ROACH AND DACE. 213 



on the surface, when they may be easily hooked on shore, by at- 

 taching a hook to the end of a long fishing rod ; though if the 

 dose be strong enough, the greater part of them will perish merely 

 from its effects. 



This mode of proceeding is of course only justifiable when re- 

 sorted to for the purpose of destroying dace, as we would any 

 other vermin, and should never be adopted as an angling 

 pursuit. 



Roach attain to a much larger size than dace, the former some- 

 times reaching to as much as three pounds, whilst two is by no 

 means an uncommon size. But dace are seldom known to reach 

 the weight of one pound, whilst half that size may be taken as 

 the usual average. Neither of these fish are considered worth 

 much for the table, though the dace is generally considered the 

 better fish of the two. By the pike, however, their edible 

 qualities are held in far higher esteem, there being no more 

 attractive baits to lure him to destruction ; the dace from his form 

 and silvery appearance being admirably adapted for trolling, and 

 the roach from his superior tenacity of life for a trimmer. 



According to Mr. Yarrell the dace spawns in June, but with 

 all due deference to so respectable an authority, if this occurs 

 at all in that month, it is by no means universally the case 

 in all waters. In every one of the rivers and brooks in which 

 I have found them, their spawning time has been March and 

 April, just about which time, in common with the rest of the carp 

 tribe, they are distinguished by the white warty excrescences, 

 and roughness on the scales ; both of which disappear as the 

 fish begins to improve in condition ; still this may not be the case 

 in all rivers, in some of which they may spawn a month or two 

 earliei%>r later than in ethers, as so frequently occurs in the 

 instance of the salmon, and may possibly with many other fishes, 

 though the fact may hitherto have escaped notice. Roach I have 

 always found to spawn about the early part of June, just about 

 the time of the May fly, when swarms of these fishes may be seen 

 playing about old timber, all huddled together in a mass like 

 a swarm of bees. 



At such times they are so intent upon the business in hand, 

 that it is in vain you offer them the most tempting bait, yet they 

 may be taken by jigging with the tormentor in the manner 



