Orange prawn flies like the GP, The Chilimps and Ally’s Scrimp, to mention a few – Have a substantial effect on sea trout and salmon living in peaty water – Why? White light (daylight) is divided into all the colours of the rainbow – and the different colours that the light is made up of will disappear through water – in peaty water, the last colour to fade is; red.

Heavy Metal GP tied on a bullet tube.

This variant of the General Practitioner is yet another fly designed for a special presentation. It has caught me much fish over the years and has a particular goal; it is the fly I bring out when the fish is hanging close to the edge of the other river bank of a medium river. A cast straight across could be the only way to cover the specific lie – The General Practitioner will only have a few seconds to find the depth of the fish before the fly line starts pulling away. This is the time for the Heavy Metal General Practitioner. If tied correctly, this fly looks like a crustacean.

Sea run brown (sea trout) Caught on Heavy Metal GP

Picture of a Skjern River sea run brown caught in a small pothole on the opposite river bank – on a Heavy Metal General Practitioner – Picture with courtesy of Mr Jens Bursell

Thin 1, 4-millimetre tubing melted in one end to form a collar. Hook guard in place (here red tubing – clear tubing will also do) – Note the yellow line sticking out of the tube to the right: It is nylon mono 0.40 millimetre. I use it to put through the eye of the needle to wedge the tubing onto the needle, preventing it from revolving.

Buy tubing and the needle from the E-shop

Cut the centre out of a hot orange Golden Pheasant tippet feather to form a V-shaped feather. Place this on top of the fly, as seen in the photo. Fly seen from above. Tie in a length of silver rib. The tippet feather-like many other feathers, is a highly efficient salmon attractor worth implementing in all kinds of sub-flies

Tie in a body of wool. Here I have used hot orange seal fur. Regular wool will also do. Run the ribbing through the body, and plug the hairs out – No hackle is needed in the construction

Seen from the side, the General Practitioner should look something like this

Tie down the hook guard – Apply super-glue or fly-tying cement to tie down the tube where the metal section will sit – Slide down the copper bullet. Bullets like this can be bought in various sizes and colours.

Cut a bunch of hot orange hairs out. Here hair from a polar bear. Separate small from long hair, and start by tying in the bundle of short hair. Put the longer hair on top of this bundle. Tying the General Practitioner in this way will prevent the hair from getting caught in the bend of the hook/hooks

Tie in a uniform Golden Pheasant breast feather, flat on the top of the fly. Here seen from above. The feather has to be tied in perfectly – straight on top. This is the difficult part of this type of fly. If you don’t get it right, the fly won’t work probably

Freshly spawned Heavy Metal General Practitioner

Trim away the execs tube – Add super-glue to the head…Hook and leader and a salmon or trout river

Sea trout hooked on a copper US-tube General Practitioner.

Copper Bottle tube variation – fly

 General Practitioner tied on a copper bottle tube

Bottle tube used in the same way as the bullet tube –

Monster Tube Caddis ™ we tie them in three sizes: Small, large and X-Large..and then we do some costume flies for a guy in Canada… They are absolutely big: 80 millimetre (3 inches)  – Without the horns

Absolutely stunning 17,1 kilo (37,7 Lb.) Salmon caught on Monster Tube Caddis ™ in Northern Norway 2010. Picture with courtesy of the Haugen family.

In this next lines of photos we will show you how to dress a: Monster Tube Caddis ™ a pattern popular for big salmon sitting in slow holding pools. Particularly big salmon is slow takers and angler must keep this in mind when presenting a fly to them. A bigger fish might decide to come top the top on the  8  or 10`th  cast- sometimes following the fly downstream for many meters.

Photo: The late Mr. Kim Nyborg with one of 6 + 20 lb salmon from the Lower Humber in Newfoundland. All fish caught on medium size Monster Tube Caddis

Tube Bomber ™ : Big dry flies with no weight or problems with leverage

Above: White Tube Bomber ™ well up the leader with this hooked Atlantic Salmon – This makes de-hooking easy – And the fish can’t use the long fly as a lever

Hooks to use with the Tube Bomber

We recommend a short shank wide gape hook at the end of the Tube Bomber  – This will give you a perfect hook-up. You can change to single, double or treble hooks according to your choice, the flow of the river or the rules of the Riverkeeper.

Read more on the hooks we suggest for the Tube Bomber …

Tying The Tube Bomber ™

Start by heating the end of the tube near a naked flame thereby creating a small collar on the tube.  – This collar will prevent the hook guard from falling-off during energetic casting. Note of warning! Not all types of tube will melt and form a collar when heated – most tubing will catch fire etc. – It is the melting point of the material that is of importance – If you use the right quality tube such a collar will easily form

For small/medium diameter tube flies or metal tubes with inner-lining tubing – Bottle tubes, but more than anything this needle is designed for big and small tube dry flies like the Tube Bomber. Shaped to fit our 1.8 mm. tube with an inside diameter (Ø) of 1.1 mm. The total length is 97 mm. A needle that will enable you to tie big tube dry flies. See the special needle in our shop

A very special caddisfly imitation

Monster Tube Caddis ™, with its vibrant appearance, has a strong effect on Atlantic salmon across the Northern Hemisphere. Especially large multi-sea winter salmon seem attracted to this fly in both big and smaller versions. We have had many anglers test-fishing this fly in various shades of brown – and have found that the light brown version works best – We use Coch-Y-Bonddu feathers in light brown or ginger.

It is not necessary to match the hatch in all aspects. This Monster Tube Caddis ™ is more a caricature than an imitation of the limnephilidae caddisfly that it is meant to portrait Go shopping

Danish salmon angler par excellence, Mr Henrik Mortensen, with a bright salmon from the Bonaventure River – caught on a medium size  Monster Tube Caddis ™

Finnmark – Norway August 1994 the Caddisfly river

A unique pool I fish seems to be a regular caddisfly incubator, with deep, slow water at the head of the pool – Rocks protruding here and there. When the time is right, 1000’s caddisfly insects will rise from the river and climb to safety on the boulders – like that shipwrecked person climbing onto the classic islands with only sand and that solitary palm tree.

Small salmon hooked on a Monster Tube Caddis ™ – Note how the fly slides freely on the leader.

It was with anticipation and to the beat of my heart I made my way down the narrow trail that led to the pool – The evening had been the start of the hatch of 1000´s of caddisfly insects and the early light of the morning had revealed a shoal of salmon that had moved into the pool during night. During the day I had tied a crude looking version of a caddisfly imitation, and was now ready for the salmon that had settled in the pool. I was surprised to see that some of the fish had moved down to the tail of the pool. Normally I would only see salmon falling back at night-time  – But these fish where acting just like brown trout on a summer’s day – feeding away on drifting caddisflies. I soon hooked up with salmon on the dead-drifting caddisfly imitation that I named the Monster Tube Caddis

Two bright summer salmon caught on Monster Tube Caddis ™ during a big hatch of caddisfly – The river was crawling with insects, and the local trout and salmon parr was eating away at the insects at a frantic speed… Salmon in the pool acted like trout participating in the feast –  Both fish were hooked the first time seeing the fly.

The caddisfly – an overlooked insect in the world of salmon fishing

During summer, many different hatching insects will make their way up from the river bed, some more distinctive than others but all of significant interest to the salmon parr and its trout cousin. These freshwater insects, with their many appearances, serve as their main diet throughout their life as parr and their impact on the growing salmon and trout is a cornerstone in our fly fishing – But the caddisfly is rarely directly portrayed in flies for salmon. Both the larva and the adult insect is present at the river from spring to late autumn, and especially on days with many insects on the water, the salmon and trout parr will focus on the hunt for the caddisfly.

Monster Tube Caddis: Designed to be fished at dead drift

We fish the Monster Tube Caddis at absolute Dead-drift…but we have also received reports from various anglers in Canada and Norway who have had success with a stop-and-go retrieve. The tail of the Monster Tube Caddis has strands of Mylar built-in – We initially put the strands there to keep track of the fly out on the dark water. Anglers fishing for landlocked salmon in Newfoundland have told us how they caught more fish on the fly while the mylar was present – and then fewer fish when the strands of mylar eventually were pulled off by fish.

The Monster Tube Caddis is a favoured fly for Atlantic salmon in Newfoundland

A fly pattern might be perfect for one kind of river, or it may be useful in one region and less so in another. After our initial success with the Monster Tube Caddis in the mid 90’s we made contact with some guides and anglers in Newfoundland. Some where sceptical towards the big insect imitation – but others immediately had success and called us to get new flies. Today the Monster Tube Caddis is widely used on rivers on Newfoundland and mainland Canada

Read what a Newfoundland guide wrote us

Big salmon: 40 by 21 inches from the Lower Humber caught on Monster Tube Caddis ™. Picture; With curtsy of Mr. Mark Butcher

 2010 Fishmadman competition winner

Winner of the 2010 Fishmadman competition Mr Joakim Haugen from North Norway with a giant 17 kg. + salmon (37,7 lb) caught on the Monster Tube Caddis ™ Read the story

Dry fly on the Gaspe River

The late Mr Ian Martin, with a beautiful summer salmon from the Gaspe River – caught on the Monster Tube Caddis. Read more from Mr Ian Martin

Yet another from the Gaspe River

The late Mr. Ian Martin with 44 inches (ca. 36 lb.) caught on the Monster Tube Caddis

A much different Monster Tube Caddis made for steelhead

The WAKE version of our Monster Tube Caddis – A design we have perfected over the last years – Is designed for steelhead fishing – but also proved to work for salmon in lakes and rivers – A unique caddisfly imitation to bring curious fish to the top.

Buy the Wake Monster Tube Caddis

Mr Tom Derry, Director of Wild Steelhead Funding Native Fish Society and avid steelhead angler favours the wake Monster Tube Caddis when fishing steelhead on the top. Here with a tight line on the Babine River.

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

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.

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 

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

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!

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.

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

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

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

For 2020 Our series of Speed Sunray Shadow

It’s a pretty bold statement but also something we believe in as we have developed this sport over the last decade and seen salmon behaviour we have never seen before.
Speed-fly fishing relates to spinning, and the action is heart-stopping great.
Cast the fly across the river or even upstream and rip it in as fast as possible…That is the basics, and once you get to know the procedure, you will see salmon chasing your fly across the river, often hitting it in a great splash.
It’s a form of fishing that works excellent on salmon the first, second and 3´rd cast; after that…the salmon won’t come to the fly that eagerly …so it is worth practising a bit before you visit your favourite known salmon lies.

The series of Speed Sunray flies was the natural development of our series of Iridescent Sunray flies (from 2016) – and in time (when the last of the iridescent Sunray Shadow flies have sold out), the Speed Sunray series will take their place in the shop.

See these great flies in our shop.

 

2022 – a smart tube design made for coneheads

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 family.  Normally 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.

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.

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

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

Zebra 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

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

2016 The iridescent Sunray Shadow series

2019 The Hitchman Series

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

For 2021 Specially designed needles for tube flies