THE PEOPEE HALF OF A LOBWORM FOE DACE. 93 



in barbel-swims, to the great discomfiture of the barbel-fisher, 

 who strikes again and again without catching anything, and, 

 perhaps, in the end, by constant striking, drives the barbel 

 away, or, at least, sends them off the feed- As a general rule, 

 dace prefer sharper streams than do roach, and the remarks in the 

 first and third chapters, on fishing in coloured water and in floods 

 (see pages 8 and 53), apply as much to dace as to the other fish. 



Bottom-fishing and Baits for Dace. — The float-tackle used 

 for this purpose is practically the same as that advised for roach, 

 described on page 25. As the dace swims as often in mid-water^ 

 or close to the surface, as on the bottom, it is not as necessary 

 to fish as near the bottom as we should if angling for roach. 

 Many large dace, however, fall a victim to the seductions of a 

 lobworm, particularly the head portion arrayed on a leger. 

 As dace generally haunt swifter streams than do roach, the 

 float-tackle has to be heavier shotted than would be right in 

 more sluggish swims. Dace are very sharp biters, and the 

 angler cannot strike too quickly on seeing a movement of his 

 float, however slight. 



The two favourite baits for these fish are gentles and red- 

 worms. Caddis baits are also very good. In the late summer 

 and autumn a lobworm will take the largest fish. I once baited 

 up a very quiet, deep comer near Henley-on-Thames for tench, and 

 my baiting partly resulted in a dozen fine perch. During the morn- 

 ing I was dreadfully bothered by some fish which kept taking the 

 float under, but which I could not hook. An examination of 

 my bait showed me that the fish, whatever they were, only 

 seemed to touch the head of the worm, which was, as usual, up 

 the shank of the hook, so I threaded the next worm on with the 

 tail of the shank, and the head over the point. I then took 

 nearly every bite, and soon had more than a dozen of the finest 

 dace I caught that year. The incident enlightened me con- 

 siderably as to why one has so many bites from dace when 

 barbel-fishing without any fish getting hooked; and since then, I 

 have repeatedly found that dace prefer the head to the tail of 

 the lobworm, at least in the Thames. For the redworm, I like 

 a very small set of Stewart tackle (see page 54), and the same 

 arrangement answers very well for the lobworm. All roach- 



