OR WALTONIAN CHRONICLE. 31 



so wide ; they are met with in most rivers near London 

 in great quantities, and afford the Angler much 

 amusement ; they are caught at bottom in the Thames 

 and Lea, c. in common with the Roach, and are a 

 game and powerful fish for their size ; the haunts of 

 the Dace are gravelly, sandy, or clayey bottoms, and 

 deep holes that are shaded ; in hot weather they are 

 found on shallows, and are best taken with an artificial 

 fly, or whipping with a single gentle or grasshopper 

 on your hook; they spawn in March, and are best 

 about Michaelmas, and on till February; though Dace 

 are often caught with a float with Roach, they are 

 not altogether float fish ; fish for Dace about two 

 inches from the bottom, use a ground bait made with 

 bread and bran, or two or three handfuls of flour, with 

 a quart of bran moistened with water ; I prefer the 

 flour to bread, being easier made, and sinks better, 

 but many prefer bread and bran ; Dace are taken in 

 great quantities of a very good size at Drayton and in 

 the Wandle, between the town and Thames, and upon 

 all the shallows in the Thames, between Kew and 

 Staines bridge ; they are a good bait for Pike, and 

 are taken with a red worm, gentles, and greaves; in 

 the Thames the fishermen use bran and clay, mixed 

 with greaves, pounded very fine, and scalded, pouring 

 the water in which they are soaked over the bran ; the 

 Dace at Leatherhead in Surrey are very large, and in 

 the Lewisham stream they are most excellent, in fact 

 the Dace here are superior in quality to any I ever 

 saw. 



