MICK Moore had a hair-raising experience while fishing the River Dee at Worthenbury on Saturday.

When totally engrossed and enjoying his fishing, he was suddenly aware of cows coming down to drink.

Unperturbed he carried on fishing until they were joined by a very large bull, by which time he was surrounded. They were nosing and pawing his fishing bag he had left on the bank, only to see it start floating and sink.

At this point he moved further downstream and made it back to his car. Problem, the keys were in his bag!

The fishing had been fabulous, with eight brown trout, three around the pound mark, plus a dozen grayling – the last two before the bull appeared were in the 1.5lbs range. Method was stick-float loose-feeding red and white maggots.

Every cloud has a silver lining because three days later and another member retrieved the bag, including car keys , but he was by this time £90 out of pocket, the price of a replacement set.

Steve Oliver did a repeat performance to again take the honours in the Mersey Saturday Sweepstake with a mixed net for 5-8-0, followed in second place by James Byrnes almost a pound lighter at 4-9-8. Following the night’s heavy rain the river was flying through, carrying rafts of weed and general flotsam while anglers had to contend with a 9.5metre tide making less than ideal conditions.

Neil Davies made the most of drawing a peg with some slack water and fished the pole and maggot throughout the match to produce a mixed bag for 10lbs exactly.

Runner-up Jimmy Byrne needed a 50gm groundbait feeder to hold bottom in the flow for his roach and perch net of 7-12-0. The Woodshaw Reservoir Junior Series winner on Monday was Dylan Anglesea with a mixed net for 8-0-0.

Runner-up was Lewis Turner with 7-6-0. There is only next week’s match to decide the series winner and three anglers are within four points of each other so it will be a nail-biting final.

This week’s Junior Summer Series was back to the Mersey and saw David Smith prove he could master both the commercial angling skills of his previous win and also a natural and much harder venue on the river with 3-10-8, after all a win is a win. Runner up was Morgan Adawee with 2-8-10.

Please keep those catch reports coming in as they are invaluable to this column and fellow members planning fishing trips. Call 01928 716238 or email frank@warrington-anglers.org.uk. HQ 52, Parker Street is open as usual between 7 and 9pm on Friday, for subscriptions, new memberships/night permits, or any queries.