TEENAGERS who got hooked on fishing through a nationally-acclaimed police scheme will be among star demonstrators at a major angling fair.

The four are aged between 15 and 18 and are all graduates of Durham police's award-winning Get Hooked on Fishing project set up in April 2000 by PC Mick Watson.

Since joining, they have not only become all-round anglers who go out and catch fish in every season, but they have helped to introduce about 1,000 other young people to the sport.

In May they will feature in special events marking 100 Years of Angling History at Chatsworth Angling Fair, held on the Chatsworth Estate, near Bakewell, in Derbyshire.

Wayne Collins, a 15-year-old pupil at Bishop Barrington School, Bishop Auckland, is a former junior champion of Bishop Auckland Angling Club.

Jon Soulsby, 16, from Stanley, is a fan of general coarse fishing while his fellow Durham Sixth Form College student Josh Blythe, 17, from Durham, prefers casting for pike and predators.

Phil Farley, 18, from Sunderland, has a reputation for catching giant carp. He is training to be a teacher at Sunderland University.

They were all pupils of PC Watson, who started the project when he realised that encouraging youngsters to enjoy a sport like fishing could help to keep them out of trouble.

In its first two years he involved 200 boys and girls between ten and 16, including 65 who belied their classification by various official bodies as being 'at risk' of falling into crime.

Thanks to the scheme's success, PC Watson, 33, was seconded to extend it to six other areas of England and Wales.

He has also raised funds towards an angling centre and conservation centre near Witton Park, Bishop Auckland, which will cater for 1,000 youngsters a year.

PC Watson was awarded the Queen's Police Medal in the last New Year's Honours List.