The 2025 game angling season on the River Bann and the Corbet Lough opened on 1 March. The weather was pleasant for the time of the year with sunshine and a light southerly / south westerly wind. As a consequence there was a great turn out of anglers at the Corbet Lough with many anglers reporting some great catches. The Club’s competition anglers were fishing for the Bobby Blakley Cup in the first competition of the season. At the weigh-in there were some very good bags of fish. Geoff Hylands made a great start to the season. He caught 5 fish and he won the Cup with a brace of lovely Rainbows weighing 5lbs 11ozs. Wilson Clinghan was 2nd with a couple of Rainbows weighing 5lbs 3ozs and Frank Kearney was 3rd with his fish weighing 4lbs 15ozs. There were also a good number of anglers out for a bit of pleasure angling at the Lough. Gerard Lyness had 5 fish in the bottom bay with a couple of his fish weighing a combined weight of over 6lbs. Tom King had three good fish in the top bay up to 3.5lbs. George Gallagher had a lovely fish of over 3lbs in the top bay. Juvenile angler Louis Clarke was fly fishing from the Dam Wall and he caught 2 great Rainbows which were both over 3lbs. On Monday 3 March Frank Kearney was fishing in the top bay and he had a great Rainbow of about 4lbs. Geoff Hylands was also fishing in the top bay and he caught 3 fish up to 3lbs. On Wednesday 5 March Gerard Lyness caught 7 fish on the Castlewellan side of the Lough. On Thursday 6 March Geoff Hylands caught 3 fish including a great Rainbow of just over 5lbs. George Gallagher was fishing in the top bay and he caught a lovely fish of about 4lbs. On Friday 7 March the Corbet fished well with Tony Kelly taking 2 nice fish, Stevie Rea caught 10 fish and Donald McClearn had 5 fish including a nice Brown Trout of about 1.5lbs. Brian Molloy fished the River and he caught and released some beautiful wild Brown Trout. On Sunday 9 March juvenile angler Riley Craig was fishing at the Corbet Lough and he caught al ovely over-wintered Rainbow of just under 4.5lbs. On Tuesday 11 March Simon Henderson caught a lovely fish of about 3.5lbs at the Corbet Lough on a fly he tied over the close season at the Banbridge Angling Club’s Fly Tying Class. On Saturday 15 March the Club’s competition anglers were at the Corbet Lough with the adults fishing for the Bruce Carson Trophy and the juveniles fishing for the Carson Cup. At the weigh-in Raymond Cherry won the Bruce Carson Trophy with a great brace of fish including the best fish of the day weighing just under 5.5lbs. Roger McClements and Keith Gibson were 2nd and 3rd respectively. Louis Clarke won the Carson Cup with a lovely bag of fish weighing just under 4.5lbs. On Wednesday 19 March a number of anglers including Geoff Hylands and Stevie Rea enjoyed some great sport at the Corbet catching fish up to 5lbs. On Thursday 20 March the fishing was harder but some anglers caught some cracking fish. Stevie Ferris and Donald McClearn both caught nice over-wintered fish and Derek Burns caught a brute of a stockie weighing over 6lbs. There were some great fish caught at the Corbet over the weekend 22 and 23 March. On Saturday 22 March the Silver Butchers were up at the Corbet. They reported some great catches with Aidan Lavery and Raymond Cherry catching fish over 4lbs and Gerard Lyness catching a fish over 3lbs. Local anglers also reported some good catches with Damian Murtagh, Donald McClearn, Roger McClements and Andy Holden catching some nice fish. On Sunday 23 March the fishing at the Corbet was a bit more challenging. However Donald McClearn and Geoff Hylands caught 4 fish each whilst Patrick Curran and Andy Holden had a couple of fish each. On Tuesday 25 March the fishing at the Corbet was again challenging. Raymond Cherry had a nice over-wintered fish, Nigel Erskine had a fish of about 6lbs off Bruce’s Point and Stevie Ferris lost a big fish at the net on Bruce’s Point. On Saturday 29 March the Club’s competition anglers were at the Corbet to fish for the Angela Murtagh Cup. There was a gusty south/south easterly wind with a very chilly nip in it. At the weigh-in Frank Kearney won the Cup with Roger McClements and Jack Russell 2nd and 3rd respectively. Frank had a great brace of lovely over-wintered fish weighing 8lbs 11ozs which included the best fish weighed in on the day at 4lbs 12ozs.