The Spotlight turns to Cal Bird

[Hans Weilenmann]

The flies pictured below are from the collection of Alice Conba, Ireland, - kindly given to her by Cal at the 1992 San Mateo show.


Many among you may recognise Alice as an excellent flytier in her own right. Thank you, Alice, for allowing me to photograph the flies and share these images.



Bird's Caddis (orange)



Bird's Caddis (yellow)



Bird's Dark Braided Stonefly



Bird's Orange & White Streamer



Bird's Steelhead



Bird's Stonefly Nymph



Brook Trout #1



Brook Trout #2



Fluorescent Bird's Nest



Royal Coachman


Enjoy,
Hans W

[ronnie_mckee]

Very inspirational! Thanks for posting them.

[Gandolf]

Hans,

The flies are beautifully done. My understanding was, and I am not sure that such was correct, that Cal Bird was a well known commercial tier, but I hadn't seen any of his actual flies, only ones tied by others as patterns.

Thanks Hans,

The photos are much appreciated.

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

[Jayatwork]

Thanks for posting these Hans. Beautiful ties. But I think the gold fly labeled "Bird's Stonefly Nymph" may be misidentified. It doesn't look like the Bird's Stonefly Nymph I'm familiar with. It doesn't even really look like a nymph.

[Hans Weilenmann]

Thanks for posting these Hans. Beautiful ties. But I think the gold fly labeled "Bird's Stonefly Nymph" may be misidentified. It doesn't look like the Bird's Stonefly Nymph I'm familiar with. It doesn't even really look like a nymph.

I was wondering same, Jay. I simply followed Cal's writing on the ziploc bag each pattern came in.

Cheers,
Hans W

[TyroneFly]

One of my favorite and most productive flies is the Bird's Nest. Thanks Han's for sharing those with us.