Following a prolonged period of hot weather and bright sunshine the Corbet Lough remains closed. However on Saturday 1 July the Club’s competition anglers fished an evening competition on the River Bann for the Dessie Smyth Cup. Although the River is very low the anglers still managed to catch a fish or two. At the weigh-in Colin Crothers won the Dessie Smyth Cup with Geoff Hylands and Wilson Clinghan 2nd and 3rd respectively. With the Corbet closed some anglers have been spending more time on the River Bann and indeed travelling further afield for a bit of fishing. Patrick Curran, Wilson Clinghan and Roger McClements have been enjoying some great fly fishing on the River Bann when the conditions are right. Geoff Hylands, Donald McClearn and Damian Murtagh had an outing on Lough Melvin and they caught some nice fish on dries in a good wave. Geoff Hylands and Donald McClearn have also been fishing Spelga Dam and Geoff caught a lovely wild brownie on the flies. Eugene Curran went to Emy Lough for a day and although the fishing was challenging he caught 3 nice Rainbows on dry sedges. The Corbet Lough reopened for shore fishing on Thursday 20 July. On the 20 July Seamus Doyle was bait fishing in the top bay and he caught a couple of Rainbows. One of the fish was in great condition but the other fish had some argulus on it. There are still reports of anglers enjoying some good sport on the River Bann. On Thursday 27 July Club Officer’s Sam Watt, Leonard Ervine and Roger McClements spent their evening removing some of the weed from the Corbet Lough. On the same evening Seamus Doyle was bait fishing in the top bay and he caught his bag limit. Seamus told me that both fish were in good condition and had no argulus on them. Indeed Seamus mentioned that this is his second time out at the Lough since it reopened and he has caught his bag limit both times. There was a decent rise on the Lough and Davey McCandless, who was fly fishing in the top bay, took a couple of nice fish on a Shipman’s Buzzer. On Saturday 29 July the Club’s competition anglers were at Spelga Dam in the Mourne Mountains to fish for the Linda Clinghan Shield. The fishing was very challenging with only 6 fish caught and indeed only 3 of them making the size for the weigh-in. At the weigh-in Brendan Downey won the Linda Clinghan Shield with Geoff Hylands and Trevor Jones 2nd and 3rd respectively. David McKeague and Patrick McKenna caught a few fish at the Corbet on the bubble float and worm during the last week of July. David said that one of his fish had a few argulus on it but generally all the fish were in good condition.