THE DACE. 157 



CHAPTER XL 



THE DACE. 



THIS is a bright, handsome, well-made member of the carp 

 tribe, and his scientific name is Cyprinus Leuciscus. He is 

 only small in regard to size, but the old saying runs, " Little 

 fish are sweet," and that old saying is very applicable to the 

 dace, both in respect to its culinary qualities and its ren- 

 dering of sport to the angler. The dace is the very fish to 

 train up the young angler in the way he should go, for not 

 being so shy as the roach, it will bite bolder ; and the young 

 fly fisher can then try his 'prentice hand on him. This fish 

 will spring freely at the artificial fly, and quick striking has 

 to be the order of the day with dace. I do not know that I 

 can say much about bottom fishing for dace, for the tackle 

 and baits that are recommended for roach will be exactly 

 right for their capture. The dace, sometimes called the dart, 

 the dare, and the darden, is very rapid in his movements, 

 darting through the water with extraordinary speed. Dray- 

 ton, the poet, writing about him, says, 



" Oft swiftly as he swims, his silver belly shows ; 

 But with such nimble flight, that ere ye can disclose 

 His shape, out of your sight like lightning he is shot." 



One may readily confound a small chub with the dace, and 

 remain under the impression that when he has caught a nine 

 or ten-ounce chub it is a very fine dace. If he looks at 

 them carefully, however, the following differences may be 

 noted ; the anal fin of the chub is red, while that of the 

 dace is not ; the scales are larger on the chub than the 

 dace, the mouth of the chub is bigger, and the dace has fifty- 

 two scales on his lateral line, while the chub has only about 

 forty-four. I have mentioned it because I have seen anglers 

 with a small chub (which if it had been a dace would be a 



