diff --git a/vcsh b/vcsh
index edb91fac2d5e9663fb4e6a5a65e761c777fb3755..898bdb54bf192d9112b73cb3d5eb63e98d86ef32 100755
--- a/vcsh
+++ b/vcsh
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ clone() {
 		info "remote is empty, not merging anything"
 		exit
 	fi
-	git fetch
+	git fetch origin "$VCSH_BRANCH"
 	hook pre-merge
 	git ls-tree -r --name-only origin/master | (while read object; do
 		[ -e "$object" ] &&