PAUL Isherwood and Eddie Slater took the honours in this week's Newton Anglers' Association events.

Isherwood won the association's Committee Match which was held on the Moat House Farm Fishery in Burtonwood while Slater was top of the pile in the last Summer League round before next season's final.

The eighth round event took place on the upper pound stretch of the Sankey St. Helens Canal. Fifteen anglers took part and Slater, who caught roach, skimmers and perch to 7lbs 9ozs 4drms, said: "It makes a change to finally win after fishing the canal for the best part of 28 years."

Slater fished on peg 52 while Anthony Andrujzak, Stan Roberts and Mick Rogers, who finished second, third and fourth respectively, operated from pegs 60, 58 and 54.

The top four places in the Committee Match went to Isherwood, Ivor Brown, Dave Leyland and Mark Van Den Hoek.

Fishing on peg one, Isherwood caught tench, barbel and small carp weighing a total of 21-14-8. Pole-fished maggot was the successful method.

Short pole and pellets also proved fruitful. Brown and Leyland can vouch for that while Van Den Hoek used meat and short pole. Their respective catches weighed in at 19-2-0, 8-4-8 and 7-14-8.

The Moat House Farm Fishery is a prolific water which holds a good head of small carp, tench, barbel, chub and other silver fish. Day tickets are priced £5 for adults and £3 for concessions.

The Yew Tree Reservoir at Haydock has been fishing to its maximum potential this week.

Leigh match man Ray Hopkins has reported reeling in approximately 350 roach averaging 6ozs. Some of these fish were well over the 1lb mark and the successful method was pole-fished maggot on the drop.

Hopkins also caught a 20lbs leather carp at the venue after a 45-minute fight.

Tench, bream and crucien carp have been showing as well while 11-year-old Martin Sayer, who can show the older hands a thing or two when it comes to catching quality fish, has netted a brace of mirrors carps weighing 15-8-0 and 16-12-0. Floating crust was the successful method.

The Vulcan Reservoir has been fishing well for small silver fish with nice tench, crucien carp, quality bream and perch also making an appearance. Maggot, caster, punched bread, worm and meat have been the best baits.

The two stretches of the Sankey St. Helens Canal have been producing good catches of bream, tench, carp, perch and silver fish with maggot and caster scoring particularly well.

Sport has also been good on the members' only section at Penkford Bridge. Large catches of roach to caster or maggot on the drop have been reported while bream, carp, tench, crucien carp, koi, goldfish and wildies have been taken on bread, corn, worm and meat.

Meanwhile, the association is looking for members to take up bailiff duties on our fisheries. Anyone interested should get in touch with the association's secretary or Steve McNally.

Anyone who wants to join the association should go along to the Houghton Arms Pub in Earlestown at 8pm on Mondays.