ROACH, RUDD AND DACE, 65 



rapids, and eddies, when they afford good sport to the in- 

 cipient fly-fisher ; indeed,, they are about the best fish to 

 initiate him into the art and mystery of that science. The 

 young angler will find capital sport during the fine summer's 

 evenings on the banks of the Thames, using the black gnat 

 or golden palmer on the shallows about Isleworth, Twickenham 

 or Hampton, fishing from the towing path, The house-fly, 

 red, black, and brown palmers, blue-duns and gnats, are all 

 killing flies for Dace, and may be rendered still more so, by 

 the addition of a gentle on the point of the hook ; or instead 

 of a gentle, a thin strip of light yellow kid leather wound 

 round the hook, from the tail of the fly nearly to the barb. 



In the autumn they retire into deeper water and may be 

 taken with the same rod and bottom -tackle as Roach ; the 

 same baits also may be used. In summer they prefer the 

 gentle ; in the autumn and winter, paste and worms. The 

 best months are from July to December. Large Dace are 

 often caught while fishing for Barbel late in the summer, 

 with the tail of a lobworm ; when this occurs, it shows that 

 there are beginning to feed lower down and to discontinue 

 rising at the fly. In shallows of two or three feet in depth, 

 such as lie in the angle of two streams or where a brook enters 

 a river, or between the runs at a mill tail, where there is a 

 kind of eddy or backwater, Dace are usually found waiting 

 for any unlucky insects or worms that may be brought down 

 the stream ; in such places work the bait from four to six 

 inches from the bottom ; a small redworm will be found very 

 killing. The same ground-baits mentioned for Roach are 

 equally good for Dace, but it must be remembered that when 

 ground-baiting for Dace, you are at the same time performing 

 the same kind office for nearly every other description of fish, 

 and you are just as likely to take Barbel, Roach or Trout. 

 As an instance I might mention that I was Dace-fishing, early 

 one morning, a small stream in Kent, using the gentle and 

 fishing very fine with running tackle ; in a very short space 

 of time I landed two brace of Trout, each fish over a pound 

 (a large size for the stream in question), several good-sized 

 Dace, a Perch and some Gudgeons ; the only ground-bait I 

 used was carrion-gentles, sprinkling a few in occasionally a 



