The Corbet Lough is the home fishery of Geoffrey Hylands, World Cup Winner 2017. The Corbet Lough Day Ticket and the Corbet Lough Concession Day Ticket, at just £16 each for a day’s fishing and a four fish bag limit, is excellent value for money. On Friday 1 September Brendan Downey was out on the Corbet for a few hours. There was a fantastic rise with the fish feeding hard on buzzers. He had a couple of good fish up to about 3lbs to the boat. He also hooked and lost a number of other good fish. On Saturday 2 September the Club’s adult competition anglers had an outing on the River Bann for the Gowdy Cup. It was hard fishing. Colin Crothers won the Gowdy Cup with a nice fish. His fishing mate Noel Burns was 2nd and Keith Gibson took 3rd place. Keith and another local angler Michael Polin are having another great year in the Trout fisherman magazine’s Fly-tying competition. They are both regularly in the magazine’s top 10 best patterns and tyings each month. If you get a chance check it out. You will see some great patterns and ideas for both local rivers and loughs. On Sunday 3 September Dessie Wolfe and his son were out for a morning’s boat fishing on Corbet Lough. Dessie took a great Rainbow of 4lbs 4ozs on a Gorgeous George fly. On Friday 8 September the NICS Fishing Club held an outing on Corbet Lough. The top rod was Philip Spence from Bangor who had eight fish to the boat. On Saturday 9 September the Club’s competition anglers competed for the Jim Ledlie Cup (fly fishing) and the Jim Mahood Cup (spinning and bait fishing). The competition anglers caught some great fish. Trevor Jones won the Jim Ledlie Cup with a fantastic Rainbow of 3lbs 5ozs. Sam Grant and Colin Crothers were 2nd and 3rd respectively with good fish of 2lbs 6ozs and 2lbs 5ozs. Frank Tumelty won the Jim Mahood Cup with another fantastic fish of 3lbs 2ozs. Paul McKinstry was 2nd with a great fish of 2lbs 9ozs and Denis Hamilton was 3rd with a nice fish of 2lbs 6ozs. On Sunday 10 September Philip Rankin and John Lewis were out on Corbet Lough for a morning’s boat fishing and they had five fish to the boat. Ronald Adair was out in a boat in the afternoon and he had four fish to the boat. Adrain McAnarney was out for a boat session in the afternoon and he had seven nice fish to the boat. A couple of these fish were about 3lbs 8ozs. On Thursday 14 September Geoff Twinnan took a boat session on Corbet and he had three beautiful fish. On Friday 15 September Brendan Downey had three nice fish up to about 3lbs to the boat on a silver daddy and a black spider. He also hooked and lost a number of other good fish. There are also reports of the Corbet’s shore anglers taking some nice fish on the fly. On Saturday 16 September the Club’s competition anglers competed against Armagh Angling Club at Seagahan Dam in the 2nd leg of the Friendship Cup. After a great day’s fishing and some terrific fish Banbridge Angling Club retained the Friendship Cup in 2017. (See the full report ‘Friendship Cup 2017’ on this website) On Saturday 23 September the conditions at Corbet were very windy. However the fish were still feeding high up in the water and there was some great fish moving. Roger McClements and Noel Burns were both fishing from the shore and they both had fish over 4lbs on the fly. Tony Kelly, Lurgan was fishing the worm and he had three nice fish. On Sunday 24 September the weather had improved with a gentle breeze and a bit of heat again in the air. There was a good rise at the Corbet. Ivan McVeigh was out in a boat for a couple of hours and he had ten fish to the boat. Colin Crothers was fishing from the shore in the late afternoon and he had a couple of nice fish on the fly. The month ended on Saturday 30 September when the Club’s competition anglers fished Corbet Lough for the Toasty Jardine Shield and the Graham Cup. They caught plenty of fish including some cracking fish. Roger McClements won the Toasty Jardine Shield with a fantastic Rainbow of 3lbs 8ozs on the fly. Denis Hamilton was 2nd with another fantastic Rainbow of 3lbs 7ozs and Noel Burns was 3rd with an equally fantastic Rainbow of 3lbs 6ozs which he also took on the fly. Juvenile angler Daniel Moore won the Graham Cup with a great Rainbow of 3lbs 1ozs. There has been some good water in the River Bann during the past couple of weeks and this has seen the arrival of some tourists (salmon and dollaghan) in the Club’s stretch of the river. Geoff Hylands and Eugene Curran, dedicated salmon anglers, have been out and they have had some success with a few salmon each on the fly. The Club encourages all anglers to fish the river responsibly and to practise C, P & R (catch, photograph and release). The River Bann Day Tickets, which are great value for money at just £7 for adults and £4 for juveniles, can be purchased from the Boat Attendants Office, Corbet Lough, Coburns Tackle Shop, Scarva Street, Banbridge and The Anglers Rest Bar and Bistro, Corbet. The above photograph shows Stephen Henry with a cracking Rainbow of 4lbs 9ozs which he caught whilst boat fishing at Corbet Lough on Friday 25 August.