Sunray Shadow

The Sunray Shadow was designed by Ray Brooks in the 1960s to catch Atlantic Salmon on the Laerdal River in Norway. Another fly that is simple to tie but an absolute killer once the salmon will come to the surface. The fly essentially comprises a long hair wing (fox, monkey etc) on a plastic tube, with some stiffer materials such as bucktail underneath to prevent the tail from being tangled around the hook, and with a bit of flash and peacock herl to act as an attractor. Although the fly is intended to be fished at or very near the surface, in most faster rivers, you do need just a little weight to keep the fly from skittering on the surface so these here, originally tied for Russia, have a cone head. Given the fly is a silhouette on the surface, you can argue that black is the only colour required, but they wouldn't be Prettyflies without a bit of colour!