Lauri Syrjänen Memorial fly tying competition 2011
I haven’t had much time for tying lately but a week ago I participated in a fly tying competition here. It was the 5th annual competition in honor of Lauri Syrjänen who was one of the grandfathers of modern finnish fly tying scene. The competition is held as a live event at the Tampere Fly Fishing Fair (Perhomessut) each year and it consists of qualification round and the finals. Three competitors are picked from a qualifying competition well before the fair where you send three compulsory flies tied at home. Another two are invited to the competition from previous accomplishments in the fly tying field and those make the 5 finalists for the live competition. I had my brothers wedding day before the competition so I didn’t enter the qualification but when I got invited to compete I couldn’t resist to go.
The tying time in the competition is 2 hours and this year we had three flies to tie. The flies were The Undertaker, Black Dose and Coddardin Caddis which is Lauri’s modification of the Coddard Caddis, it has a parachute hackle underneath the fly that is tied using a loop of mono. It is quite challenging to tie in front of a crowd with a time limit and the materials provided by the organizing team are always bit different from what you would have at home. Hackles might be too long and crests curved etc..
I was happy to see two of the young guys from Tampere getting through from the qualification and expect quite a lot from them in the future. You will never tie perfect flies in these live competitions and it’s best way to learn this by competing as much as you can. After a while you will see what things are the most important in the judging and can accept the fact that you can’t put everything on perfectly in the time given. I wasn’t happy with the flies that I tied but I did the best I could that day in the timeframe and tried to focus on the things that others might have difficulties with. My main goal however was just to get the flies ready on time and remember to follow the recipes all the way.
This year there were two judges who gave each fly a score from 0 to 25. So the maximum score was 150 points. The scoring is made by the same methods as in the Finnish National Championship competition and it focuses quite a lot on clear errors made in the tying (like forgetting a material or not following the recipe) and proportions. Main focus is to put the flies of the same pattern in to perspective with each other so the scores aren’t necessarily absolute or comparable to previous competitions or even other flies in the same competition. If people struggle with some pattern you can get good scores with an average fly and vice versa.
The Results
1. Timo Kontio 119p.
2. Marko Kettunen 100p.
3. Olli Saarijärvi 95p.
4. Risto Järventausta 86p.
5. Teppo Oittinen 83p.
