Forty-three-inch giant…

Mr. Ian Martin from Canada with his best ever dry fly salmon: Forty-three inches (109 cm) – about 36 pounds (16-kilo)

Mr. Ian Martin regularly contributes with words and photos to our pages here on Fishmadman – This time, he has emailed us this super photo of a giant Atlantic salmon caught on a Monster Tube Caddis # small.
Ian is a well-known angler in the Gaspesie region where he also runs the fishing lodge LES 4 SAISONS situated at the banks of the river Petit Cascapédia.
Read the whole story about the catch of the giant dry fly salmon and see if your next fishing holiday could be in the Gaspesie region at Ian´s lodge

Caught on Monster Tube Caddis

The Monster Tube Caddis – A super fly for big salmon on both side of the Atlantic – Our small and big version seems to have the great attraction on Scandinavian salmon – The XX-Large version seems to work especially good in Canada and Newfoundland.
Horns on the fly are whiskers from rabbit – a vibrant and very attractive fly tying material that we have great faith in
See our page on the Monster Tube Caddis

Monster Tube Caddis: A odd caddis imitation designed to be fished at dead-drift.

Six 20 lb`s salmon on dry fly…

Don’t let size fool you – both Mr. Ian Martin and Mr. Kim Nyborg (photo above) is big guys in the + 100-kilo range

Our own pro fly tier Mr. Kim Nyborg was in Newfoundland for the second time and got everything right in the summer of 2015 – with six salmon in the 20 lb´s range, with this giant estimated at + 30 lb´s as the biggest – Many of these fish were caught on the Monster Tube Caddis on the Humber River together with friend and renowned dry fly guide Mr. Bill Bryden.

See how to tie the Monster Tube Caddis or get the full Monty and buy our Monster Tube Caddis fly tying kit – See the offer below.

If you would like to fish the fantastic rivers of Newfoundland follow the link here

Fly tying kit`s from Fishmadman

The FlashBack Bug kit…

The perfect fly tying kit if you want to try your skills on steelhead wake flies – Enough to make 6 – 7 flies in various sizes –
Buy FlashBack Bug Kit

White Tube Bomber kit…

After endless trials getting the proper hackles to use in this kit – we finally got a break with these first class Metz hackles. Everything needed to tie Tube Bombers is included in this kit
Buy Tube Bomber Kit

The Monster Tube Caddis kit…

Getting proper hackles for this big caddisfly imitation has always been an issue for us – Now we proudly present our Monster Tube Caddis fly tying kit with super quality Metz hackles and everything else included to tie a selection of big dry flies
Buy Monster Tube Caddis Fly Tying kit

The Smurf Bomber

The Smurf Bomber: A fine Bomber pattern from Newfoundland with the right blue tone of deer-hair combined with tail, wing and hackle in brown.

Getting the right colour on the white-tail deer we use for the body on our Bombers proved to be more difficult than we first thought – but we finally got all the details right and we are proud to include yet another Bomber in our family of 14 variations – Look them up here

The Smurf is a Belgian comic character  created by cartoonist Peyo These blue skinned creatures was first seen in comics in the early 60´s C & R Peyo

A new Youtube video from us

Quite in line with our FlashBack Bug fly tying kit – We have made a Youtube video showing how to tie this efficient wake fly – We hope you enjoy it and would welcome your comments on Youtube

Do also look at our other videos on our humble Fishmadman Youtube channel

New things with Fishmadman

A rare opportunity – to get a Barred Brown Mini squirrel tail for your small wet flies or tube riffling hitch flies… We bought some for production and additional tails for our newsletter readers… absolutely small and soft tails…
buy them while you can

We have a new batch of this slim style riffling hitch version of the mandatory Blue Charm – Made with extra room in front of the head to enable you to make your Portland Hitch The flies is also styled just like we want our wet-fly Blue Charm

Buy them here

Fishmadman Newsletter is a publication on surface fishing for Atlantic salmon steelhead and various trout, read by many 100 ́s anglers across the Northern Hemisphere, Tierra del Fuego, Novaya Zemlya – Australia and Japan… We try to make a letter worth your time – and our interest in topwater fishing is what determines the editorial tendency`s
Our newsletter will arrive in your mailbox 3 – 6 times during the season depending much on what interesting stuff we can find for you…

Join our Newsletter

See some previous issues of the newsletter here… or go to the entire newsletter library here

The winner of the 2012 Fishmadman Competition

Norwegian angler Mr. Jan Harry Årsen wins this years FISHMADMAN competition with a + 14 kilo (+ 30 lbs) Atlantic salmon Jan Harry wrote us:

“Fish jumped out of the water to grab the big Bright Green Tube Bomber ™ from above” The salmon was caught in the fantastic Lakselv River in the very north of Norway August 2012. Cloudy conditions. water temperature 11 degrees Celsius (51.8 degrees Fahrenheit)  Hook used: Owner STN-36BC Treble #8 

See fly in shop

High VIZ. Green Tube Bomber ™ In big… A efficient pattern for Lakselv River salmon

Another Big salmon on Black & Green Zebra Shadow

Norwegian angler Mr. Jens Olav Flekke entered this beautiful salmon from Northern Norway: 108 centimeters (42,5 inches) caught on a Black & Green Zebra Sunray Shadow ™. Jens wrote us that his wife Mrs. Ellen Svendsen had a similar size salmon during their fishing session. This one on a smaller salmon tube fly with wing of black and green hair

Both fish released back in to the river after quick photo session

Here a version of the Black and Green Zebra Sunray Shadow ™ rigged with a small salmon tube fly double hook – Jens Olav used a barbless single hook rigged in a hanging loop .

See Green and Black Sunray Zebra Shadow in our shop

Salmon from Gaspè Peninsula on Pearl Sunray Shadow

Mr. Raynald Ménard mailed us this classic picture with father and son and a super fresh summer salmon in the 10 – 12 lb. range. Fish caught on a Pearl Sunray Shadow at the famous Gaspè Peninsula in  Matane River – Rod 12`# 5 Spey rod

A salmon tube fly for big greedy fish

The Pearl Sunray Shadow

See fly in our shop

XXL arctic char on wake-foam flies

Mr. Bo Jensen from Denmark enjoyed super fishing for XXL Arctic Char in Greenland this summer. Fishing gin clear rivers using our Tube Chernobyl Ants. Bo wrote us that that average arctic char is in the 2 kilo range (4,4 lb.) with bigger fish being 7 kilo (+ 15 lb.) The flies where fished active cast at an 60 degree angle downstream and brought back with wake and stop & go motion.

See our range of Tube Chernobyl Ants

Tube foam flies are killers for big arctic char that like its cousins the Steelhead and sea trout is attracted to waked flies.

See flies in shop

Big steelheads from the West Coast of Canada

Photo courtesy of Mr. Chad Black Nicholas Dean Lodge

As the top water season was firing up on the West coast of Canada we got pictures of super steelhead caught on our Riffling hitch tube wake flies: This one caught on a  The Tube Grantham Sedge by Mr. Chad Black  in a Skeena River Tributary- Fish was 34,5” long by 16.5” girth (87,63 X 41,91 centimeters) – approximately 12 lbs (5,44 kilo)  based on Sturdy’s formula. we will return to some of these stunning fish in our next newsletter

 

The Tube Grantham Sedge – See this and the other in the wake series 

Salmon fishing on the Upper Moisie River in Quebec

Photo`s courtesy of Mr. Jocelin LeBlanc, Le Repère Des Moucheurs – Landmark Flyshop

Mr. Ian D. Martin is Fly Fishing writer & photographer get around to see many different and desirable places – This summer we got some nice reports from his fishing. Ian wrote us; “Pictures above is from the Trinity River. I caught two fish,  one was really fresh!  The other one took a green squirrel V-tube, but it was not rigged for riffling but fished as a conventional micro tube fly”

” Moisie fishing this morning was canceled because of excessive wind and rain and fog 🙁  We hope this afternoon will work out, and that the helicopter can fly tomorrow to get us to Mile 12 Pool !”

” Hello Fishmadman : A little fish story – On the upper Moisie River in Quebec, the access is by helicopter. After no fish hooked for the whole day, and the weather getting worse, we had only 30 minutes until the helicopter was grounded. That’s when I saw this salmon roll, near a big rock well out in the pool. I ran down and quickly waded into position and managed to work out a long cast to cover the fish with a Green Squirrel hitch tube, and it took on the first swing. The helicopter arrived just as I was landing the fish, and we had to quickly release a beautiful Moisie salmon and race to pack up our gear as the impatient pilot waited with the rotors turning! “

Photo`s courtesy of Mr Ian D Martin Fly Fishing writer/photographer The Usual Press

Top water sea trout

Danish top water angler Mikkel Hemmeshøj with one of several sea trout caught during top water fishing with the Mad Dog Wake fly – Denmark probably has some of the greatest sea trout fishing in the world and famous rivers yields 100`s of trophy fish in the 10 – 20 lbs range. Many of these fish are caught on wake flies like the Mad Dog from Fishmadman

Mad Dog Tube Wake fly from Fishmadman. A superior wake fly designed by Danish sea trout angler Mr. Dan Karby for fishing in the Vejle River system. In Vejle river sea trout is fished at day and at night time with wake flies. Fly is fished in or close to the surface. See fly in our E-shop

Sudden appearance

We, as anglers, can benefit from the knowledge of Snell`s Widow and place the fly as close to the window as possible. The sudden appearance of the fly in the area of decision may often be followed by an immediate strike… The edge or rim of Snell`s Window seems to be a hot area to put a fly – something worth calling to mind next time you see a salmon or trout on the river bed or visit a place where you usually would expect to find them.

Fishmadman angler Per Fischer precisely positioned the dry fly in Snell`s Window – on Atlantic salmon lying in shallow water. At this spot, the cone of Snell`s Window is tiny

Get into the groove!

Salmon dry fly pioneer: George M.L. La Branche wrote in his book The Salmon And The Dry Fly (1924) about his observations and thoughts on where in the river to hook up with dry fly salmon.

La Branche saw the salmon pools with the eye of a trout fisherman and advocated that the angler should seek out places in the river that would be similar to the area where the resident trout would take a position to intercept the flow of food. He named these places where the current would deliver the insects: grooves and was sure that one would only connect with salmon if one could accurately cast the fly in these grooves.

Years of fishing have shown me and other anglers that it is not merely down to a perfect cast to Snell’s Window ... to hook up with salmon on a dry fly – The salmon is not online all the time – as I would like to explain it.

Sometimes he will rise to a well-presented dry fly within a few casts – another day, he might rise unexpectedly to the fly presented in Snell`s Window the 50`th times…with the attitude of a starved trout rushing for the only meal of the day.

_{Read more about La Branche and his ideas and fishing here}

Pushing the fly in Snell`s Window

Rarely caught on film – The take of an Atlantic salmon on a dry fly – I was lucky to get it in the box last season and am happy to show you this particular video concerning our newsletter on Snell`s Window… The salmon in the film does not bite over the fly – it merely pushes the fly. You will see the fly surfing in front of the fish. Many of the dry fly caught I had this summer was hooked on the nose or forehead, as seen on some of the pictures in the slide section: Why? – Can`t tell you…some years, they work like that .. the spot I film: 3-foot leader out of guides…Wham!

What do fish see?

How do salmon and trout detect and see things underwater and in Snell`s Window? As regular anglers, we know very little about this. We often look at the roaring river and wonder if the fish will have any chance of seeing a tiny fly on the surface – Salmon and trout have no problems detecting prey sitting or moving on the surface; they have trained these skills for 100 million years and have become true experts.

Things like: contrast, light and colours will probably reveal the insect to the fish, and it will gather this information in its tiny brain and decide if it wants to move for the prey.

When the insect enters the Area of Snell`s Window, the fish will automatically know how much, or how little, it has to turn its fins to eclipse with the drifting insect… But the fish would often have noticed the insect or fly before it entered Snell`s Window – and one must assume that this information also will be part of the decisions on whether it should use precious energy to rise to the fly.

Salmon and trout have no problems detecting prey on the surface; they have trained these skills for 100 ↑ million years. Here absurdly small dry flies and flymf’s tied for selective trout in the Montana River system

Back to Basics with guide Bill Bryden

It has been said that dry fly Atlantic salmon fishing is the pinnacle of freshwater fly fishing. The shocks and warm rushes of adrenaline it provides are not easily had in any other form of fishing. The skill and patience required often prove too much for even seasoned fly anglers, but the rewards are truly breathtaking for those who persevere. I hope that some of this discourse will encourage those who have not tried this pursuit to pick up the torch while also helping to enlighten the way for those stumbling on the first hurdles. Perhaps even the most advanced dry fly salmon angling masters may find a morsel in these pages, as may the trout purist.

Stealth & Accuracy

We could summon it up this way: Leaders are part of the presentation, and one wants to present the fly with stealth and accuracy, especially near Snell`s Window – A leader that can transform the movement from the fly line to the fly is important.

Correcting the fly – and Snell’s Window.

Novice anglers can accomplish fundamental wet fly presentations by correcting a presentation after the fly lands. Similarly, correcting an inaccurately positioned dry fly can be done by dragging it to the exact inch it needs to be on to allow for the correct drift into Snell`s Window. However, this dragging of the fly must be done very slowly and ideally outside of Snell’s Window except in particular circumstances. Once the fly is near Snell’s Window, no quick movements should be done when attempting to coax a salmon from its lair. We d not want to convince our quarry that the fly could move quickly and thus escape any attempt it may make to capture it. We want to make a nice easy target.

Fish are experts at being fish.

Fish rarely “miss” anything they genuinely want to eat. Often they inspect a dry fly several times before committing to taking it into their mouth, engage further by closing their mouth completely, and finally abandon all worry while holding it for submersion to their lay. This bodes well for the dry fly neophyte as the most solid take is often the second to fourth rise when the adrenaline has the angler cocked and ready like a rattlesnake.

Accuracy required

The roughly 45-degree angle from the fish to the edge of Snell’s Window makes it relatively easy to work out where the edge of Snell’s Window is situated. For example, at a water depth of 6 feet, the edge is 6 feet upstream of where the fish is lying. One always wants to ensure one’s leader is long enough to keep the end of the fly line out of Snell`s Window, so fishing deep lays requires longer leaders.

Once some skill in casting accuracy is acquired, the first target is the edge of Snell’s window. Even in the rippled water, many salmon hide under, the fish will see larger dry flies travelling through the air and land precisely in their drift line for feeding. This is why many Newfoundland dry fly anglers make lazy, gentle casts. The fly is cast to have it flying along very close to the surface once in Snell’s window. Most Newfoundland dry fly anglers use an underpowered, slightly sidearm cast, with the fly within a foot or two or the surface for its entire travel within Snell’s window.

Keep Pushing the button.

This is the bog-standard approach for dry fly angling and has the best chance of working on all fish in any condition. Patience is the name of the game, and 20 minutes is not too long to work a fish. Imagine regularly catching a salmon every 20 minutes. The dry fly salmon angler often catches more salmon than a wet fly angler (by far).

Consistency

If casting accurately is the most critical part of dry fly fishing for Atlantic salmon, then consistency is the second.

Often, in deep water with variable current speeds between the river bottom and the surface, a lazy relaxed salmon will rise towards Snell’s Window before the fly even touches the surface. Consistently timed presentations accomplish this. If an angler convinces a salmon that a hatch has started by repeated casting, they have a much better chance of inducing a feeding response. Timing the presentations consistently will allow fish to get excited about anticipating the next offering. Those inlays with faster surface currents must rise up closer to the surface and stay suspended or use their tail power to reach the fast-moving target in Snell`s Window. This is because the water speed they are lying in is not enough to naturally lift them to the surface by using only their pectoral fins. An angle that presents their dry fly consistently will take more of these fish than one that makes inconsistently timed casts. This can be observed in clear rivers with fish laying in the slack water behind ledges, rocks, and quickly deepening pools.

Often, these two reasons, accuracy and consistency, hamper the beginner’s effort.

Low water on the Majestic Repparfjord River in the far North of Norway, 1000’s of opportunity on Snell’s Window waits below.

Delivery to the door

Lazy fish such as stale fish, large fish, and those in warm water will want the fly to drift to where the current will naturally lift them without any sideways body movement or trusting from their tail. They will want to bob up like a waterlogged deadhead to take the fly with a lazy head and tail rise in Snell’s Window. With this approach of super-accurate casting and perfectly lined-up dead drifting, the angler tries to induce a natural, relaxed feeding response.

Tight lines Bill Bryden: To contact Bill Bryden, Click here.

The Take:

To the dry fly angler the core of dry fly fishing lies in the take.  The enthralling and hypnotic experience of seeing a fish coming to the surface to hit the fly can`t be matched by much.

The salmon dry fly take

Some salmon will take the fly savagely wild and furiously fast; others will take their time, rise slowly, and finally suck the fly from the surface – Bigger salmon in the 10 – 15 kilo range will normally be slow starters. They will need a well-presented fly to allow them to work their way up to the surface. Working out the right tactic to use is very much a matter of experience, and the angler will need to consider river depth and river flow when presenting the fly. The eyesight of salmon is built to look for insects in a cone-shaped 96-degree window upwards – If it finds interest in your drifting fly, it will start its rise with precision so it cuts right into the path of the fly when it is above it lies….  These things aren’t always certain terms, and salmon will sometimes act in unpredictable ways – Some may follow the fly closely for many meters downstream before grabbing it – Some fish will jump high out of the water and then grab the fly from above.

We tie our Killer whisker on tube – We don’t think big dry flies should be tied on hooks

Killer Whisker is

A pattern that eats lots of material and makes a swooshing noise when it flies by your head…We have tied quite a few of these big dry flies for people fishing the Lower Humber in Newfoundland, where it is cast on big salmon lying in relatively slow water.

Killer Whisker 1982 – 83 Comes from mainland Canada. An alternative to the sparsely dressed Bomber – Killer Whisker is a fly I would use to fish the Alta River.

Don’t tie your Killer Whisker on a long shank hook

A fly like the killer Whisker with it’s long bulky body is a first-class case of a fly that – NEWER – should be tied on a long shank hook – but ideally on a plastic tube – The Leverage factor – The weight issue – The missing exposure of the hook

See them in the shop

Doing the Tube Killer Whisker Here I have fixed a 1,8 mm. tube on a tube fly needle. As this Tube Killer Whisker is big I will need to apply extra force when tying it,  therefore I have put a piece of mono in the eye of the needle. This will help to wedge the tube on the needle.

Buy the right tube & needle

Add fly tying cement, super glue or lacquer to fixate the tie-down on the hookguard.

The Tube Killer Whisker has a split wing

Wings of calf´s tail is tied in – split and set to tilt slightly forward. Strands of Mylar is added. The Mylare will aide you to see the fly out on the river. Add drops of lacquer to the tie down

Ad a section of green deer hair. The Tube Killer Whisker can also be done with a all-natural brown body. We use Crystal Fireline 0,04 millimetre as tying thread. We also use a length of this particular thread as rib.

Cut body into shape. Tie in hackles: The body hackle – We strip of one side to get a palmer hackle that is not to dense. We need a heavy  front hackle section so we tie in 3 – 5 depending on the quality. We use a light brown coch-y-bonddu feathers

We also do more dens versions of the Tube Killer Whisker

I have heated the end of the tube to form a collar (see other tying instructions on our webpage) – I have pushed a hook guard over the collar, leaving 5 – 6 millimetre of hook guard outside the tube (this is going to be a big Tube Killer Whisker) so I have used our 3,0 mm. hook guard Note how the hook guard tubing is cut at an angle. This is a good way to secure the soft tubing without ending up making the tie-down to bulky

The tail of The Tube Killer Whisker is white → calf’s hair equally distributed around the tube – Note! The tie-down of the tail is done in front of the tie-down of the hook guard, to prevent material clumping up in the rear part of the fly – Material that eventually could make it difficult to create a well proportioned deer hair body. Add a few strands of Mylar – A few drops of lacquer to the tie down

Adding masking tape to wing and tail is a good idea if your tiered of cutting of those precious Mylar strands and calf tail hairs. Don’t use to sticky tape…It will just end in tears later

Add further 3/4 sections of natural brown deer hair.

The freshly spawned Tube Killer Whisker

Run body hackle down through the deer hair. Run the Fireline rib up through the palmer hackle. Wind front hackles and fix everyone securely, before cutting off any excess tubing. End the project with a drop of super-glue to the head of the fly – Add a short shank quality hook like the Owner Chinu 1/0 single hook fitted on this Tube Killer Whisker.

See hook in our E-SHOP 

Brækstangs effekten…Forklaret som;  Udfoldelse af kraft ved et objekt, der anvendes på samme måde som en løftestang – I dette tilfælde; det lange skaft på krogen..

Åbenlyst ikke en super krog-type?

Iden om at have en kunstige agn til at glide på linene, frem for at, efterlade en stiv agn i munden på fisken – kommer fra endnu en dygtig sportsfisker og forfatter; Hr. Alexander Wanless – der må betegnes som rørfluens stamfader, og en af de væsentligste bidragydere i rørfluens historie. Richard Wanless har endnu aldrig rigtigt fået en plads i røfluens historie – Måske skyldes det, at han var spinne-fisker mere end han var fluefisker.

Hr. Wanless var den første til at, illustrere den glidende-flue, eller rørfluen. Dette sker i bogen : The Angler And The Thread Line fra 1932… De første kommercielle rørfluer – begynder dog først at, dukke frem i midten af 40érne – og det er en: Fru. W. Morawski, der arbejder som fluebinder i  Abereden – Skotland, der får æren for at, binde de første rørfluer til laksefiskeri  – Fru. Morawski binder sine rørfluer på penneposer fra fjer (det hule skaft på større svingfjer)

Rørfluens historie: Her en vidunderlig farveplanche fra Hr. Alexander Wanless bog: The Angler And The Thread Line, som viser fluer fra  Thread Line serien .  Fluerne blev designet af Hr. Wanless til at; fiskes på let-spinnestang. Noget der i sig selv også er ganske banebrydende.

1940èn: Enden på den langskaftede krog i Europa

Brækstangs-effekten var ganske sikkert, et problem for den Viktorianske laksefisker, der har måtte kæmpe bravt for at, holde laksen på de store enkeltkroge den tids fiskeri foreskrev.

Disse enorme enkeltkroge forsvandt helt fra flueboksen, da innovative sportsfiskere begyndte at, binde rørfluer og såkaldte; Waddington Shanks.

Hr. Richard Waddington, 1910 – 1999

Fantastisk engelsk sportsfisker – og forfatter til mange bøger om laksefiskeri. Waddington lavede en tydelig analyse af; Brækstangs-effekten – som forbundet med brugen af store enkeltkroge  –  Designede et simpelt system, bestående af parallelle vire, der blev armeret med en trekrog. Systemet blev kendt under navnet;  Waddington Shank – Og løste med et trylleslag, problematikken ved brækstangs-effekten  og de store stive fluer

Små kroge virker

For at finde frem til de rette kroge, til vores rør-tørfluer – har vi gennem årene, prøvet kroge fra en lang række krog-producenter
Flere af de små kroge vi i dag foretrækker at bruge er;  Medekroge. Oprindeligt designet til at modstå pres fra stærke fisks ala´: karpe og barbe – hvor metoder som; hook & hold nu og da kan være påkrævet.

Selvsagt kan sådanne kroge, også tage presset fra laks og steelheads..
Krogene er fremstillet af super hærdet vire – ofte med et relativ kort shank (krogskaft) – uforlignelig styrke og penetrations evne i krogspidsen. Nogle kroge er endog Kirbed (svajet) for bedre kroghold.
Disse luksus-kroge, er fremstillet med Catch & Release for øje – og de er enten; modhager-fri – eller; designet med en diminutive modhager – hvilket efterlader minimalle skade på fisken. Med de små kroge vi bruger på vores tørfluer, sigter vi mod at, kroge fisken i huden i… eller ved munden, som et alternativ til at gå rundt om kæbeben eller endog gennembore benstruktur, sådan som mange laksekroge er designet til…

Se vore side med kroge – og bidrag gerne selv med forslag til flere egnede kroge :  Side med kroge til rørfluer 

☛ Støt Orri Vigùffson og NASF i at redde  Atlanterhavslaksen -Besøg NASF side ! ☚ Besøg NASF side ☚

Salmon easily get bored

Salmon entering the river only have a very limited attention span and the angler may easily drain their sparse awareness. Obviously, it is important to manage ones fishing with some prudence. If the river becomes low, slow or warm the angler will have to make the down & across fly work absolutely perfectly to deceive the salmon. This is actually such a difficult job that even the old hand at the river will have to work hard to accomplish. In such cases, alternative tools will come in handy. Tools like; Rifling Hitch, Skating, Dibbling, Dapping; all names for techniques where the fly is moving in the surface.

The surface hunter

The surface is an all-important hunting ground to the salmon parr, who more than any other salmonids will focus on surface hunting as soon as insects start to fly

The insect will try to leave the treacherous surface as quickly as possible, but 100 million years of practice have made salmon specialists, and they know what to look for. It is these fantastic hunting abilities that we will try to tap into when fishing the Riffling Hitch

Salmon flies are not equally good to use for Riffling Hitch. To the left, our favourite Riffling Hitch fly: V-FLY ™  Read more  Buy fly  

Surface fishing tricks

All salmon flies are not equally good to use as Riffling Hitch flies – There will be fly patterns that work much better than other

Use thin hair – We have through the years noticed how Riffling Hitch flies tied with squirrels hair has a special alluring ability… The best hairs seem to be fine hair found on tails from small squirrels. Therefore we recommend you hand-pick the squirrel tails for the purpose.

Buy riffling hitch squirrel tails from us

If you tie your Riffling Hitch patterns on a single or double hook you should leave enough room in front of the hook so you will be able to fit in the hitch knots

Riffling Hitch flies will fish difficult waters. The Riffling Hitch fly will more or less fish the places you normally would want to fish with the sub-surface fly – But a small hitched fly will also fish slow water which could be otherwise very difficult to fish with a sub-surface fly.

Time to use the Riffling Hitch

Through summer there will be days when the Riffling Hitch fly will out-fish

all other methods. Some years the Riffling Hitch will work excellent during intervals of days or weeks. Exactly what period works best can vary from season to season…. In Norway, the technique may work well from the first day to the last day of the season… but the weeks of mid-August could be the top weeks… In Scotland, the hitched fly could work at it´s best in the last weeks of June – and be less effective in August.

High & brown river

Fishing a tiny Riffling Hitch fly during periods with a rising river – going muddy – might not be the first thing that comes into mind… never the less… Riffling Hitch can be an extremely efficient technique under such circumstances. Salmon will be travelling close to shore and the surface… keep the fly on a short line  – working downstream with short casting and a high rod. Be ready for a pounding heart when Mr. salmon comes hammering out of the surface. In case you hook up on such a fish strike immediately

See our range of small Riffling Hitch flies 

A bright head

When fishing Riffling Hitch it is important to be able to follow your fly on the river. When it gets dark or grey this can sometimes become an impossible task. Use a Riffling Hitch fly with a fluorescent green head – this way the fly will be slightly more visible

Too thick a leader!

Try to avoid the use of too thick tippet material when fishing Riffling Hitch. The thick leader will quickly take out the magic of your fly. Use a thinner tippet like 0.30 mm (12 lb..) and a long soft rod that can absorb some of the fast movements of the hooked salmon

The Portland Hitch – Riffle hitch knot

The Portland Hitch populated by fly fishing icon Lee Wulff is the traditional way of fishing Riffling Hitch, done by tying on a single or double fly so it will drag sideways in the surface.

See how to tie on a conventional single hook fly with a hitch knot Buy single hook Riffling Hitch flies 

The Caddisfly and riffle hitch and waking fly

We would like to think that the adult caddisfly and the ways of this insect is closely linked with the effect the Riffling Hitch fly has on salmon

Above: The much erratic behaviour of the adult caddisfly – could very well be an element in the effect that Riffling Hitch flies has on Atlantic salmon

In fishing literature, the Caddisfly live in the shadow of the more exquisite May fly – and in much the same way it also plays a less interesting part in the fly box of salmon anglers – who often fancy more elaborate and colourful patterns than dull caddisfly imitations.

The caddisfly is in fact well represent in salmon rivers both as – adult, pupae, and larva – and the salmon parr might encounter it every day from the beginning to the end of the season.

As an adult insect, the caddisfly lives 6 – 14 days. Staying close to the edge of the river. They come out from their place of hiding and flutter around the river with erratic movements…. hitting – diving straight into – or scooting on top of the water, to lay their eggs…or to get to shore.

We believe that understanding and learning about the way of the caddisfly is part of the overall understanding of the Riffling Hitch fishing technique

Read more about the life circle of the caddisfly

Fine tune your Riffling Hitch – tube

Most Scandinavians tie their Riffling Hitch fly on a tube. It is a simple and very effective way to make small and very light surface flies. It is important to use a type of tube that will support the hook. Chose a flexible type of tube that will be able to keep your hook in place. If hook and tube fit perfect you should be able to adjust the position of the hook – thereby changing the movements of the fly – a bit like the Rapala-angler that fine-tune his bait with a set of pliers.

When using a small treble hook, we would have one hook pointing down with the remaining hooks in a horizontal position. If we use a single hook we keep this pointing straight down or up.

If you tie your own Riffling Hitch flies and would like to buy perfect tubes for the job – we make them !… We could not find any tubes that were good enough to suit our Riffling Hitch system so we designed the right tube and made a production – The tube comes in two dimensions to suit either small or bigger hooks Go to the shop 

New stuff in the Fishmadman shop

Smart design

Over the years we have happily used normal sowing needles for our tube fly tying – we have also promoted this inexpensive solution through our shop but we have had a problem getting the right sowing needles for the tubing we sell, so we decided to produce our own design of tube fly tying needles. See the smart designs in our shop here

Superior fly lines for riffling hitch fishing

We are happy to tell you that we from 2011 have been able to sell the two best riffling hitch and dry fly lines on the market…

It is the famed Triangle Taper from Lee Wulff (Royal Wulff Products) – The fly line that is the most copied line in the world…We only carry the Lee Wulff lines it in a few # weights that we think is suitable for hitch and dry fly fishing – All lines are with the fantastic J3 surface coating – that just makes these lines so much better than the competitor line.

We have the Classic Triangle taper in 7 – 8 – 9 It is 90 foot (27.4 meters) long – A 40 foot (12.2 meters) progressive taper – A 50  foot (15.25 meter)  shooting line…the line is ivory-white (the absolute best colour for surface fishing)

See the line at a good price in our shop 

the ‘2 line is the extremely long casting TTSTF

The favourite distance line with us at FISHMADMAN – developed by Steelhead Pro, Al Buhr, The TTSTF is 105 foot long (32 meters)  – It has a 55 foot (16.7 meters) running line  – A 50 foot (15.25 meter) progressive taper The TTSTF also has the super J3 coating. It is of course ivory coloured and has a lightly green shooting line

See the line at a good price in the shop 

☛ Support NASF in rescuing the Atlantic salmon – Go to NASF page! ☚

Translucent flies are killers

* Now that we have touched the subject, I might show you something interesting about deer hair.

Many people ask us why we don´t make our Bombers with foam or other floating material. We have tried this with different fly patterns made with; Cork, Balsa-wood, Styrofoam, and EVA Foam, and at some point, I even did a fly with a small glass cylinder, but none of it worked properly, and we soon returned to flies made from deer hair… There do not seem to be any shortcuts on this project…

Why is deer hair so special? First, deer hair (like most other hair material) can naturally attract and deceive trout and salmon… It is like the concept of eating an animal with a pelt isn’t that disagreeable with fish

One very special Bomber Belonging to a UK angler I know – This fly has, over time, become very good due to: Wear and tear and multiple coatings of this dry fly with silicone – All adding up to a translucent appearance that’s seemingly attractive to salmon.

Formed by dry fly silicone

You and I all have our favourite wet flies in the box. Flies that seem to fish much better than other flies…They might be torn up and dull-looking, but they will produce fish on the bank time after time… It is probably this ruggedness and dull looks that hold the secret to your success with this particular fly; If you take a close look, you will find that the fly has become somewhat altered from usage. It could be little strands of wool coming undone – Hair splitting up from casting and fish teeth tearing at them – fading colours etc. All add up to a more translucent appearance.

Dry flies made with deer hair will also improve with time – If the deer hair becomes hollow! When used over and over again – Something I will try to show through a picture of detail – The detail section is from the image above of the super-Bomber

Note the hollowness of the hairs that gives the fly this see-through appearance … as seen on the close-up of the deer hair body…. By the way, anglers have offered our UK friend much $ for this particular super-fly… It is not for sale…we have been informed.

Don’t get dry fly silicone on your leader

Avoid getting products like Mucilin onto your leader the leader will end up showing up like a neon-sign on the surface – and salmon will stay clear of your fly… A good idea is to prepare the flies with the Mucilin past before your fishing trip. When you have impregnated your flies leave them in a tempered area – so the Silicone can set in the flies and the solvent in the past can evaporate.

 

☛ Support NASF in rescuing the Atlantic salmon – Go to the NASF page! ☚

Hook-up on dry fly and the choice of hooks for tube fly

Summer grills doing its best to break free of the hook hold – The Grills for one has a notorious ability to shake loose – often because fighting grills… quickly becomes a close combat scenery

The salmon emerges from the deep to grab your dry fly…

Not always successful the angler may be left fish-less with technical questions boggling his mind. Hook-up is a phenomenon within our sport, and complex sketches in almost every book on game fishing will aid the angler to perceive the way of the take

While the angler with the sub-surface fly have been educated how – not to strike. The dry fly angler will have to set the hook as soon as the salmon hits the fly – and the hook will have to find its hold within those precious fractions of a second.

This is rarely an easy task as salmon dry flies often are bulky or big or both. The fly might hook the salmon in the skin of the mouth or hook it by penetrating the tongue or even the jawbone and anglers will on a whole have to depend on: a hook that is physically clear of the fly and a great deal of luck.

 The standard dry fly hook

The conventional salmon dry fly is often tied on a 2 X streamer or a low-water salmon hooks # 8 – 1/0 or even bigger. Hooks like these are made from relatively heavy wire that will need some force to connect with the jaws of the fish…and the angler will have a hard time setting the hook on a long line. Ones hooked on a fly tied on a long shank hook the salmon can break free from its hook-hold using the hook as a lever…

Small hooks work!

We have trough the years worked with a range of hook-manufactures to find the hooks that do best with our tube fly system.

The small single hooks we favour are various coarse-fishing hooks that originally were designed to endure tough fish like; carp and river barbel where the method of hook & hold now and then is required.

Needles to say these hooks will also take the strain from salmon and steelhead

The perfect tube fly hook

These hooks are made from super quality wire often with a relatively short shank, with superior hook point strength and some hooks are even slightly kirbede just adding further hook-ability.

These high-end coarse hooks are already intended for catch & Release either barb-less or fitted with a diminutive barb – leaving insignificant damage to the salmon.

With the small hooks we use on our dry flies we aim to hook the salmon in the skin – inside the mouth or in the outer rim of the mouth as an alternative to going around the jaw or even penetrating the jawbone…

See our page on hooks

☛ Support Mr. Orri Vigfússon and NASF in rescuing the Atlantic salmon – Go to NASF page ! ☚