FTOTY 2nd Round Voting!!!

[kerusso 0]

Hats off and kudos to all who submitted flies. Those were truly beautiful. Took a long time to pick just one. You all did a fantastic job. Wow!!!

[the rod tosser 0]

tuff choses very tuff .

 

Do i vote artisticly or fishability . that realistic art fly would make a nice picture box .

[letumgo 0]

bump

[Wally Fandrich 0]

The flies are great and they all deserve to win, but I would have liked to see them broken down into categories like artistic, realistic, and fishable. This would put them on equal footing in a specific category. How do you compare a tradtional married wing salmon flie to a spun hair bass bug? While both beautiful in their own right the salmon fly probably took a hundred times as long to tie as the bass bug and would never see any water. Tough to compare the two;oOne's a show piece the other an actual working tool.

[Steeldrifter 0]

The flies are in seperate catagories in the first round. The flies you see in the 2nd round are the winners of their own seperate catagory....i.e Artistic winner, dry fly winner, bass bug winner, etc etc.....

 

What you are voteing on now in the 2nd round is the OVERALL winner for the tyer of the year. So what is being suggested doesnt make any sence. There is no way to have a overall tyer of the year unless you put all the catagory winners in one group and vote on them.

 

Are you guys understanding how this works?

[Alex C. 0]

I actually thought this one was easier than the first round. There's one fly that to me just blew the rest away.

 

I still think it would be cool if the FTOTY grand prize went to a tyer based on multiple flies they entered. That way it goes to someone who can tie more than just one style of fly well or got lucky on one fly.

[Steeldrifter 0]

With the level of skill by all participents in the FTOTY there is no chance of someone just getting "lucky" and winning. Baseing the overall winner on a number of flies will not work because then you may have someone that ties one of the most magnificent flies you have ever seen, yet they get beat out by someone that tied a few "real nice' flies but entered multiple flies. Not to mention the fact that there are some of these flies that guys spent 18-20 hrs tying. And some people dont have time to enter 3 or 4 flies that take that long to tie.

 

Point is this is the only fly tying contest of this magnitude on the internet and its FREE to enter. So everyone that enters has a vaild chance to win something as nice as a $700 Carlin hand made cane fly rod for FREE. So how about we show a little appreciation to Will for all his extreme amount of time, effort, software writing, as well as money out of his own pocket he has put into this contest for everyone and just enjoy the fact that we all are a part of this and a number of people will walk away with some great prizes.

[stony 0]

With the level of skill by all participents in the FTOTY there is no chance of someone just getting "lucky" and winning. Baseing the overall winner on a number of flies will not work because then you may have someone that ties one of the most magnificent flies you have ever seen, yet they get beat out by someone that tied a few "real nice' flies but entered multiple flies. Not to mention the fact that there are some of these flies that guys spent 18-20 hrs tying. And some people dont have time to enter 3 or 4 flies that take that long to tie.

 

Point is this is the only fly tying contest of this magnitude on the internet and its FREE to enter. So everyone that enters has a vaild chance to win something as nice as a $700 Carlin hand made cane fly rod for FREE. So how about we show a little appreciation to Will for all his extreme amount of time, effort, software writing, as well as money out of his own pocket he has put into this contest for everyone and just enjoy the fact that we all are a part of this and a number of people will walk away with some great prizes.

 

[steelie 0]

Good Day,

 

This is what makes this contest the most unique of its kind! Vote for what you believe is the best! No full time judges here... this is truly judged by ones contemporaries... vote for what you think best!

 

And smallie .... I think I see the truth of it... well done!

 

Can't wait till Tuesday... not to mention musical acts... hahahaha

 

Steelie

[Alex C. 0]

Maybe I should clarify what I meant by "get lucky" and what I mean by entering multiple flies.

 

I just think that since it's a Fly Tyer of the Year contest, that someone who is the fly tyer of the year should win. Not someone who was lucky enough that a majority of people thought a single fly they tied was the coolest. That is a fly of the year contest. There are guys who send in multiple flies that have a legitimate shot at winning and then there are other guys who enter a single fly with a chance of winning. Being a great fly tyer is about more than being able to tie one style of fly. To me, someone who can "throw down" in multiple tying disciplines would be much more worthy of a sweet carlin bamboo rod than someone who can only tie one type of fly well.

 

Something else that type of format would do is show a tyers weaknesses as well as their strengths. If all a guy can do is tie realistic type flies, the voters are gonna see that when they see a group of his flies together.

 

Here's a scenario.

 

Guy A has a Classic Salmon fly, a Realistic, a Classic Streamer, Catskill Dry, and a Spun Deer Hair Bass Bug.

 

Guy B sends in a Realistec Nymph for the Trout Nymph, a Realistic Damsel nymph for the Smallmouth nymph, a realistic nymph for the great lakes Steelhead & Salmon nymph, a realistic mayfly nymph for the panfish category, a realistic dragon nymph for the largemouth bass category.

 

Both guys sent in 5 flies. Every one of each person's flies are tied great. Perfect proportions, etc. With the current format, both have an equal chance that the voters will like one of their flies the best. But in the format I'm "lobbying" for, people would be able to see that tyer A has a lot more game than tyer B. I think it would cost tyer B a lot of votes that all he can tie is realistic nymphs. People would see that guy A has a wide range of disciplines mastered, and could vote on a Fly Tyer of the year, instead of a Fly of the Year.

 

Not only would this format encourage people to broaden their horizons, which is good for everybody, but really good for fly tying in general. But i think it would give this contest some serious "clout" and attract some of the tyers who only tie for contests such as the Mustad, etc.

 

Like I said, just an idea, and just my twisted opinion. Don't take it as a negative against this great contest cause in no way do I want it to come across that way.

[Harold Ray 0]

These are the thoughts of someone who entered none but thoroughly enjoyed looking at all:

 

Everyone has the option of entering multiple flies. Some choose to enter multiple catagories with vastly different flies tied with a variety of totally different techniques, while another does enter with all of his or her flies tied using the very same principles. Doing that does not make one tyer better than the other in my opinion, because some like to specialize in one particular field where they excell spectacularly. Others desire wide ability, where they may or may not have the spectacular talents of the specialized flytyer who works with only one specific type of tying methods and materials. Each should have an chance to win the award, but this will depend on the number of flies entered and peoples' variations of opinions. Those are the chances you take; just because you are good or great does not mean you will win, even though many may believe you should.

 

Personally as I said in one of the first posts in this thread, I enjoyed them all, from the more simple to those more ornate, and I suspect fishability and artistic interpretation vary greatly in the mind of the beholder.

 

I think Will has done a great job, as I know all of you do too. You have to have rules for any contest, and they were set in this one. People entered knowing they each had a chance. Winning depends on peoples' interpretation on what it takes to make a winning fly. With the turnover in membership and addition of new members here, the results will probably vary from year to year.

 

Ray

[Fishigan 0]

So Alex, in that respect if say only one person enters a fly in a particular catagory then I say there should be no winner for that catagory. Based on the fact that that fly could be a poorly tied fly that looks like crap and just because no one else entered a fly in that catagory that sucky fly gets to be deemed a FTOTY first place winner?! I could send in a bare hook for each catagory then and maybe get "lucky" and no one else will enter a fly in one of the catagories.

[Harold Ray 0]

This discussion is getting too intense so I thought I would post this Valentine's message from one lover to another, or a Ferrari in hand is worth two in the bush:

 

In the Spirit of St. Valentine's Day

 

Be sure to notice the p.s.

 

To my darling husband,

 

Before you return from your overseas trip I just want to let you know about the small accident I had with the pick-up truck when I turned into the driveway. Fortunately it was not too bad and I really didn't get hurt, so please don't worry too much about me.

 

I was coming home from Wal-Mart, and when I turned into the driveway I accidentally pushed down on the accelerator instead of the brake. The garage door is slightly bent but the pick-up truck fortunately came to a halt when it bumped into your car.

 

I am really sorry, but I know with your kind-hearted personality you will forgive me. You know how much I love you and care for you my sweetheart. I am enclosing a picture for you.

 

I cannot wait to hold you in my arms again.

 

Your loving wife.

XXX

 

 

P.S. Your girlfriend called.

[Alex C. 0]

So Alex, in that respect if say only one person enters a fly in a particular catagory then I say there should be no winner for that catagory. Based on the fact that that fly could be a poorly tied fly that looks like crap and just because no one else entered a fly in that catagory that sucky fly gets to be deemed a FTOTY first place winner?! I could send in a bare hook for each catagory then and maybe get "lucky" and no one else will enter a fly in one of the catagories.

 

Sometimes a guy gets lucky. Oh wait, that was me that got lucky. I had fun spending that gift certificate.

If ya send in a bare hook, atleast you're sending something in.

 

EDIT- The fly I sent in for last year's pike category was the third spuin deer hair fly I ever tied. I tied it the week before the contest for my pike box. It got thrown into the box going in for the contest just to add some more variety to what I already had. So when you make implications against people, remember that you're making them against a person who at the time had only been tying for 11 months. At the time I was very proud of that fly.

[Fishigan 0]

Dude, I was not implicating you, you did that yourself out of paranoia. I was simply making a point. As far as I know there have always been multiple entries for every catagory. You stated that one really well tied fly by someone who specialize in a particular class of tying should not be eligible to win the grand prize if they only sent in that one fly, in that case, neither should a bare hook if it's the only fly.