Dace The Forgotten Fish

J

john ledger

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I love dace fishing especially if big ones are in the swim yet they take back seat with some anglers.
About 3years ago i had a catch of a lifetime on the Upper Swale taking a bumper catch on the stick with several over a pound the biggest 1lb 4oz.I also lost one at the net that would have taken the British record by far.My mate Ron Clay caught a huge dace from the Ryton many years ago and i myself have been back to the Swale but never ever came near to repeating the performance even though the shoal was over 400yds in length
I have also had good nets on the Idle Ryton Don Rother and the Blackwater in Ireland.
The tidal Thames used to produce massive nets so did the Wye so why dont we give the dace more credit
 
E

EC

Guest
Probably because the people fishing those and other rivers are now fishing predominantly for other species John, namely barbel!

I must admit, when we had our species hunt I enjoyed snaring a few dace out of the River Dee.
 
R

Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Yes, dace are a fantastic species and if you like fishing with light tackle trotting a stream they can be a heck of a lot of fun.

The last serious dace fish I did was in Norfolk on the tiny River Thet with Richard Farrow. There were some good ones in that little swim but they were so easily spooked.

The man who really was a big dace expert was Dennis Flack who fished the Little Ouse in Norfolk. There was a picture published in Waterlog of a huge catch of his, every fish over 1lb.

The River Ryton in North Notts, for a short sweet period was probably one of the best dace rivers in England. I am going back to the 50s and early 60s. My old friend Tag Barnes had some tremendous catches of big dace from this river.

During the 50s I used to live not far from this river and I once caught a 1 1/4 lb dace on trotted redworm. The other rivers with big dace in them are, as John says - The Upper Swale. Also The Wear in the Northeast and the Kennet.

In the early 60s there were some nice dace in the Upper Ouse, but like Ken Taylor used to say, if you caught a dace over 1/2 lb, it would be a little chub.
 
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Beecy

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ive had some good dace in the Trent over the last couple of years, not in big quantities though.
 
R

Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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And buy the way, the last really good catch of dace I had in recent years was 6 fish for exactly 3lbs from the Warks Avon in 1997.
 
R

Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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What sort of size were they Beecy?
 
Neneman Nick

Neneman Nick

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On the road to rack & ruin !!!
the only dace i have ever caught came from a section of the kings dyke near whittlesey i was fishing with yoggy a couple of months ago.....i always thought dace prefered water with a good flow to it???
 
J

john ledger

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Not always Nick as in both the Thames and Don you could take them in sluggish murky deepish water.
As Ron so rightly says the River Thet at Thetford produced big fish as does the Kennet and Upper Avon.My mate Mike townsends had quite a few biggies.
Surprised Ron has not mentioned Tag Barnes with his bucket of maggots on the Ryton which was ingenious to say the least and i will let Ron tell you the full story
 
J

John McLaren

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Dace, along with roach, have been the principal victims of the black death but thankfully they seem to be making a comeback. On one small recovering river I fish occasionally the dace are the main attraction as they run to a nice size, albeit not big, whilst the roach and chub are definitely still on the small size.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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But Nick, the King's Dyke does have a decent flow to it.

I fished it with Yoggy this year and caught a nice bream.

Dace are fish that prefer sparking streams and are one of the few fish that bite well, even in bright sunlight on cold days in winter. They can also be taken on fly tackle. they are avid risers to a well presented dry fly.
 
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Peter Bishop

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What swim on the Avon did you get those from Ron, what method did you use, how deep was the water?
(only joking Ron!)
Eddie, you are right about the Dee. Loads of dace around Farndon and Holt but few fish for them now. Its all about size, and waiting carp style for the barbel or chub. Love the Dee but banks are a bit dodgy for a non swimmer. Always wear my floatation suit. My club has just aquired a section in partnership with Dee Anglers.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Old Tag Barnes used to work for Sportex in Sheffield during the early 60s.

His boss was one - David Chetwode Bt, a titled man who owned a great deal of land in the North Notts area. He gave Tag sole rights on a short stretch of the River Ryton below Blyth, North Notts.

Tag had heard how **** Walker had hung up a number of dead rooks above a section of his stretch of the Upper Ouse in the hope of attracting roach and chub to the swim. He also hung up half a sheep too.

In time, a steady trickle of maggots attracted not only roach and chub, but considerable amounts of dace.

Tag couldn't get hold of enough rooks, and half a sheep would have fed his family for a month (being a Yorkshireman), so he got hold of a large can, filled it with maggots, made a small hole in the bottom and hung it over the river upstream of a nice dace swim.

A day or two later Tag went back to the swim. The can was still drip feeding maggots.

He caught a few tremendous catches of big dace downstream of that can of maggots, much bigger than the dace caught in the Ouse. One of them went just short of 1lb.

A few days later, Tag lost an even bigger fish when his brolly was nearly blown away. He made a grab for it and the fish got off.

He put that fish down as 1 1/2lbs at least.
 
J

john ledger

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Great story Ron as Tag was as good as you get.
Just going back to dace in fast shallow water mine where caught in about 8ft of deep steady water which is unusual for the Upper Swale,the difference being this day it had about 6inches and was dropping.
Bob Roberts knows the swims and i took Mike Townsend there and although we had some dace they where not so big.
The mistake made on my catch was the bailiff shoving it in the Yorkshire Post and the following week it was like Collingham with a circus present so i did not go back.
I never bothered sending the photos off to the papers such as AT but showed a few friends like Mike townsend and Ron saw them,i also sent one off to Graham but kept the best to myself.
I would say to anyone who gets a good catch to stay numb and tell no one as its not all about publicity
 
Y

yoggy

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John,i really enjoy fishing for Dace.I should do it more often.Has the Derwent a good Dace population??.
 
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Beecy

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i cant be precise Ron as I dont weigh fish, but id guess at 8-10 oz with the odd one maybe a bit more.
 
Neil Maidment

Neil Maidment

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I used to really enjoy dace fishing on the lower tidal Dorset Stour a mile or so above the harbour. They used to congregate there in Autumn/Winter in great numbers and if you got the tides right, you invariably caught good bags of Dace to 12oz. Many a good day was had trotting a little balsa or stick with the 'pin. Not sure how that area fishes now but memories are good.

Around the same time, the Avon also had it's fair share of "clonking" Dace. My best fell just short of 1lb from Winkton. Occassionally we'd get 20lb+ nets from the club stretches around the Ringwood area.

Nowadays my local little River Blackwater has the odd good dace and every now and then I'll get one or two in a bag of Roach/Chub. I really enjoy it when they show up!

I've always regarded the Dace as one of my favourites.
 
J

john ledger

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Yoggy
Unfortunately the Derwent does not have a large dace population and i have only caught odd ones. The Dove at Tutbury had a huge dace population in the eighties like the Upper Trent used too but i reckon the cormorants saw them off.
Once caught 22lb of big dace from Kings Mills in less than 3hours in the good old days sadly no more.
Its unfotunate that fish have certain status among certain anglers with the barbel and carp being the present Lords of the Manor which saddens me it really does because dace like grayling are terrific fish
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Old Tag Barnes used to say that if dace went to say 5 lbs they would beat any other coarse fish in British water that swims in terms of fighting power.

Certainly during the 60s and occasionally during the 70s when I visited the UK I caught dace on the fly rod. When they are topping on a warm September day they are suckers for a small black gnat pattern. I was of course able to compare them with brown trout. They were at least as good a fighter, if not better than a wild brownie. They twist, turn and dart, in some ways like a grayling.

**** Walker caught a fantastic catch of big dace once on the fly rod, on the River Cam near Baitsbite Lock during his university days.

Three fish, 1 lb 5oz 1lb 3oz and 1lb 2oz. I have a feeling those fish were set up in a cabinet somewhere.

I'll tell you something else about dace. They eat as good as grayling!

Shouldn't have said that.

They also don't live very long. About half as long as a roach which can live to 14 years. For a short period a river will produce a few very big dace. Then they dissappear of course. They die of old age, or become weak and get eaten by predators.
 
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Ron 'The Hat' Clay (ACA-Life Member)

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Any dace over 8 oz is a specimen and any dace over 12 oz is a blinkin monster.

Let's face it the record is only 1 lb 4 oz. For many years it stood at 1 1/2 lbs until scrubbed by the BRRFC.
 
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Alan Tyler

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"I once caught a 1 1/4 lb dace on trotted redworm."

There are volumes in that short sentence.
Did you feed a sprinkling of redworms every trot down, Ron?
Somehow, I suspect not; I'm getting a picture of someone using stealth and watercraft to present a single bait to a fish that had no idea there was a human in the area.

I suspect a lot of us have fallen so thoroughly into the rut of feeding every minute ,then sneaking them one with a hook in, that we overlook the possibility of this being the very worst way of snagging big shoal-fish. Feed 'em up, and you'll get large numbers of the most abundant year-class - and these won't be the big ones.

Then again, size isn't everything...
 
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