Jesper Fohrmann | Fishmadman.com http://www.fishmadman.com Dry fly fishing for salmon and steelhead with Bomber dry flies - Riffling Hitch and wake fly techniques Mon, 15 May 2023 13:10:57 +0000 en-US hourly 1 34674374 Thoughts on iridescent material in fishing http://www.fishmadman.com/archives/21704 http://www.fishmadman.com/archives/21704#_comments Sun, 24 Nov 2019 15:15:03 +0000 http://www.fishmadman.com/?p=21704

A substantial percentage of the food Atlantic salmon and steelhead eat at high seas is fish, often small silverfish like capelin and sand-eel, as seen in the photo below. These and many other baitfish and various sea worms have some form of iridescent colour structure in their colouration and iridescence as colour may very well play a part in the way prey and bait play hide and seek in the ocean –
In this highly advanced hide-and-seek game, we may assume that the predators have abilities and detecting skills to get them close to the prey. Glimpses of light shimmering on an iridescent surface could be a critical element that brings the predators closer to the baitfish they are looking for.

What do salmon eat at sea? Read more and see the great images of the food they eat in this article

sandlancer sandeel tobis salmon eat

The proof is in the pudding.

Sand eel or sandlancer. A favoured meal for Atlantic salmon and steelhead. A fly like The Sunray shadow is a perfect representation of these gleaming and erratic fish

What is Iridescence?

Iridescent: Opalescent, shimmering, luminous, glittering, sparkling, dazzling, shining, gleaming, kaleidoscopic, rainbow-coloured – We have many words for this lovely-looking material that we find with animals on land and in water –
Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is a luminous colour that seems to change when seen from different angles. It is often created by structural colouration.

A highly efficient riffling hitch fly with an iridescent head

Hitchman riffling hitch fly

The recent season I have developed a series of riffling hitch flies where I have incorporated the iridescent properties in the form of iridescent pixel flakes attached to the head of the fly a method I also have used on sub-surface flies. The series of flies is called the Hitchman flies and is available through our fly store.

Atlantic salmon on riffling hitch fly
hitchman riffling hitch tube fly

A tiny shimmering Green Hitchman fly – The perfect fly for Atlantic salmon in fast low water

Iridescent material on sea trout lureres for low water costal fishing

Fohrmann Fly
Undertaker by Jesper Fohrmann
  • A # 6 Zonker fly from the ’90s. Here I have mixed iridescent pixel flakes into the glue to create a somewhat see-through body (the underlying body on the zonker fly is a regular black wool thread.
  • A # 12 undertaker – with the head covered in iridescent pixels – The choice of background (in this case, black tying thread) is part of the finished result when the iridescent pixels is added to the fly.
  • I use a tiny, skinny sea trout fly (# 12) for finicky fish. The head + body is covered with fly-tying thread …then glued with superglue and sprinkled with iridescent pixel flakes.

Over the years I have used the properties of shimmering iridescent material on my coastal sea trout lures and flies and have never looked back sins then.
The green iridescent colouration is effective stuff when you’re targeting fish near the surface (0 – 3 meters down) in clear waters.

Jesper Fohrmann sea trout bait
Jesper Fohrmann

Here are two coastal sea trout lures (1/2 – 1 Oz.). I designed it back in the ’90s

Iridescent apex lure jesper Fohrmann

Iridescent pixel flakes also used on this homemade, highly efficient APEX lure from the ’90s

Iridescent material used on steelhead wake flies

We wanted to make our flies easier to find out on the rough water or in low light conditions and added foam with iridescent properties to the flies – little did we think that the iridescent material would increase the actual catch returns – but it did make the flies more attractive. Consequently, we incorporate the iridescent EVA foam in several fly patterns.
It may be a tiny glimpse of the green iridescent material that spurs the fish to make the tour to the surface…

 

 

Here is the Flashback Bug, a favoured Steelhead fly… If you like to try it, see it in our shop here

iridescent pixels

How to – with iridescent pixels

The pixels will act differently on various colour backgrounds; I have had the best result on a plain black background. I use super-glue as finishing varnish on the head of the flies and sprinkle the pixels into the still vet super-glue while I rotate the fly in the fly-tying vice

Iridescent pixelsce material in fly tying

Many shades of iridescent

The iridescent pixels are made in many shades, and the result varies greatly when applied to a specific coloured background – See the different types of iridescent pixel flakes in our shop on rifflinghitch.com here.

In the image, you can see some of the many colourations of pixels when applied to a black background.

MAKE A PIXEL HEAD - How to use iridescent pixels in fly tying

Danish story on iridescent material in fishing

If you read Danish (Scandinavian) below you will find an article I made in the ’90s about my initial experiments with iridescent material and low water fishing.

 

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Our Team http://www.fishmadman.com/fishmadmanwho/our-team Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:12:40 +0000 http://www.fishmadman.com/pages/?page_id=939
Jim Jorgensen Fishmadman

Jim Jørgensen

Jim is the new guy on the block – But a seasoned angler that prefers dry fly fishing for trout and grayling, Pike fly fishing and weeks of saltwater fishing…

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Micro tube fly

Per Fischer

Per Fischer: Who has worked as Purchaser and Product Specialist on Rio Fly lines, Simms, Hardy And Greys Per Fischer is on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn I’m here to answer…

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jesper Fohrmann

Jesper Fohrmann

Jesper Fohrmann: Who has worked as freelance journalist, photographer sins 1982 and has contributed to numerous books and articles on fly fishing in Scandinavia, Europa  and the USA. Jesper also does…

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About us and tube fly http://www.fishmadman.com/fishmadmanwho Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:45:29 +0000 http://www.fishmadman.com/pages/?page_id=5
Ubber Humber salmon Bomber dry fly fishing

Surface fly fishing and tube fly is the anchor point in Fishmadman – Through our own passion for top water fishing  for salmon and trout we hope we will be able to share some interesting highlight of  this intriguing fly fishing sport

What is fishmadman.com?

 

 

Fishmadman is a company made by anglers for anglers.

We started out in 2008 as an Internet page collecting information on surface fishing for Atlantic salmon and steelhead.

Our goal was to make surface fishing, particularly dry fly fishing for salmon, popular in Scandinavia. We also aim to make the tube fly part of the North American angler’s range of fly patterns

Top water creativity – From our shop

Today Fishmadman manufacture a broad selection of flies mainly for surface fishing. We also design tubes for tube fly fishing and other unique fly-tying material.

fishmadman web shop

Our products are sold through our internet shop – and 28 shops from Oregon in the USA to Skaidi in the North of Norway.

Fishmadman has a big range of super-designed flies that will give you new possibilities in your fishing.

We have some of the best people in the business tying flies with us – Why? Because top water flies have to be perfect to perform well on the surface – Visit our shop  Buy salmon & steelhead flies

fly fishing for salmon

Do you want to sell our products in your shop?

If you have a shop or run a guiding business and want to sell our products, please fill out the form, and we will contact you as soon as possible.

If you become our business partners, we will ensure you get all necessary product photos, individual product information, fact boxes and an extensive portfolio of fishing photos to market our products.

To see shops that carry our flies, please.

Contact us to get information on wholesale

Things we have worked with

White Tube Bomber

1995 The first floating tube fly

We fished the rivers of Scandinavia with conventional dry flies every year. Still, in the mid 90´s, Jesper Fohrmann designed a new set of dry flies tied on a tube – The design was made as a consequence of the problems he was having with drowning dry flies fished on a big turbulent river in Northern Norway.

Here: Bomber dry fly tied on a plastic tube – a very different tube fly!

Styling The Tube Bomber

Different tube fly designs

We developed a long line of salmon dry flies that would suit the many different rivers in Scandinavia.

Contact with anglers from the East coast of Canada meant that we also made versions of Tube Bombers that would fit North American rivers.

tube fly tubing

Tube fly products – a matter of dedication

2009 Designing a unique tube for fly tying

Tube used for tube fly is rarely produced for fly tying and fishing flies – Often, it is a by-product made for something completely different.

Tying big dry flies on tubes, we were pushing the limit to what run-of-the-mill tubes could be used for, and not even the best tubes weren’t good enough for our production.  Ultimately we started designing our hard tube in 2009 – A expensive but rewarding project that inspired us to take things even further:

tube fly design

2011 We made the ultimate tube for Riffling Hitch and Wake flies

Fishmadman Riffling Hitch Tube  Is yet another specialized tube fly tube we have designed for our Riffling Hitch and wake flies – Again, we regard this as the best tube on the market – nothing less.. The tube is firm but still soft enough to withstand anglers inserting hooks in the rear of the tube fly.

Absolutely “low-memory” properties within the plastic compound ensure the tube will fall back into place after removing the hook.

(our hitch fly design does not involve a hook guard – the hook goes straight into the tube)

The special plastic formula used for the tubes also prevents the tube from cracking up in challenging temperatures.

Read more about tubes for tube flies

Wake fly design

2012 we launch our wake fly series

In 2012, we launched our wake fly series for steelhead and salmon.

Small dens wake flies for salmon fishing and bigger wake flies for steelhead fishing, all tied on our fantastic Riffling Hitch tube 3.2 millimetres –

Together with steelheaders and guides from steelhead lodges in Oregon and BC, We had been working on these tube flies for some seasons before launching them – We had to make sure that the transition from regular hook patterns to patterns tied on a tube would work – They worked better than we could ever have dreamed of. We hope many anglers will try this new way of skating tube fly patterns for salmon and steelhead.

See our page on.

See the comprehensive shop page on wake flies Buy salmon & steelhead flies

Iridescent closed-cell foam for fly tying

For 2014 a new type of Iridescent closed-cell foam for bug´s

In correlation with the development of wake flies for steelhead in 2012, we made a new type of closed-cell foam that we also decided to share with other anglers. Softer foam than typically found will enable you to tie tiny bugs.

A shimmering attractive back will give your flies a very lifelike look

Scandinavian Pike flies

For 2017 Our series of Pike flies

Pike fly-fishing is a big sport in Scandinavia where the magnificent Baltic Sea run between Finland, Sweden, the Baltic states, Russia, Poland, Germany, and Denmark – 10000 of keen anglers fish for huge pike with flies made to imitate; whitefish, herring, sprats, juvenile cod and small pike – With the Fishmadman pike fly series our master Pro tier; Jim Jørgensen have done what he does best – and you will get some of the best pike flies available See the flies in our shop

Speed Sunray Shadow

For 2020 Our series of Speed Sunray Shadow

Try a form of salmon fly fishing that will change your sport for good…

cone-head-tube

2022 – a smart tube design made for coneheads

Monster Tube Caddis

1995 Caddisfly imitation for Atlantic salmon

The Monster Tube Caddis ™ was designed in 1995. This summer was a big year for the caddisfly of the limnephilidae familyNormally the Atlantic salmon is not known to eat anything on their way to the spawning grounds – but these fish in the very north of Norway were feasting away on the wealth of insects, and an imitation of the caddisfly was needed.

Like Lee Wulff in the late ’20s had designed his White Wulff as a huge version of a mayfly – so did, Jesper Fohrmann also create a caricature-like version of the caddisfly insect. This big caddisfly caricature has proven to be an excellent dry fly for salmon.

Bomber hook ?

Solving problems with leverage

Using thin tubes instead of long shank hooks for dry flies and other surface flies made the world of surface fishing much different.

We use tubes that could be fitted with small short shank wide gape carp hooks that hook the fish perfectly.

The tube does not work as a lever as the long shank hook so often will do – and upon hooking the fish, the hook often becomes detached from the tube – enabling you to unhook the fish with greater ease.

Tying dry flies on a tube also made dry flies that would perform much differently to those tied on a long shank hook, making them easier to cast and present  – a decrease in weight by up to + 30 % also made them float better.

2010 We made the best hook guard on the market

In 2010, we designed a new hook guard that wouldn’t take in water as opposed to the silicone hook guard we had used.

Silicone tubing will take in up to 15 % water – so it was not quite the perfect tube for dry and wake flies. We worked with people producing high-end pharmaceutical equipment and finally made tubing that would suit all our needs.

Zebra Sunray Shadow

Tube flies below the surface

We also work with tube fly design for sub-fly fishing – it could be big Sunray Shadow flies to pull cross current or tiny tubes to fish in the surface layer…  Overall, we try our best to cover those aspects of salmon and trout fly fishing that interest us.

All of our sub-surface flies are tied on our Riffling Hitch tube

ZEBRA GOAT

2012 and a new line of fly tying material:  Sunray Zebra Shadow ™

In 2012, we designed a new material for the win of salmon flies. It is a Himalayan Goat with bands  – We needed the material for big Sunray Shadow flies and took the time and effort to develop this product to be ready for fly tiers at salmon and steelhead rivers.

See Sunray Zebra Shadow fly tying in our shop Buy salmon & steelhead flies

Zebra goat from FishmadmanZebra Goat ™ A new animal – And a new and interesting material to tie on a big tube fly

To see how to work with this exclusive material – See our page on the Sunray Shadow fly

Frances Fly box

2015 we started our Frances fly project

Doing what we think is best is to develop utterly perfect salmon and steelhead flies that our friends and we would tie on the leader. Such flies are the series of micro Frances flies we have made on Partridge hooks – Long crispy feelers – Specially dyed Icelandic wool for the body – Silver plated wire for the rib – Hair from Tanuki Fox dyed by us….hair is from the paws of the animal to give the best texture – See them in the shop

Sunray Shadow iridescent Green BIG # 53-110 - 130 mm.

2016 The iridescent Sunray Shadow series

Gold Hitchman riffling hitch fly

2019 The Hitchman Series

Hitchman riffling hitch tube

2019 The development of the Pixel-Head

The Pixel-Head technique is an approach to make surface flies look even better – we use it on our Hitchman fly series and have also used this fly tying detail on Sunray Shadow flies …with great success

Read more here

See material for this unique design in the shop here

Tube fly needle

For 2021 Specially designed needles for tube flies

The Fishmadman tube fly team

Per Fischer
A Fishmadman

Per Fischer: Who has worked as Purchaser and Product Specialist on Rio Fly lines, Simms, Hardy, And Greys

Per Fischer is on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

I’m here to answer any questions about our products and services. Feel free to contact me using any of the following methods:

Email: fishmadman@gmail.com

Managing director

Jim Jorgensen Fishmadman

New Fishmadman on the block

Jim is the new guy on the block – But a seasoned angler that prefers dry fly fishing for trout  – Pike fly fishing, and weeks of saltwater fishing for GT´s

Jim is now part of Fishmadman as we need his excellent skills in fly tying, especially those skills that produce some of Scandinavia’s best pike flies  – If you in need of advice on pike fly fishing in Scandinavia…Jim’s your guy

Responsible for product development

Email: jim@fishmadman.com

Jesper Fohrmann
A Fishmadman

Jesper Fohrmann: He has been a freelance journalist and photographer since 1982 and has contributed to numerous books and articles on fly fishing in Scandinavia, Europa,  and the USA. Jesper also does guiding for salmon anglers in Scotland.

Last but not least, Jesper Fohrmann does video editing

I’m here to answer any questions about our products and services. Feel free to contact me using any of the following methods:

Email: jesper@fishmadman.com

Skype: Fishmadman

Responsible for product development

Read what the anglers think of Fishmadman

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