This fly designed by a fellow named (as I recall) Cal Bird…the Birds Nest:
Normally the head and abdomen colors on this fly are the same, but I chose (for no better reason than I can’t seem to follow recipes all the way to the end without changing SOMETHING) a darker dubbing for the head on this one. Interesting fly…I can’t wait to give it a shot this coming season.
Cal Bird is correct. That is a great fly! One of the first flies I learned to tie from bones (Harry Mason) in a tying class I took from him about 10 years back. I have caught many a trout in the Sierras with that fly. I have not tried changing the color scheme, but I think I will give that a try.
Much success this coming season with that fly. 
What color(s) do you use, TyroneFly? And what size(s)? The one in the pic is tied on a #10 2XL nymph/streamer hook. I used wraps of non-lead wire for weight as an underbody.
I use either natural or brown Australian opossum. Hook size is 2X long, 10 - 16 TMC 5262.
FYI -
Harry has a tutorial on his website for the Bird’s Nest here.
That is my go to fly in the Sierra lakes in a olive color. Almost always start with that fly behind a Matuka. Nice job. That will catch fish.
Beaver
Beaver, how far behind the Matuka do you general tie the BN when lake fishing.
Usually around 18 inches, seems like the BN does most but not all of the catching. The Matuka with the red throat and the fishy look is a great attractor combo up there. For me, the olive color just works better in the Sierra lakes. But that’s just me. I’ve tried different colors of BNs but alway go back to olive.
Beaver
I tie the BN in sizes 8 through 18 in olive, black, brown, natural, and cinnamon. It fishes well as a streamer too. Like Beaver, I have found the olive to work best for me in the Eastern Sierra. An olive BN has been my most successful pattern on Crowley Lake when the trout are feeding on the perch fry. I will usually tie a few with a couple of strands of crystal flash worked into the collar. That little bit of added flash sometimes seems to draw more strikes when I fish the BN as a streamer.
Good Job Dave,
What a great fly in all of it’s adaptations and offshoots.
The Bird’s Nest has been and will be one of my “Start the day with and end the day with” patterns for a lot reasons, some very personal. Cal was one of the true Gentlemen of our sport and he offered many of us a hand up on the ladder.
Here are a couple of shots of a Bird’s Nest ( Natural / Maple Syrup ) as tied by Cal Bird in March of 1991, that he handed to me fresh out of the vise. Tied on a 1XL Sproat Bend.
Also, I’ve added a shot of one of his Muddlers which share techinques with the Bird’s Nest.
I have several of his original dressings, including a few that are not so well known. We ( the late, Ultimate Materials ) under agreement with Cal, were the producers of and distributors for Cal’s - Bird’s Nest dubbing and hackle.
The original Bird’s Nest dubbing colors had corresponding hackle colors, such as: Natural / Maple Syrup ( this was the most popular by numbers sold of the colors schemes and the one you see in the attached photo ), Cream / Lemon Woodduck & Olive / Olive. Black on Black was added at a later date.
How I know this is. I’m the guy who was tasked with procuring the bulk materials, worked out the conversions from Cals home dye pot to the commercial dying processes and formulas. Then submitted the results ( over and over again:wink: ) to Cal for his approval. Once the colors and batch testing was approved the production dying was handed over to a long time friend, R. Corky Wahl.
It’s a great fly, no matter how you dress it.
Best, Dave
Wow Dave! Interesting stuff!
I see perhaps I should use a spikier dubbing. I used something that appears to be synthetic that had a touch of flash in it. Probably not a big deal, really…
I also omitted the wire ribbing over the adbomen (thats what happens when I try to tie patterns from memory). I will probably add that on future attempts.
That Muddler is interesting…what is the orange dubbing material on that?
Apparently Cal liked tying with mallard flank/wood duck. I have way more mallard flank feathers than I will probably ever use. Is there a resource that might show more of Cal’s fly patterns that use mallard flank?
For those interested in more of Cal’s patterns, I did find this:
http://web.mac.com/robertdotson/iWeb/Fly%20Collection/Cal%20Bird.html
I am the proud owner of a “Cal Bird’s Dubbing Tool” and still use it most days.
Thanks for the link. Interesting stuff.
Hi Dave,
The material on that Muddler head was a mixture of Australian opossum, photo’s and monitors tend to distort colors. If I were tying it, I’d go with Paxton’s Buggy Nymph #1 Rust and if anything color wise, I’d err on the brighter more vivid side of the orange-red color spectrum.
While the fibers look thin, the Bird’s Nest in the photos above use teal.
In production we used both dyed barred teal and mallard flank. Teal was used primarily on the Maple Syrup ( a.k.a Original ) and Olive colors where it’s barring would really show off.
By the way, I omitted one more of the old production colors, “Brown and Brown”.
On the Black and Brown ( which is a fairly dark Coachman with deep reds hues ) we tended to go with mallard, so too with the Cream, which would normally be dyed down to semi-lemon wood duck color, although I know some Teal was used at times with the cream.
Also on the original package, the coupling of Natural ( dubbing ) and Maple Syrup ( hackle ) were renamed Regular and Regular in an attempt to defuse consumer confusion. In fact, I still maintain that doing that, created greater confusion amongst the retail and angling communities.
I’ve tossed in another photo containing a set of Cal’s flies, these use a double distribution wrap and make nice emergent caddis patterns. Again, you can play around with the colors to match whatever…
Then there were Cal’s dubbing tools, which were marketed by another firm. Fun to learn and use, but for some it was like trying to master chop sticks.
For fun, I added another photo showing a the bottom of a compacted brick of Teal. Try counting the feather shafts, now imagine how many are tucked up in the down and out of sight. That brick is roughly as tightly bound as baseball and about the same diameter. Another shot of the same brick standing up right.
Another photo of the old Bird’s Nest package ( Brown ) and one of my working bags of lemon wood duck.
For my own use I tie the fly in the traditional method and in a bead head version, using both teal and lemon wood duck.
In places with high volumes of Ryacophila, I often use a peacock thorax and abdomen with a dark greenish olive teal hackle and tail, cooper rib.
Other favorites are Scintilla Dubbing ( #30 Pale Olive Brown ) with lemon wood duck, or Hare-Tron Dubbin’ ( HT4 - Golden Brown ) with wood duck, most commonly with a cooper rib, sometimes a fine gold rib.
Anyway, they’re good no matter which flavor you choose.
Dave
Olive seems to be a popular color for this pattern…so I tied one, and used lemon-colored mallard for the hackle:
Very nice Dave. I think the fish will like it. Great job.
Beaver
