River Onny, Shropshire

With the trout fishing season closing this coming Friday, I was anxious for one last fishing trip. Like manna from heaven, my call was answered. Out of the blue I received an email last week from a fellow West Midlands based fly fisherman, Spencer Clayton, with a welcome invitation to join him for a day on the River Onny, a tributary of the River Teme in Shropshire. Always keen to try a new river, I accepted the offer with little hesitation. 

When the day arrived, I caught a train to the small town of Craven Arms, changing trains in Shrewsbury, and met Spencer at the station. The section of river we fished was just on the outskirts of the town and we walked there, chatting about fishing along the way.

Flowing close to the town and the busy Shrewsbury-Ludlow road, it’s understandably not the most tranquil setting for a day’s river fishing. There were a fair number of dog walkers along the banks and, as is customary, at least one was throwing a stick for his dog to collect from the most promising looking pool of all. It shows how spoilt I’ve been this season to have felt a little “crowded out” by the presence of a few dog walkers and the noise of traffic! Having said that, the Onny is a stream with an interesting mix of riffle and deeper pools, and a good head of wild trout, grayling and chub, making for varied and interesting fishing. I really had no reason to complain because it turned out to be a good day of fishing. 

I snuck up on the water on my haunches and cast my fly into the shadows beneath low hanging tree branches. It was sumptuous looking water, dark and inviting, and I was surprised not to draw a rise from a fish. As my fly reached the end of its gentle drift, a fish rose against the left bank, only a little way upstream, where a tiny island of grass divided the current. I crept forward and with my Hardy wand I sent my fly into the bubble line and a trout engulfed it. It was a lovely way to open my Onny account.

At the risk of my posts sounding a little repetitive, the river was the lowest both Spencer and the local farmer, who came to collect his fee, had ever seen it. A good spell of rain is needed to flush our local rivers clean and raise the water level.

Despite the low water the trout seemed to be active and we managed to do just fine, as long as we maintained a stealthy approach. Spencer caught a lovely trout with a buttery yellow underside. 

Spencer with a trout

Spencer has many years’ experience fishing the Onny and he seemed to know it like the back of his hand. When I mentioned that I had never caught a chub before, he confidently said, “don’t worry, you will get one today.” It was a prediction which soon came true when we came across a shoal of chub and trout. Being low to the water, I couldn’t see them, but high on the bank and concealed behind trees Spencer could spot them and call out their location. I cast out an olive Klinkhamer to the shoal and within seconds a gentle swirl engulfed the fly. I struck successfully and played a species guessing game for a few seconds as the fish clung to the riverbed, eventually surfacing to reveal strange orange fins and silver diamond-shaped scales. A chub! I was ecstatic to catch a new species on the fly.

We found some good water depth upstream, where the banks had been left to grow wild, and where the fishing was noticeably better. With the trees showing the first signs of Autumn, it was very pretty water. 

It was a day when trout predominated the catch, the largest of them around 10". As the evening approached, I had caught eight trout plus the single chub. At the very end of the day, under the dark canopy of trees, I caught a grayling. It was the first time of course that I had caught all three species in a single day and this milestone made it a memorable and fitting end to the season. Exactly half of the fish had fallen to an olive Klinkhamer, whilst the rest had taken a collection of weighted and unweighted nymphs. 

The largest trout of the day at 10"

My thanks to Spencer for introducing me to the Onny and generously showing me a few of its secrets.

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