I've no knowledge of the specifics on this one, though I've heard unsubstantiated mutterings. I too am familiar with the Dee in Chester having lived nearby for a couple of years. However, I'd urge caution before you take a particular stance based on appearances and gossip. For a start, things don't ring entirely true on this one. If a council had sold the fishing rights, they could not impose conditions on the purchaser after the event.
I know of similar situations where councils have been desperate for a club to take on their waters. Complaints from local residents about anti-social behaviour, littering, poaching etc, an inability to police their water, or an inability to pay the appropriate public liability insurance, can all see councils keen to divest themselves of responsibility. In some cases, small local clubs just don't have the wherewithal to take on such water effectively and turn down the opportunity to do so. The council can end up looking to any local(ish) club that might have enough clout, cash and members to police it properly. Sometimes what appears to be an avaricious club going hell for leather to take over every bit of water possible, isn't quite as it first seems.[/QUOTE
You can see details of the resolution of the anomaly of Cestrians paying a mega-club from Macclesfield for the privilege of fishing the river in their city in this report from the local paper.
Anglers get cut-price fishing deal - Chester Chronicle
I lived in Chester for a total of 32 years, in 3 different blocks of time. I can honestly say I never heard of any issues or problems that might justify such a perverse arrangement. The stretches involved are quiet, away from residential areas and attracted, such was the Dee, relatively few visitors. The Dee has been, however, an improving river with good prospects for the future. Until shown otherwise, I'll tend to believe, along with many residents, that the sale of fishing rights out of the area reflected some ill-thought-out opportunism on either side, rectified in the teeth of protests.