Target: Dace.
Tactic: Long trotting on the centre-pin.
This evening I had a couple of hours spare after work and went out in search of some quality Dace, a couple of sessions have proved hard going for the Dace but the Roach have picked up the baton whilst providing me with some great sport. The condition's were almost perfect and the river was low & clear thus making my job a little tougher hence the reason for the trotting.
At times swims were devoid of fish so being mobile was very important for it allowed me to hop between makeshift holes in the reeds which is what I had to cram myself into, I knew good fish existed and hoped they were still around, mashed bread was fed throughout and apart from the occasional Chub to 2lb a solitary Brown Trout of 2-2/8 fought hard on the very light tackle. After a fair amount of casting I finally found some Dace as one started to wriggle in the current after nailing my piece of flake, a nice one of 8oz 3dr (Below).
I could see a few fish breaking the surface further down stream at around 35-40 yards, after catching that first fish the shoal pushed down into slightly deeper water and I couldn't bring them up as they were weary so I had to get down to them, as soon as it hit a certain spot the float would bury itself, three Dace came on seven trots and all of them were over 8oz with the largest weighing 11oz 5dr, just the sort of specimen's I was looking for and I'm sure there are larger fish, but those larger Dace will have to wait as dusk had settled in and the light level dropped too much with the float becoming invisible, four Dace to just under 12oz was a great start with a pound plus specimen a real possibility.
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| Best of the day, all in great condition. |
Very nice - did a good job with pics too as it's hard to do big small fish justice. I like the accurate weights too. I think my best dace are 12oz from a Lee tributary and 11oz from the upper Exe but weighed on totally inappropriate scales so not reliable at all. What scales are you using? If you provide a weblink too that'd be even better :)
ReplyDeleteCheers mate, I use Salter digital scales and if the fish stay still then you can get a very accurate reading, I think the weights were 11.5, 9.1, 8.6 & 8.3. A cracking shoal but did lose a bigger one too, I shall be back to my secret runs to hopefully unlock it's full potential......I know they are there and a pound plus Dace is a certain possibility, the question is can I catch her.
ReplyDeleteThe scales I purchased from Asda and I'm sure are available on their website and I paid 12-15£ for them and that is what I use to weigh all my Gudgeon, accurate as is possible.