Announcements about Fly Tying Festival
The 32nd Annual TFF Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival (DrERFTF) was held on January 25, 2025. It was a fun filled and informative festival held at Terrace United Methodist Church, 1203 Wirt Road, Houston, Texas 77055. We had over 80 attendees! Some attendees came from Dallas and San Antonio and have been attending this festival for years!
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The TexasFlyFishers have been hard at work putting together the 32nd Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival. I can’t express my appreciation enough for the teams hard work.
The Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival attracts tyers of all disciplines from all over Texas and neighboring states. The 2025 Festival is scheduled for Saturday, January 25, 2025 and will be held at Terrace United Methodist Church, 1203 Wirt Road, Houston, Texas 77055. The tying will begin at 8:00 am and will finish at 4:00 pm. There will be no charge for admission and food and drinks will be available also at no charge; although, a small donation for those items would be appreciated.
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The 31st Texas Fly Fishers Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival was held Saturday, January 27th 2024 and provided a great time for fly tyers from around the State to get together to socialize and tie files. Thanks to all who attended, all who participated and in particular, event chairman, Chris Sumers who put together a day for many to enjoy.
Lester Lehman
Featured Tyer Lester Lehman is an experienced fly tyer with over 25 years in the fly fishing industry which has included fishing and tying fly patterns for both fresh and salt water destinations, located in Texas, Montana, Florida, the Yucatan in Mexico and the Bahamas.
Photos from the 2023 Festival:
The TexasFlyFishers have been hard at work putting together the 31st Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival. For 2024, fly designer, tyer and angler Lester Lehman (Les) will be the featured tier.
Les is a long time fly designer, tyer and angler who has fished, guided and taught throughout the United States, Mexico and the Caribbean. He has lived in Mexico three different times, has also lived and worked at South Andros at Bair Bahamas, and has worked at 8 different fly shops in 5 states. Additionally, he has had fly patterns published in books such as: Fly Patterns for the Texas Coast by Greg Berlocher and ‘Bassin’ With a Fly Rod by Jack Ellis.
The Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival attracts tyers of all disciplines from all over Texas and neighboring states. The 2024 Festival is scheduled for Saturday, January 27, 2024 and will be held at Terrace United Methodist Church, 1203 Wirt Road, Houston, Texas 77055. The tying will begin at 8:00 am and will finish at 4:00 pm. There will be no charge for admission and food and drinks will be available also at no charge; although, a small donation for those items would be appreciated.
Along with the general tying in the main venue, there will be 1 Hour Classroom Tying Sessions lead by Les Lehman and other talented tyers. Additionally, from 10 am to 2 pm, instruction, including the necessary tools and materials, will be available for any youngsters and beginning fly tyers to learn the basics of the great hobby of tying flies. For any leader of youngsters involved in Scouting or other youth activities, this might just be the perfect opportunity to expose them to fly fishing and fly tying. So, there will be many learning opportunities throughout the day; from learning to tie ones first fly, to learning as an observer from the many talented tyers, to attending classroom fly tying instruction from some of the best fly tyers in the country. For any who currently tie flies at any level and just want to connect with others with similar interests, feel free to bring your own tools and materials, have a seat and join in on the fun.
Additionally, during the noon hour, the Annual Iron Fly Competition will be held. For this activity, the club will supply 10 – 12 intrepid tyers with a pack of 12 materials. Once the command is given, the contestants will have a short time to look over the materials, design and then 15 minutes to tie their entry. The kicker, is that there is a “mystery” material included that must be used in the pattern. The entries will be scored on (1) Number of materials used in the entry – 1 point per each materials / 12 points total; (2) Balance and Symmetry of the pattern – 5 points; and (3) Creative use of the materials – 5 points. The 3 top entries will then participate in “Tie Off” for the Championship for which the format, rules and scoring will be the same as the preliminary round. The Champion will receive a trophy and bragging rights for one year. This is a really fun event for everyone present. To see the amazing flies the participating tyers can create with such a vast array of materials is very impressive and entertaining.
Since its beginning in April, 1993, the Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival, named to honor one of its early founders, Dr. Ed Rizzolo, has grown into one of the area’s premier fly fishing events, consistently attracting the top fly tyers from all over the country. This event could not have reached the level of notoriety it has obtained without the support of the fly tying community and others who are interested in fly fishing. With your continued support, it is the hope of the Texas FlyFishers that the Annual Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival will continue to grow. The Texas Fly Fishers in Houston, Texas hope you will make plans to be at this great event. We look forward to seeing you there.
Texas Fly Fishers (Houston)
30 th Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival, Featuring Fly Designer and Author Charlie Craven
Saturday, February 4, 20238:00 am – 4:00 pm
See details on attachment:
The November 2022 club monthly meeting has been cancelled due to the Thanksgiving Holiday.
Stand by for details related to the December club Holiday Party, the January 2023 monthly meeting and in particular, the 2023 Annual Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival to be held Saturday, February 4, 2023.
It took ma a while to do some cleanup, and formatting, but I was finally able to get something out there. Any errors in the video or audio are all mine. “Puck”
The Spring 2022 Edition of the Texas Council of Fly Fishers International Newsletter has been released. As the Texas Fly Fishers is affiliated with Fly Fishers International, the newsletter, which is attached below, may be of interest to some who have not received it. This particular issue contains a report along with photographs of the 29th Annual Texas Fly Fishers Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival which was held Saturday, February 12th, 2022.
The newsletter can be accessed through the following link:
https://tcffi.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/TxCncl-Newsletter_Spring_Edition_2022.pdf
On Saturday, February 12th, 2022, the Texas FlyFishers (Houston) celebrated the 29th Anniversary of the Annual Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival.
The Festival was held at the Trini Mendenhall Community Center in Houston, Texas from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, with lunch and refreshments provided for the tyers.
The Featured Tyer for the 2022 Festival was Jerry Coviello from Pennsylvania who is Chairman of the Fly Fishers International Fly Tying Board of Governors. In addition to classroom demonstrations by Jerry Coviello, Don Puckett, President of the Texas Fly Fishers, demonstrated several of his “Five Minute Foam Flies” and Dr. Rey Ramirez from Brownsville, Texas demonstrated techniques used to tie his saltwater “Macko Krimp Fly” pattern.
In addition to the featured classroom demonstrations, the area’s top tyers were invited to exhibit their talents and to assist other tyers of all levels in improving their tying techniques in tying a wide variety of fly fishing flies used for both fresh and saltwater fly fishing.
Throughout the day, there were individual tying presentations of both fresh and saltwater flies and during the noon hour the Iron Fly Competition was held. The Iron Fly Competition is an event at which select tyers are given some mystery fly tying materials and then asked to create a fly from those materials. There are several “rounds” with each “round” containing fewer tyers until finalists are chosen and then an overall winner is selected. The final round featured club member Scott Fossum and Orvis endorsed guide, Kevin Hutchison https://www.orvis.com/kevin-hutchison-tx/10NX.html with Kevin coming out on top as the 2022 Winner of the Iron Fly Competition.
So, mark your calendars now for the 2023 Texas Fly Fishers Dr. Ed Rizzolo which will be the 30th Anniversary of the event. The event is traditionally held the second Saturday of February which will be February 11, 2023.
Finally, if you are interested in participating as a tyer in the 2023 event, please leave a comment on the Texas Fly Fishers web site description of the 2022 event (https://texasflyfishers.org/2022/01/13/29th-annual-dr-ed-rizzolo-fly-tying-festival-saturday-february-12-2022/) and keep an eye out for the announcement of the 2023 event.
To all of those who attended as spectators and participants the Texas Fly Fishes (Houston) thank you for your participation.
A few photos from the 2022 event:
On Saturday, February 12th, 2022, the Texas FlyFishers will celebrate the 29th Anniversary of the Annual Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival and an invitation is extended to all anglers and fly tyers to be part of this great event. The Festival will take place in the auditorium of the Trini Mendenhall Community Center, 1414 Wirt Road, Houston, Texas 77055 from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, with lunch and refreshments provided for the tyers. The Featured Tyer for this year’s festival will be Jerry Coviello from Pennsylvania who is Chairman of the Fly Fishers International Fly Tying Board of Governors. We hope to see you there.
The Dr. Ed Rizzolo Fly Tying Festival invites the area’s top tyers to exhibit their talents and to assist other tyers of all levels in improving their tying techniques, while tying a wide variety of flies for both fresh and saltwater fly fishing. Throughout the day, there will be individual tying presentations of both fresh and saltwater flies and during the noon hour the Iron Fly Competition will be held. The Iron Fly Competition is an event at which select tyers are given some mystery fly tying materials and then asked to create a fly from those materials. There are several “rounds” with each “round” containing fewer tyers until finalists are chosen and then an overall winner is selected. This is a great and entertaining event so anyone interested in fly tying will want to be there.
In addition to the area’s top tyers as mentioned above, this year’s featured guest is Jerry Coviello from Pennsylvania.
Jerry has been tying flies for over 30 years, has been teaching and demonstrating fly tying for more than 10 years, has served as a Fly Tying Exhibitor for the World Fly Fishing Expo in Wilmington, Massachusetts, is a past winner of the Mid-Atlantic Fly Tying Classic in the nymph and wet fly categories and has been a first place winner in the New Jersey State Fly Tying Championship in the wet fly category. Jerry’s speciality is primarily tying freshwater trout flies using deer hair and woven bodies.
So if you are interested in tying flies or fly fishing or just want to spend some time with others who share the passion for fly fishing come on out, we would be glad to have you.
