3o8 PIKE AND OTHER COARSE FISH. 



DACE^ AND CHUB^ 



I HAVE bracketed these two fish together, first, because they 

 are, amongst coarse fish, the only two that can properly be said 

 to be of interest to the fly-fisher, not being also a float-fisher, 

 and secondly, with a view of pointing out the characteristics by 

 which they may be most readily distinguished the one from the 

 other. 



When the chub is not full-grown, its resemblance to its 

 closely allied species, the dace, is so strong that I have known 

 experienced fishermen, and even naturalists at fault in deter- 

 mining positively whether the fish which they had caught was 

 a large dace or a small chub ; and I well remember on one 

 occasion finding an enthusiastic young ichthyologist sitting the 

 picture of despair on the bank of the Wey, with Yarrell's 

 'British Fishes' in one hand, and in the other a diminutive 

 specimen of the genus Leuciscus, which he was vainly attempting 

 to identify by a critical comparison of its proportions, fin rays, 

 scales, &C., with those given in the pages of that scientific, but 

 occasionally somewhat perplexing volume. By bearing the 

 following rules in mind, however, no fisherman need ever be in 

 doubt as to whether the fish he has in his basket is a chub or a 

 dace : (i) The anal fin of the dace is pale greenish white, with 

 occasionally a very slight tinge of red— in the chub, this fin is of a 

 brilliant pink colour. (2) The hinder margin of the anal fin is, 

 in the dace, concave — in t/te chub convex. 



In adult specimens the size of the chub is, of course, a 

 sufficient distinction without referring to particular marks. The 

 whole fish, moreover, rapidly assumes a bronzed or golden 

 appearance, in place of the silvery tinting which the dace 

 retains in its original brilliancy to the last. 



Between dace and chub, and any other fish of the same 



1 Leuciscus vulgaris. ' Leuciscus cephalus. 



