A zander has been caught from the River Dee near Chester, FISHINGmagic has learned.
The fish, estimated to weigh around 1lb, was caught from the Farndon reach of the north-west river.
The Environment Agency has urged anglers not to return any zander caught, as speculation mounts as to how the fish could have spread to the river.
Zander have become common across the Fens after they were stocked into the Relief Channel, near Downham Market, in the late 1960s.
Since then they have spread throughout East Anglia’s network of man-made drains and have also gained a foothold in the Rivers Severn and Warwickshire Avon and the Midlands Canal network, where attempts to cull them have so far proved unsuccessful.
