The Sunray Shadow story

The Sunray Shadow or Brooks Sunray Shadow was initially designed by late British salmon angler Mr Raymond Brooks (Ray Brooks)

In the early 60s, Ray travelled through Norway to find the perfect salmon river. He did so with his wife, Margit. Their favourite river became the Lærdal River which runs to the Sognefjord. A river that had a historic run of big Atlantic salmon and sea trout.

Ray and Margit held the lease for the lærdal (Laerdal) River from 1966 until the mid 90´s when this and other rivers in the region saw a devastating outbreak and infestation of the salmon parasite Gyrodactylus salaris

The Lærdal River is gin clear and of medium size. It is in these fabulous surroundings that Ray Brooks creates the Sunray Shadow fly.  The first fly was done in the early 60s – and the Sunray tube fly soon proved so good that Ray and Margit started production of the fly.

The flies were tied on tubes designed exclusively for the purpose, consisting of an inner and outer tube, allowing a tube fly hook to rest in the back end of the tube.  Hair from monkeys was used in the design of the wing. Initially, the monkey hair came from a fellow angler’s carpet in his living room. Later Ray made a registered pattern on the fly that he named: The Sunray Shadow.

The Sunray fly was tied commercially for the Brooks family by Danish company Lawcock and later with fly tiers in Singapore.

The Sunray Shadow was once tied with hair from a monkey – Today, anglers will substitute monkey hair with material like a goat. Sunray Shadow shown in photo tied with Kashmir goat dyed black – Numerous + 20-kilo salmon have been caught on the Sunray Shadow.

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Længden på forfang og Sneel`s Vindue

Den tekniske betegnelse for den måde hvorved livet under vandet  ser tingen oven vande kaldes Snell`s Vindue. I følge denne viden ser fisk ting på overfladen igennem en kegle med en brede på 96 grader. Det er  i kanten af denne kegle at vi ønsker at placere vores tørflue – Kanten af keglen er således også et sted hvor fisken kan se og blive skræmt af vores forfang. Da vinklen på keglen er ca. 45 grader vil man nogenlunde kunne beregne hvor kanten af Snell`s Vindue er. En lille beregning vil f.eks vise at; en fisk der står på bunden på 6 fod`s dybde (1.8 meter) vil man have kanten af Snell`s Vindue 6 fod foran sig… Således vil du ønske at bruge længere forfang hvis du fisker med tørflue på dybere vand end hvis du fisker på lave elve. Til det meste af mit fiskeri i Finmark (Nordnorge) bruger jeg ganske korte forfang på 6 – 7 fod

Læs mere om Sneel´s Vindue og hvordan du skal placere din tørflue bedst muligt

Mørke Grøn Bomber™

Vi har lavet et par custom farvede Tube Bomber´s til den kommende sæson, den mørke grønne Tube Bomber ™ er en af dem. Denne særlige grønne nuance med det brune hackle og hvid hale/vinge, har vist sig helt eminent ved flere elve i Norge, både i Finmark og på Vestlandet. Det kan være det grønlige vand i nogen elve – eller blot det forhold at elvene løber igennem store skov områder.
Dark Green Tube Bomber ™ kommer i 3 størrelser: X-Small, Small & Big Se alle 3 størrelser i vores butik 

Dark Green Tube Bomber ™. Hackle og krop i de helt rette nuancer til mange norske elve –  Se fluer i vores butik  

Brooks Sunray Shadow

Sunray Shadow: Udviklet af den engelske  fluefisker Raymond Brooks, der fiskede elven Lærdal, igennem 60 – 80`ne . Fluen viste sig at, være sådan en succes at, den entreprenante englænder lod fluen patentere. I dag er der intet patent på fluen, og fluefiskere fra nord til syd, har denne flue i sin æsker.

Vi har lavet Sunray Shadow i to custom udgaver – og selvfølgelig også i den originale version – Alle 3 varianter findes i 2 størrelser.

fly fishing leader sizes and Snell`s Window

The technical term for the way in which underwater life sees thing above water is called Snell `s Window. According to this knowledge fish see`s things on the surface through a cone with a width of 96 degrees. It is at the edge of this cone that we want to position our dry fly – The edge of the cone is also a place where the fish can see and be intimidated by our leader. Since the angle of the cone is approximate. 45 degrees we will roughly be able to calculate where the edge of Snell `s Window is situated. A little calculation will show that e.g, a fish sitting at the bottom of 6 foot of water (1.8 meters) will have the edge of Snell` s Window 6 foot in front of him … Thus, you will want to use longer leaders if you are fishing with dry flies in deeper water than if you fish at low rivers. For most of my fishing in Finnmark (Northern Norway) I use a quite short leader at 6 to 7 feet

Read about Snell`s Window and how you position your fly

The Tube Rat

This is actually a pike pattern that we designed for Danish pike anglers – but quite a few anglers fishing Taimen and Brook trout have already made orders for their upcoming season. Build on our special hitch tube this fly will be a super-light alternative to those big rodent imitations tied on hopeless big long shank hooks. Leverage problems will be solved with this Tube Rat, that will hold a variety of different short shank hooks.

The Tube Rat also comes in a smaller version: Tube Baby Rat See Tube Rats in the shop 

Brooks Sunray Shadow

Sunray Shadow Developed by UK angler Raymond Brooks who fished the Norwegian Salmon River Laerdal through the ’70s and ’80s. The fly was so efficient that Mr Brooks had it patented… Today the pattern has ended and anglers on salmon rivers from north to south will have this deadly pattern in their box.

We have made the fly in two custom editions as well as the original version.. Comes in two sizes

How to work the Sunray for salmon

This long-haired fly much in line with the Collie Dog pattern works perfectly for aggressive freshly run summer salmon – Latter in the season it will work miracles on big male salmon especially in the hour just before and after dusk… The Sunray Shadow is fished down and across as many other regular salmon flies but at times it is much better to fish this fly at high-speed, by casting it straight across and pulling it as fast as you can with both hands… It just seems to be to an irresistible snack to salmon