Dace fishing...

Hi all,
Dace. Probably my favourite fish to catch in large quantities on a tough, Yorkshire river, however, sometimes I don't catch as many as I would like to catch and these are the main target species on the wharfe near me, especially on the ings at winter, where they shoal up and you can catch them on light tackle-2lbs main line, 0.08 hook length and size 22 fine wire hooks in the deep water. Does anyone have any advice for dace fishing on the river wharfe, particularly around the wetherby area. I know people say that the 'dace and roach are gone from the wharfe' but with 10lbs bags of 3oz dace? I don't think so and there are even roach being caught, I wouldn't mind one of them!!!
Cheers and tight lines
Freddie

I did a lot of dace fishing on the Trent last year.

Some of the swims were over 12 feet deep and I found that to get the bigger dace I had to fish quite deep, ie letting the float tackle run through at just above the bottom, say about 11 feet deep. This depth had to be adjusted occasionally because of the tide.

I was catching a dace a chuck fishing at say 6 to 8 feet deep, but the fish were between 3 and 5 oz. My biggest at 12 oz, two of them came to two maggots on a size 16, using a big stick float and an olivette to get the terminal tackle down quick.

I realise that the Wharfe is a different sort of river to the Tidal Trent, but that's what I found.

Generally i find that autumn/winter produces the better stamp of fish and the smaller ones are less prolific or troublesome - if thats the right word. Some of my best dace (c12oz region) have come on the hardest winter days - bit like grayling in that respect i think. Big dace can also come out in summer too, but can be harder to get through to them.

thanks for the replies guys, the dace do go to 8oz at the ings and there are also perch to 4lbs.... I should know because I got snapped by a monster that took a smaller perch I was bringing in.... I had 6lbs line!!!
ah well, cant land them all
cheers