The season opened at the Corbet Lough and the River Bann on 1 March 2023. On the opening day the weather was good for the time of the year and there was a great turn out of local and visiting anglers at the Corbet Lough. There was also some great bags of over-wintered fish caught. Dan McBurney had great sport on the spinner catching and releasing 9 fish. Stevie Rea, Brendan Downey and Patrick Curran had 6 fish each on the fly. Stevie’s best fish was a cracking Brown Trout of about 5lbs. Darrell McKinley and Sam Grant reported 4 fish each on the fly. Darrell’s best was a great Rainbow of about 4.5 lbs on an olive buzzer. Sam’s best was a 3.75lbs Rainbow off the Battery Wall. Dessie Graham had 3 fish on the fly. Leonard Ervine and Geoff Hylands had a couple of fish each on the fly. Leonard’s best was a great Rainbow of about 5lbs. Darren McClory had a very nice Rainbow of about 2lbs on the fly. Anglers who ventured to the River reported very low water levels and the fishing challenging. On Friday 3 March Patrick Curran was on the River Bann and reported a great hatch of olives. Patrick enjoyed great sport catching and releasing a number of wild brownies. On Friday 3 March Stevie Rea was at the Corbet and he caught and released another 6 fish. On Saturday 4 March the Club held its first compeition of the new season at the Corbet Lough for the Bobby Blakley Cup. Although it was a cold day and the fishing was challenging the anglers still managed to catch and weigh in some great fish. Sam Grant caught and released a beautiful Brown Trout of about 6lbs. Brendan Downey caught and returned a nice Brownie of about 3lbs. Dan McBurney had great sport on the spinner catching 14 fish. At the weigh-in there were some very good fish and great bags of fish. Wilson Clinghan won the Bobby Blakley Cup with a catch of just over 7lbs including the best fish of the weigh-in at 4lbs 13ozs. Kevin Conwell was 2nd with a catch of 5lbs 3ozs and Dan McBurney was 3rd with a catch of 5lbs 2ozs. On Friday 10 March Leonard Ervine and Geoff Hylands ventured out to the Corbet in the artic conditions. They were the only two cars in the car park. The reported that surprisingly the conditions were quite good. They came across a hatch of buzzers and fish rising to them off Maxwell’s Point. Leonard was able to cover the fish and he took 3 fish and missed another 6 on cormorants. On Wednesday 15 March the Club made a scheduled stocking of Rainbow Trout averging 1.5lbs weight into the Corbet. On Saturday 18 March the Club’s competition anglers fished the Corbet Lough for the Angela Murtagh Cup. There were some very good fish weighed in. The top rod on the day was Paul McKinstry with 2 great Rainbows weighing 6lbs 4ozs. Paul also had the best fish at the weigh-in a nice Rainbow of 3lbs 6ozs. Noel Burns and Kevin Conwell were 2nd and 3rd respectively. Wilson ‘Skippy’ Clinghan caught and released a beautiful Brownie of about 4lbs. On Tuesday 21 March Geoff Hylands was fishing the fly from the Dam Wall and he caught a cracking over-wintered Rainbow which was weighed at 5lbs 4ozs before being sportingly returned. On Thursday 23 March Donald McClearn also caught a great over-wintered Rainbow of 4lbs 10ozs on the fly when fishing from the Dam Wall. Donald also sportingly returned this great fish. On Saturday 25 March it was a very pleasant spring day at the Corbet Lough and there was a great turn out of anglers. Sam Grant, Leonard Ervine, Geoff Hylands, Brendan Downey, Dessy Graham, Robert Gault, Donald McClearn, Roger McClements and Brian Molloy all enjoyed some great fly fishing. Indeed Brian Molloy who hasn’t been at the Corbet for awhile had great sport taking a number of fish up to 4lbs. Brian sportingly returned all his fish. During w/c 27 March there was a further scheduled stocking of great quality Rainbow Trout at the Corbet Lough. Anglers continued to enjoy fantastic fishing with the discerning angler targeting the over-wintered fish. On Friday 31 March there were two great Brown Trout caught at the Corbet. Wilson Clinghan had a lovely fish of just over 5lbs and Jimmy Haughey had a cracking Brownie of a similar size. The Brown Trout at the Corbet, which were stocked as fingerlings, are absolutely thriving and it is now common for these fish to weigh up to 5lbs.