full of life. For me the profile is spot-on and I could also see it tied up in in claret or black. Excellent tying, and it actually looks like it would catch trout.
2nd. No. 18
A very close second this one, really was a toss-up. Colours are all that I personally like to use on the major still-waters. I'd fish this one with total confidence. Think it only lost out because it's maybe just a wee bit too much bulk for a quiet day on the nymphs.
3rd. No. 9
Excellent! Again I like the shape and profile on this one but again perhaps because it's the body colour I'm not sure !!! Maybe red rib on black would have swung it for me on this one, more duckfly-ish. Very tidy tying though.
4th. No. 55
Just crept in this one. I'd rather see them under-dressed than over-dressed, so for that reason alone, yes. Very basic, but I'm sure it would get you a tug on a hard day.
'George's Pick'
No. 41. Surprised this one didn't make the top ten. It's a similar profile to a couple in my top four. Once again, maybe if the body colour was black with white ribbing !!! Who know's. Nice proportions though.
Midlander
Firstly let me say very well done to everyone who entered, from the word go it was a really difficult choice for anyone who voted and an even harder choice for me as a judge to pick a top four from the resultant top ten.
However, choices must be made and in line with a) it being a competition for
nymphs and b) picking those that I, as a judge, would be most comfortable fishing with, I've made the following choices...
1st. Fly No. 55
Very simple but the dressing, as it stands, would catch pretty much anywhere in the UK, river or stillwater. It may not be my first choice on a given day but it undoubtedly has is place in the 'general and suggestive' nymph box.
2nd. Fly No. 4
A technically excellent dressing, the main point of which is the stewart-ish style hackle. I really like it and have used something very similar to great effect over the years. My main beef with this, and the reason it didn't get first place is the orange thorax. To me, this fly says olive and as such, I'd prefer a medium olive/fiery brown mixed thorax. Finicky I know, but there we go.
3rd. Fly No. 47
An interesting one this and one that appears to have a bit of thought behind it. Is it a buzzer? Is it a sedge? Neither, I'll plump for a mix of the two making it a useful suggestive pattern covering multiple bases. It's got a nice bit of translucency going on there, shame about that Varivas hook, personally I'm not too keen on their hook profiles. I think the pattern would have been better presented on a Yorkshire Sedge style profile myself. A small difference but sometimes looks count, confidence wise.
4th. Fly No. 26
Undoubtedly the peoples choice and one which shows great technical ability. Personally though, it falls foul of the old close copy syndrome, all realism and no life. Happily this one has a good bit of hackle for movement which saves it for me.
To the other guys in the top ten, although your flies were great in respect to technical ability and/or pure fish pulling colour schemes they veered either toward 'close copy' lifelessness or emerger, which isn't, in my view, within the remit of the term 'nymph'. I feel a right heel for saying it but there we are, sorry.
'Alex's Pick'
Fly No. 27 There's nothing particularly new about this pattern, it's a cruncher. Nothing fancy, but it's colour scheme is a cast iron fish puller. I'd fish it 'as is', with perhaps a slightly sparser hackle, all through the season, but especially in the first three months, and expect to get some interest. Tie some up, it's a cert!
Also, a big well done to Rob for hosting the comp, rustling up prizes, taking all that time and effort to photograph 55 flies and for being cunning enough to get other people
to count the results.
Good job mate.
Dave Wiltshire
1st. Fly No. 18
Forget the stillwater applications that this fly seems to suggest, I can see this tied on a dropper and fished in the running stuff when the caddis are on the move. Nice curves, cleverly straggley thorax and all set off by the Jungle cheeks. Nice work!
2nd. Fly No. 47
Only just missing the top spot in my view, this is a really well devised pattern. Sparse tails and nice taper. Somewhere between a buzzer and an olive nymph. Suggests everything and nothing... this is my kind of fly.
3rd. Fly No. 26
Skillful tying producing a tasty looking pattern. The gill-work is impressive, as are the lines, and I wouldn't hesitate to give it a chuck in the winter in search of the ladies.
4th. Fly No. 50
I've never been a fan of semi-realistic flies: I can't use them for fear of landing them amongst the branches. But this is a good looking piece of tying showing some real skills and patience. Nice weaving too. It looks good enough to crawl away and I'm sure it'd catch some fish... I'd be checking I had my chain saw packed before tying this one on.
'Dave's Pick'
Fly No. 41 Simple and deadly! Nicely tied, perfect hackle, neat rib and perfect for the river and the lake. Perfect!
Toby Merigan
My choice of flies are based purely on what flies I would like to fish with and which ones I think would be the most affective for me. All the flies in the top ten are superbly tied and a credit to the people that tied them.
1st. Fly No. 18
A fly that has it all. Nicely tied and just screams EAT ME! Fish it sub-surface, or apply a little floatant and fish it as an emerging nymph.
2nd. Fly No. 47
Again a fly I would happily fish on stillwaters or on the river. Great translucency to the pattern and nice use of materials.
3rd. Fly No. 35
Again a fly that I would not hesitate to fish with. Great proportions and a real fish killer.
4th. Fly No. 39
The profile on this fly looks great, and although I would like to see how the fly swims in the water, I can still see it catching lots of fish. Great use of materials.
'Toby's Pick'
Fly No. 3 As a fishing fly on rivers this ticks all the boxes. Subtle flash and movement make this a sure winner.
Scratch
I'm not sure whether opening the envelopes, seeing and feeling the flies, photographing them and posting them on here, thereby forming a relationship with them all made it easier or more difficult to 'judge' them. A bit of a double edged sword, that one. I guess if everyone had the chance to see all the flies in the flesh, and handle them, then one or two voting choices might have been different. I'm privileged then in that respect.... I knew there was a reason to include myself as a judge! Anyway.......
1st. No. 4
Wild horses couldn't drag me out fishing in January, but this gem made me think about it! Beautifully proportioned, expertly executed and tantalisingly vague and suggestive. It's so much more than the sum of its few parts; that's the way I like my flies. It simply screams 'tie me onto your leader...NOW!' As you can tell.. I like it, a lot. Like Alex, it's not the colour scheme that I would have gone for, but then again, if somebody wants to give me an Aston Martin... I ain't gonna ask 'what colour?'
2nd. Fly No. 35
If Carlsberg made shrimp patterns... Devilishly well thought out and executed. As Jim says, imitative but lively. A fairly technical tying, but one with plenty of life and soul about it. Again, it begs to be given a cast or 20. A real 'Killer' shrimp.
3rd. Fly No. 47
The Shrimp just pipped this one to second place only because I'd probably use the shrimp pattern more often. I just can't see fish, any fish - river or still, thinking too long or hard about nailing this lovely little morsel. Love the translucency, the colour, and that nice little touch with the JC encased in varnish seals the deal for sex-appeal.
4th. Fly No. 55
This one will get you a fish any day, any month, anywhere. Sparse and vague. Job done. You could do an awful lot worse than knocking yourself up a couple of dozen of this sort of thing. Unfortunately, it was never gonna run away with the big points from me, but that's only because I've got a couple of fly boxes full of this kind of thing... for good reason. Simple but deadly.
Rob's Pick
Fly No. 28 would probably have been my second or third place choice, had it made it through to the top 10. Loads of bases covered here - shrimp, sedge, hoglouse, corixa to name a few. The fly simply bristles with life too. It has, as they say, 'the look'. If you want a quiet day on the water and want to keep a dry net, then don't fish one of these!
..........
Many thanks to our judges - Alex, Jim, Toby, George and Dave. Great stuff lads, thanks for taking the time to furnish us all with your thoughts.
I'm sure their words of wisdom echoed many of your thoughts, but perhaps more imortantly, maybe educated a few of the less experienced anglers and tyers out there as to what an old hand is looking for. I hope though, that each and every one of you got something out of it; I know I did.
So, without further ado, as they say....................
In 4th place with a total of 9 judge's points...
Fly No. 4 'Wet Peacock' by Peter Duri
Wet Peacock
Hook: Tiemco 900BL #12
Thread: UTC 140 Olive
Tail: Coq De Lyon Badger - Medium Ginger
Body: 2-3 Peacock herl - Dark Wheat
Rib 1: Stripped Peacock herl - Celery Green
Rib 2: Two wires together - Gold and Olive
Thorax: 2 Peacock herl - Orange
Thorax Hackles: Two hen hackles tied in together -
1 Herbert Miner unique Variant, and 1 Herbert Miner Grizzle.
"I hope Rob, you understand my english
This fly is very good for lake and river too. If you will be tying this fly with thicker body, will imitate the caddis flies. This fly you can also be tying with bead head. You can also combine different colors (black, red... stripped peacock herl), or tying without hackles."
Peter, we understand your English just fine, thank you. We understand the language of your fly tying even better!
........
In 3rd place also with a total of 9 judge's points is...
Fly No. 35 'Rogue Shrimp' by Midlander
Alex pipped Peter to third spot by virtue of a significantly higher score in the 'Public Vote'.
Rogue Shrimp
Hook: Hayabusa 384, 10-12.
Thread: UNI-Thread, tan, 8/0.
Antennae: Cock pheasant tail fibres.
Shell Back: Flexi-Body,'mayfly cream', barred with Letraset 0225,'cocoa'.
Eyes: 15lb nylon, burnt.
Legs: Brown, grey and grey dyed sage partridge in a dubbing rope (Sheer 14/0, tan).
Body: Seals fur, sage.
Rib: 4lb Nylon dyed brown.
Throat: Cock partridge hackle tip.
Alex says: Pretty much a work in progress derived from the Ollie Edwards pattern. It started out as a killer shrimp pattern but has ended up a bit more like a standard gammarus. I think the body colour would be better served with the addition of a bit of buff hares mask. The legs at the tail end might be better with something slightly heavier such as partridge tail and the mid section with just standard grey partridge or even sparse light coloured cdc. I'm not used to this feathers in a dubbing rope lark.
It was dressed on the lighter Hayabusa grub hook and no underbody weight has been added as I wanted something that would fish on any density of line to cover virtually any depth from surface washing line to Di5. We'll see how, or maybe mk2 or mk3 it fishes this coming season.
........
Your runner-up with a total of 11 judge's points is...
Fly No. 18 by 'Pete'
Underbody: Med Olive Seals fur
Rib: Ollive Turkey biot
Thorax: Mix of olive seals fur & peacock lite brite
Hackle: Hot olive Badger
Legs: Knotted Olive PT fibres
Cheeks: JC splits.
Pete says: "As the nymph competition was not going to be judged on technical merit I decided to try and tie something with good fish catching potential rather than pleasing to the eye.
I combined a few materials, colours and features that I thought would work well together and ultimately temp a few troots. A nice raked out seals fur under body to trap air, a thick contrasting rib giving the suggestion of a segmented body and I nice big hackle up front to give it some movement through the water.
For me confidence is a big part of fishing and I would feel quite confident fishing this through all levels of the water to different methods, even static or twitched back across the top."
........
Which brings us at long last to.....
Your winner, and complete and utter 'Nymph-o-maniac'
with a total of 14 judge's points is.....
Fly No. 47 - The 'GPO' by North Country Angler
Picked by five of the six judges! - 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd.
GPO (general purpose olive)
Hook: Varivas 2200 #12,14
Thread: Spiderweb
Tails: Woodchuck
Underbody: olive Hends body quill
Body: strip of clear flexibody
Thorax: blend of sow bug and SLF dubbing
Thorax cover: strip of packaging foam coloured with olive permanent marker
Cheeks: JC splits
Head and thorax area given 3 coats of HAN
Matt says: "What started life as a river pattern (a broadly baetid imitation), veered towards stillwater bias and finally ended up somewhere in between. The pattern has more of a river feel to it and I'm sure it will work as part of an unstream nymph set up. But by tying it on a curved hook, making the profile a bit shorter and squatter, and introducing the JC splits as a trigger, I'm hoping it will come in useful on a long leader stillwater nymph cast."
..........
Matt, I'm sure there will be plenty of folk along soon, eager to congratulate you themselves. However, in my capacity as chief busy-body and on behalf of the forum members, many many hearty congratulations on a thoroughly deserved 'win'. I know you won't see it as that, but nevertheless, nice work! In the meantime...... Speeeeeeech!
Congratulations, and very well tied indeed to the all the prizewinners. Thanks again to all who supported our comp by entering - you all made it happen.
Don't forget guys n gals... All the nymphs entered into the comp, plus a few Brucie Bonuses, will be auctioned off on this site very soon. That's two of each Nymph plus some extras..... 100+ flies, all proceeds to 'Sri Lanka Child Care'
Update: Action Now Running.
Here's a link to the pictures of the 55 original entries,
for your reference.
I'll attach the names of the tyers as soon as poss.
Well that's enough from me....untill 2013
and if I never see a ****ing nymph again, it'll be too soon! Only kidding chaps, t'was a real pleasure.
Tata the noo
Rob.
'The Nymph' - The Result
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