Big Dace in a Wild Place Part Three.

 The morning's started off very different to what it ended up as, a dawn session on the canals was the plan and the Bream/Carp were the target, my last trip to the canal resulted in a monster Roach-Bream Hybrid being banked and a new personal best to boot, I'm certainly not going to expect catches of that magnitude every time I come down but it's hard not to imagine just what the next session could yield. Expectant? No, on waters like these it's not even possible to be naive or blaise, the stocks are so low for most species so multiple catches are highly unlikely but not impossible.

 Having talked up morning trip now it turned out to be a dead rubber unfortunately as the Canadian pond weed was so thick I couldn't see through the water, so the stalking trip didn't turn up trumps and the boats started early at around 7am which didn't help matters, by 9.30 I called quits on it and decided to head out of London in search of Dace. It took me just over an hour to get to the river and get myself set up, the first swim I chose looked spot on a the river was carrying a fair amount of colour, so much so that I couldn't see the bottom in a swim that was roughly 2 foot deep, perfect I thought to myself and after feeding some maggots through the run on the far bank crease, with success being instant, first cast and a small Chub charged through the swim, not a big one but they do have a bad habit of ruining swims.

 It didn't take long to catch my first Dace and was a very good fish as it squirmed upstream towards the awaiting net, I could clearly see it was a very good and as it crept over the lip of the net I knew it was a weighing job, my trusty M&S bag was put to good use.

My largest of the season at 14oz 01dr.

  Just the size I wanted too as I know pound plus fish exist and this specimen wasn't far off of that magical size, it wasn't the only one either as I consistently caught for nearly two hours a mixture of Dace, Chub and a very rare Rudd which was in beautiful condition at around 6oz. I did manage a couple of really good Dace after the largest aswell which went ( 12oz 6dr - 12oz 3dr ), very pleasing sizes and as winter is starting to come on nicely the fish are starting to fill out, the larger Dace were noticeably chunkier as they have started to pile on the weight in prep for the colder months.

12.06oz.

Looking good, but was clearing all the time.

 By the time I upped sticks and moved I had had 23 Dace which was my best haul yet this season, a good old walk down stream to a couple of known spots proved to produce a few more fish and one of these was another wild river Rudd of around 4oz, I don't think I could stress just how few of these exist here but it's great to see them and who knows if they will grow to 2lb plus, the addition of a couple of wild Brown Trout par was also great to see, just proves that they can overcome so many hurdles to establish themselves.

 But those fish weren't the only ones to come to the net as I stumbled over a couple of Carp searching for the plug in the riverbed, on 4lb line and a float rod I thought that it may not be one of my brightest moments seeing how snaggy the swim was but I gave it a whirl anyhow and after 10 minutes of angling a 10lb 1oz Ghost Carp lay up on the mat, happy days.......snags and 4lb line is no excuse for not trying but the other Carp with it was twice as big as I estimate it to go around the 22lb mark. Another good trip out and can't wait to give them another crack.

A chunky river Carp, but can't help to think it's a castaway.