Tying the CA Caddis

Tying the CA Caddis

The CA Caddis nymph is a pattern from our warehouse manager Justin Hart. Justin is a fishy dude and all-around great human. The story of how he came up with this simple and effective pattern is below.

The inspiration for the CA Caddis nymph came from a competition that I fished in during the summer of 2024.  In one of my sessions, I went to check my hook and found that I had hooked through the center of a caddis larva. The caddis was olive with a dark line running down its back.  The particular shade of olive reminded me of a product we sell in our shop.

When I got to the shop a few days later, I grabbed a spool of Semperfli Gel Core Body Micro Fritz in the olive dun color. It matched the shade of the caddis I had seen almost perfectly.  I went home and tied up a few flies using that material as the body with a black holographic tinsel as a flashback.  The color and profile of the nymph was just like the caddis larva I had hooked during the competition.

This fly has quickly become one of my favorites and accounted for many of the fish I caught in 2025.  I found this nymph to be especially effective at the most recent FFTUSA National Championship. My venue rotation had me fishing the rivers last, so I was fishing water that had already been fished two or more times.  I was not finding much success on attractor patterns, but the fish were more than willing to eat the CA Caddis. I haven't been able to ask the fish why they like it, but my guess would be that the natural color and profile mixed with the little bit of flash make it hard for trout to pass up.

You can watch the video for this pattern by clicking this link or by clicking the play button on the image above. 

Materials recipe for the CA Caddis nymph:

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