COARSE FISH AND THE FLY. 179 



"water is at all weedy or complicated by snags. The 

 cast recommended for Mayfly fishing is about right. 

 Strong gut serves not only to keep heavy fish out 

 of weeds, but also to pull the fly safely away from 

 bushes, boughs, reeds, and other things onto which 

 it is sure to fall now and then. Chub are not gut- 

 shy in most rivers ; where they are, one must use 

 fine tackle and trust to luck. 



The next fish for the novice's attention is the 

 dace, which he also knows by sight. There is no 

 more sport-giving fish in our waters, but as it is 

 small the tackle used for it should be of the finest. 

 It can be caught with both wet and dry fly, 

 principally on the shallows, and the method of 

 fishing is not very different from that employed for 

 trout. Where dace run small (averaging, perhaps, 

 3oz.), I use a cast of three wet flies black gnat, 

 coachman, red tag, Brunton's fancy, and Wickham 

 being my favourites. Any small trout fly will catch 

 dace, more or less, but a little wash-leather tail 

 makes it very much more attractive, just as in chub 

 fishing. The usual sizes are oo and ooo, but now 

 and again a bigger fly, a o or No. i, will kill bigger 

 fish. 



Dace are not like chub in their method of 

 rising, except when they are very large. They 

 -dash at the fly and let go again in a moment, and 



N 2 



