After some great fishing at Corbet Lough throughout the month of April anglers will be hoping it continues during the month of May. May is usually a very good and popular fishing month and every season there are usually quite a few good overwintered fish, including big Browns, taken on the fly at the Corbet. In May 2016 Darrell McKinley had a fantastic overwintered Rainbow of 6lbs 13ozs on the fly and Gary Chivers had a big Rainbow of 4lbs 8ozs on a Goat’s Toe fly. Lurgan angler Gerard Lyness, who regularly fishes at Corbet Lough, caught a marvellous Rainbow Trout of 6lbs 2ozs on the fly whilst boat fishing at Corbet on 27 April 2017. This is the biggest reported fish caught at Corbet Lough this season. The month of May has started with a pleasant improvement in the weather. There was a number of anglers on the Lough on Bank Holiday Monday 1 May. David and James McCreedy were out for a morning’s boat fishing and they had some great sport with nine fish to the boat on buzzers and diawl bachs. They also hooked and lost a number of other good fish. Darryl Alexander was also out in a boat during the day and he had three good fish. Lance McCarthy, who is a regular boat angler, had a great boat session with six nice fish to the boat. John and Sharon Kinkaid also had a very good boat session with four nice fish. The Club’s adult and juvenile anglers were also fishing at the Corbet in the Jos Willis Cup competitions. Although the fishing was more challenging from the shore the anglers still managed to catch some fantastic fish. Roger McClements won the Jos Willis Cup (adults) with a cracking Rainbow of 3lbs 2ozs on the fly. Dan Tumilty and Davy McCandless were 2nd and 3rd respectively with very good Rainbows of 2lbs 15ozs and 2lbs 14ozs. Young angler Sam Curran won the Jos Willis Cup (juveniles) with a nice Rainbow of 1lb 15ozs which he caught on the spinner. Sam fished hard all day and he thoroughly deserved his success. On Thursday 4 May the conditions were bright and a bit blustery. Experienced boat anglers Gerard Lyness and Tom King ventured out and they were rewarded with five nice fish to the boat. On Saturday 6 May the conditions were still blustery but the junior anglers fishing in the Bill Gault Glazing Cup competition still caught some very good fish. Adam Morrow won the Cup with a great Rainbow of 2lbs 15ozs. Issac Diamond was 2nd with good fish of 2lbs 7ozs and Niall Tumelty was 3rd with a nice fish of 2lbs 6ozs. The Club’s next Junior competition is for the Superfry Cup at Corbet Lough on 3 June 2017. On Sunday 7 May the blustery conditions abated and the boat fishing immediately improved at Corbet. Stephen Henry and William Cochrane had a great morning’s boat fishing with four fish to the boat and a number of other fish hooked and lost. On Thursday 11 May Stephen and Andrew Rea had some fantastic fishing with sixteen fish to the boat. Gerard Lyness and Tom King also had great sport with eighteen fish to the boat. Phillip Spence and James Murray, day ticket anglers from Comber and Newtownards, had a brilliant day’s fishing. They took a 12 hour boat session and had fantastic fishing with forty cracking fish. On Saturday 13 May the Club’s adult anglers were fishing on the River Bann in the Shooter Cup competition. After the recent spell of dry weather the river is very low. However on the day the weather conditions were favourable with good cloud cover and occasional drizzle. Colin Crothers won the Cup with a nice fish better than 1lb. Noel Burns and Martin Dynes were 2nd and 3rd respectively with fish just under 1lb. On Thursday 18 May Terry Gault was out on the Corbet Lough and he had a great two hour boat session with eight nice fish to the boat. On Friday 19 May Denis Lucas had some fantastic sport with ten fish to the boat. On Saturday 20 May Banbridge Angling Club hosted the annual competition against The Black Pennells for The Corbet Lough Challenge Cup. The two Club’s fish this competition on a ‘catch and release’ basis. The catch return for the competition was a fantastic eighty six fish. The top two boats were Adrian McAnarney / Darrell McKinley and Kenny Balfour / David McCreedy with twenty fish to each boat. Trevor Jones, Banbridge Angling Club had a cracking Rainbow of just over 4lbs. At the end of the day The Pennells took the honours and the Cup with a winning margin of ten fish. On Thursday 25 May Gerard Lyness and Tom King had another great day’s fishing with twenty eight fish to the boat. William Cochrane had four nice fish up to 3lbs 8ozs to the boat in a few hours. George Darby and Ron Hutchinson also had four good fish to the boat in a few hours. In the evening Andy Mitchell and John Dumigan had some great sport with twelve fish to the boat. On Friday 26 May Stephen and Matthew Henry had some great fishing with eleven good fish to the boat. Stephen was catching regularly on a DI line and traditional wet flies and he had seven fish while Matthew struggled. Matthew then copied his dad’s tactics and ended the session with four fish. On Saturday 27 May the Club’s competition anglers fished for the Dominic Downey Cup (adults) and the Paddy Downey Cup (juveniles) at Corbet. The fishing from the shore was very challenging. The anglers put this down to the thundery conditions. Keith Gibson won the Dominic Downey Cup with the only fish of the day. The Club’s next competition is for the Patsy McGivern Shield (adults) and the Patsy McGivern Trophy (juveniles) at the Corbet Lough on Friday 2 June. This is an evening competition and the anglers will be hoping to take a few fish during the evening rise. On Monday 29 May Stephen Henry and David McCreedy had a great boat session. They both used DI lines and traditional wets and had fourteen good fish to the boat. In the evening the Corbet was busy with a number of boats out for the evening rise. Geoff Hylands, Damian Murtagh and Darryl Alexander were all catching regularly just around sunset. The Boat Attendants are reporting that there has been some fantastic rises at the Corbet during the past few week, particularly in the evenings. Visiting anglers and occasional anglers are reminded that boats are now available up to 9:30pm. In addition you can now purchase the Corbet Lough Evening Ticket (from 5pm) for just £11. Please phone the Boat Attendants’ Office at Corbet Lough in advance for full details and to book a boat to avoid disappointment. The above photograph shows Gerard Lyness with the marvellous Rainbow of 6lbs 2ozs which he caught on the fly at Corbet on 27 April 2017.