60 WATERSIDE SKETCHES. 



The dace, or dare, is a bolder, as he is a handsomer, fish 

 than the roach. Though less warmly coloured, and lacking 

 the carmine fins which make the autumn roach a picture 

 worthy of Rolfe's masterly pencil, he is thicker, rounder, 

 and in appearance makes up in silver his deficiency of gold. 

 When "on the feed" the dace bites almost as sharply as a 

 perch, and as he loves rapid currents gives you even in 

 bottom-fishing infinitely better sport than his broader-sided 

 relative. 



Wherever dace are found the fly-fisher has the elements 

 of practice. From May to October, in warm weather, the 

 dace rises respectably to a neatly thrown fly and the finest 

 tackle possible to secure, and requires careful handling 

 before brought to the net. Look for him upon gravelly 

 shallows, and never give up the trial without using a dry 

 floating fly. It is almost useless to fish deep water with a 

 fly at any time of the year, and the Thames is not, by reason 

 of its little broken or shallow water, so good a dace river as 

 the Colne or Trent. From the Colne I have seen i61b. 

 of handsome fish, averaging three to the pound, caught with 

 a small governor fly in the course of a day. 



The dace is to my mind the best eating fish of the tribe. 

 Carefully boned and baked in a jar, with alternate layers of 

 spice, bay-leaves, and vinegar, a dish of dace was once 

 palmed off upon me with complete success as a secret and 

 rare delicacy. Pickling, after the manner of fresh herrings, 

 in an open baking dish, is also a good method. It is very 

 essential with roach and dace to dry them carefully before 

 cooking. An enormous quantity of dace is sold in London 

 during the Jewish fasts, for the table. 



The gudgeon is a beautifully-marked little fish, and seems 



