For those of you who spend too much time tying flies, and thinking about tying flies when you aren’t actually tying flies, here’s a little story you’ll most likely relate to.

I had been experimenting with different Stick Caddis options for fishing in  small streams. A lot of people I would speak to would say things like “But Stick Caddis are a lake fly” and “Why would you fish a Stick Caddis in a river?”, and quite frankly the reason why I wanted to fish a Stick Caddis in a river is because they catch fish! I had gotten great results fishing the slow moving backwaters on the Goulburn River with an unweighted Stick Caddis to sighted brown trout, so I wanted to delve further into this and get a ‘stickie’ down deep to fish holding in faster moving waters.

Originally, the idea of running an unweighted Stick Caddis as a point fly off of a heavy nymph got me going on this concept. Fishing the upper reaches of the Yarra River on several occasions with this method delivered a greater number of browns taking the Stick Caddis to the weighted Copper John that was getting it down. Meanwhile, my good friend and on-stream cohort Scott McPherson from Indulgence Flyfishing was having great success with a simple weight Stick Caddis on his local waters in the North East of Victoria. He loosely referred to it as his Stickie Version Two, as it differed from the unweighted Stick Caddis we were fishing. But, I wanted a Stick Caddis that had a little more body, as the addition of the bead somewhat reduced the elongated look that is part and parcel to the profile of a Stick Caddis. So, I mused over a range of options in my head for several weeks whilst out fishing, considering existing patterns that saw the use of double sided tape and old fly line to create an extended body. These didn’t really get me to where my idea of the Stickie should be as I wanted a dubbed body on both the hook shank and the extension.

So, jump forward a couple of weeks to when Scottie and myself spent one of our traditional evenings well lathered in beverages of the alcoholic persuasion. OK, we put in a good innings. And that night, as I went to bed, I found myself dreaming of the Stick Caddis and how it could actually be tied. Yes, I dream of tying flies. It’s gotten to that stage.

Needles to say, I awoke to a light-bulb moment and raced (at a leisurely pace) downstairs to tell Scottie all about my idea. He sat me at the vise while the kettle was boiled and I asked for some sewing pins, or nails. Because everyone has them in the kitchen draw, right? Well, the best he could muster was a paper clip, to which some tin snips were taken to. The result was an extended body shank that could be tied in, just like in my dream. Then, the hook would be turned around in the vise, just like in my dream, so that the extended body could be worked on. The thread was reversed in direction with a wrap around the hook bend before the hook was turned back again to complete the tie, just like, yes, just like in my dream.

The result was the next evolution after the Version Two Stickie, to which it was suitably dubbed, the Stickie 3.0. I tied four to this recipe that morning, using a dubbing lend I had created specifically to Scottie’s requests for his Stick Caddis. We boht took two each, finished our coffees and headed out for the day.

What resulted was an 8.5 pound fish sight casted at about a rod length to Scott for the first fish to fall to the Stickie 3.0. Then, I pulled a 3.5 pound fish that as holding in a very deep, clear pool about 500 meters upstream. Mine required the fly to get down about 6 or 7 feet in a corner current that didn’t allow for leading the fly much. But, with a good number of casts, the fly was presented to the depth required and the fish turned on it. Proving that a weight Stick Caddis could indeed deliver the results we were looking for.

Well, since that fateful day, I have tied hundreds of these flies. For myself, for customers and for clients. And it continues to deliver results. Almost two years on from it’s dreamy inception, the Stickie 3.0 has accounted for more of my big fish in that time than any other fly. So it is any wonder it has become popular with local fly fishermen. Now, I have the fly tying video available so you too can see the process and tie a bunch of these for yourself. Then, when you find that big fish holding in a deep, clear pool, you’ll know what to tie on. And the, set hard.

You can find the fly tying video here :

And if you want to see my first fish taken on this fly, you can see the video here. Note the hefty hook set, as I am fishing a glass rod, but you do want to be rather firm to ensure the hook point seats well.