A squirrel in Western Europa could very well look like this guy …very bright red in its colouration – Here is one from my garden in Denmark, where this colour of the squirrel is the dominant genetic line of the Sciurus vulgaris (Eurasian red squirrel) – once black squirrels were the dominant genetic version in Denmark …now it is rare to see all black squirrels in my part of Scandinavia.

Finding the right material for Riffling Hitch flies is important. The wake of the Riffling Hitch fly might be the key point – But the fly and the way it is built is what generate the wake.

Take time to select the perfect squirrel tail

We buy many tails to select the best possible tails for our V-FLY; we want a squirrel tail with thin hair, as we have found that flies tied from this hair have superior fishing abilities when hitching for Atlantic salmon…

We are proud to offer specially selected Silver tip squirrel tails (Eastern Grey squirrel)

We have been scouting for a supplier of silver tip tails that we could trust to harvest the tails when the hairs had the right texture.

We managed to find a Game Warden in the UK that knew what we were looking for –

Richard, a salmon and trout angler, promised to help us with our extraordinary project.

Setting traps for squirrels is part of Richards’s daytime job – and by doing so at the right time of year, we have secured a small stock of these first-rate Riffling Hitch tails.

Buy tails from us

Barred Brown Squirrel tail – Small Pine Squirrel

We occasionally carry these tiny Pine Squirrel tails in our shop – Take the rare opportunity to buy a perfect squirrel tail for your riffling hitch and other micro tube flies.

Find them here

Russian Flying Squirrel

A tiny squirrel tail – and very hard to find – Some of the finest fly-tying material we have ever seen.

Siberian Pygmy Squirrel

The smallest squirrel we have ever seen – and some of the finest hair we have ever come across – Most  likely not your everyday roadkill fly-tying material

Himalayan  Squirrel

Rare squirrel material quite close to its cousin, the small pine squirrel

Chinese Pine Squirrel

Similar to its US cousin but much softer – A nice tail for small and medium salmon flies

Eurasian red squirrel – the black version

Eurasian red squirrel, as they formally are known (Scientific Name: Sciurus vulgaris), is a squirrel species widespread across Northern Europa and the vast forest land of Russia where some squirrels are caught in traps and their pelt is used for various garments – Truly great material. Super quality and perfect for miniature patterns like riffling hitch flies and any other fly pattern designed to lure trout, salmon and char. The Eurasian red squirrel is found in colour variations ranging from jet-black to almost ginger red Buy it from us

Eurasian red squirrel

Here in a black coloured version

– Buy it from us

Eurasian red squirrel

Here is a browner coloured version

– Buy it from us

Fox squirrel

The fox squirrel (Sciurus niger), the eastern fox squirrel or Bryant’s fox squirrel, is the largest tree squirrel native to North America. Great material for bigger or very bushy flies – less efficient for smaller patterns.

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! ☚