We start this month with some great news. Imogen Johnston qualified at Lough Lene to fish in the Irish Youth International Team in 2022. This is a tremendous achievement and the Club wishes Imogen tight lines in 2022. As we enter the final month of the 2021 season the fishing has really picked up again. There are reports of a few big ‘tourists’ back in the Club’s stretch of the River and the keen salmon anglers are out hoping for some late season sport. The Corbet Lough is also fishing very well at the moment. On Sunday 3 October Sam Grant caught a cracking Rainbow of over 7 lbs on the fly. Darrell McKinley was out in a boat and he caught 6 good fish on a bloodworm. Leonard Ervine, Geoff Hylands, Nigel Beckett and Davy McCandless have also been enjoying some great sport on the fly. David McKeague is also catching some great fish on the worm. During week commencing 4 October Wilfie Craig and Donald McClearn enjoyed some great fly fishing from the shore. On Thursday 7 October Stevie Rea was out for a boat session and he had 17 fish, including a number of beautiful brownies up to about 4lbs. On Saturday 9 October the Silver Butchers, Lisburn had an end of season outing at the Corbet Lough. All the anglers caught fish and and they also enjoyed a lovely fish and chip lunch from the nearby Anglers Rest. Raymond Cherry had 19 fish and Aidan Lavery had 10 fish. However George Walker was their top rod on the day with a great Rainbow of 5lbs 11ozs. The Club’s competition anglers were also competing at the Corbet Lough on Saturday 9 October. In the adult competition Keith Gibson won the Hanlon Cup with a brace of fish weighing 4.576lbs. Wilson Clinghan and Dessy Graham were 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the juvenile competition Imogen Johnston won the Hanlon Cup with a good fish of 1.570lbs. The Club’s final competition in the 2021 season is at the Corbet Lough on Saturday 23 October. The adults will be fishing for the Hugh Savage Cup and the juveniles will be fishing for the Sportsman Cup. On Tuesday 12 October Aidan Lavery enjoyed an afternoon boat session at the Corbet with 5 fish. Brendan Downey was also out in the afternoon and he had a beautiful Rainbow of over 4lbs. On Thursday 14 October Darryl Alexander and his boat partner had 10 fish. At the start of their session they were catching the fish on the top of the water but by the end of their session the fish were deeper and they were catching on diawl bachs. Dessie Copeland and Eric Graham were also out for a boat session and they had great sport taking numerous fish on dries. In the afternnoon Gerard Lyness and Tom King had 6 fish to the boat. In the late afternoon / early evening Derek Burns was fishing the fly from the shore in the top bay and he caught a fantastic Rainbow of about 7lbs on a hares ear nymph. On Wednesday 20 October Stevie Ferris was fly fishing from the shore and he had great sport with 7 nice fish to the net. On Saturday 23 October the Club’s competition anglers fished at the Corbet Lough for the Hugh Savage Cup in the final competition of this season. Dessy Graham won the Cup with a brace of fish weighing 4.942lbs. Roger McClements and Colin Crothers were 2nd and 3rd respectively. Damian Murtagh, Competition Secretary has confirmed that following another great competition programme that Roger McClements is the Angler of the Year 2021. Imogen Johnston, who has had a great year in qualifying to fish for the Irish Youth International Team in 2022, is the Juvenile Angler of the Year 2021 and Elijah Parks is again the Junior Angler of the Year 2021. Congratulations to Roger, Imogen and Elijah. The final week of the season has seen the river in a big flood making the Banbridge stretch of the river unfishable. The only chance of an end of season fish would have been on the Clonduff stretch or perhaps the upper end of the Rathfriland stretch of the river. I was speaking to Robert Gault in the last week of the season and we reminieced about the good years when Bobby Gault, Robert Gault, Terry Gault, Dominic Downey, Willie Downey, Harry Rushe, Brendan Downey and others fished for salmon in the river. I also noted with sadness that Jimmy Adair, Banbridge had passed away in the last week. Jimmy was another very keen salmon angler that you would have regularly met on the Rathfriland stretch of the river fishing for salmon at this time of the season. That’s it for another season. Thanks to Darrell and Andy, Boat Attendants at the Corbet Lough.