I am the Program Lead for Project Healing Waters in Omaha, NE. We have just started our annual rod building contest and I have about 10 Veterans building Fly Rods. We would like to hold our own local competition before we send the rods off to National for judging, however I have been unable to find any information on judging Fly Rods. I have asked our National organization for their critera for determining winners but have not received any feedback. So I was wondering if anyone on the forum has ever participated in a rod building competition and if so, what judging criteria were applied to determine the winner.

Many thanks in advance.

John

Have not been involved in a juried rod competition, but have stayed at a Holiday Inn, so . . .

Seriously, if you have to roll your on criteria, think about scoring three areas, quality & suitability of the components, build quality, and aesthetics. Component quality and suitability ought to be mostly objective where things such as nickel silver hardware on a rod intended to the salt would have points deducted for suitability as would grossly over or under sized guides, low quality cork grip (assuming cork of course). Build quality ought also be primarily objective where, for example, items such as but not limited to finish, guide alignment and location, reel seat and grip concentric with the blank, etc., and again any flaws result in points being deducted. The third and final area would be primarily subjective where points are awarded for thread work such as trim bands, fades, or grip material and construction, or inlaid feathers, etc. Keep the scoring simple where the maximum number of points is 30, 10 points for each of the major areas and you're done.

Hope it helps.

Donald La Mar Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> John
>
> Have not been involved in a juried rod
> competition, but have stayed at a Holiday Inn, so
> . . .
>
> Seriously, if you have to roll your on criteria,
> think about scoring three areas, quality &
> suitability of the components, build quality, and
> aesthetics. Component quality and suitability
> ought to be mostly objective where things such as
> nickel silver hardware on a rod intended to the
> salt would have points deducted for suitability as
> would grossly over or under sized guides, low
> quality cork grip (assuming cork of course).
> Build quality ought also be primarily objective
> where, for example, items such as but not limited
> to finish, guide alignment and location, reel seat
> and grip concentric with the blank, etc., and
> again any flaws result in points being deducted.
> The third and final area would be primarily
> subjective where points are awarded for thread
> work such as trim bands, fades, or grip material
> and construction, or inlaid feathers, etc. Keep
> the scoring simple where the maximum number of
> points is 30, 10 points for each of the major
> areas and you're done.
>
> Hope it helps.

Don,
Many thanks, exactly what I was looking for.
John

John

One suggestion is to have the entries numbered and submitted without the judges knowing who built the rod. This will eliminate any bias in the final decision. The winning rod will be returned to the builder along with any prizes and accreditation. Of course this will not work if the builder signs their work. May be tape over the signature.

john