This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Birds Nest, another one of Cal Bird’s inventions.
The history for the Birds Nest is a little mixed up for me. I found three versions:
- It was created in the early 1980’s and was first fished on the Owens River in California.
- The fly was created in 1959 as a caddis pupa imitation on the Truckee River.
- The fly was created in 1984 and tested on Hat Creek
So you pick which one you’d like to believe. Regardless, it was and still is a great pattern for multiple bugs if used in different sizes. It’s an old fly and if you’ve been fly fishing for awhile, you’ve probably used one of these.
Now for the different versions for dubbing. One states the original recipe used a dubbing mix of Austrailian possum and dyed coyote. A second one described using 50% Austrailian Opossum, 40% Hares mask, and 10% natural baby Seal fur. I say, just pick something that’s buggy looking and let the fish decide!
I guess when you search for your own fly pattern on the Internet, you might find a few other versions as well.
(If you’d like to see more Throw Back Thursday Flies, just click on the name Throw Back Thursday Flies CATEGORY in the sidebar to the right.)
