THE DACE. 97 



worm. Barbel-swims that have been well baited 

 frequently swarm with dace, and the tail of a lob- 

 worm will play havoc amongst the little fish. 

 Half-pound dace are uncommon, while anything 

 over that weight quickly approaches a specimen 

 fish, a fourteen-ounce dace being well worth setting 

 up. Besides worms, dace take gentles, caddis, 

 wasp-grub, and pastes, and Ihave caught several 

 fine dace when whipping for bleak with a gentle in 

 the Thames locks. Dace are very free risers to the 

 fly, particularly in shallow water. 



The groundbait recommended hereafter for 

 roach may be used for dace, but should be Ground- 

 of a slightly looser nature. I have had good bait 

 takes of dace with a baiting of soaked bread only, 

 a little being thrown in loosely now and then. A 

 handful of broken worms, loose gentles, or, in 

 eddies, even dry bread thrown on the surface will 

 bring dace freely on the feed. I have seen twenty 

 or more dace grubbing at floating bread in the 

 eddies below locks ; and by casting a hook baited 

 with a couple of gentles amongst them, and keeping 

 out of sight, have pulled them out, in still, hot 

 weather, as fast as possible. In winter, I have 

 taken them with heavy float tackle, twelve or more 

 feet below the surface, baiting with worm. It is 

 not necessary to be so extremely particular about 

 keeping the bait on or very near the bottom, as in 

 roach-fishing ; dace rise towards a bait, and take it 

 very sharply and greedily ; the float is plucked 

 under with vigour, very quickly, and seldom sinks 

 quietly under as sometimes occurs in roach-fishing. 

 The best advice to dace-fishers is, to pick out swift 

 runs or quick eddies about four feet in depth in the 

 summer time, arid to choose very deep eddies in the 



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