Summer Dace and Big Trout.

 After work sessions are sometimes very fruitful, reasons for this are unknown but just seems to be the case, I never leave the house now when I'm working without a rod and basic gear for a bit of stalking and seeing as most species eat bread I usually keep a loaf in the cab just in case. I finished south which was good so I had one thing on my mind and to be honest I had no plans to fish for Dace until November time - once they've put on some weight, but it turns out that I couldn't wait until then.

 These Dace that I had found were big. the shoal is of a reasonable size and the quality of the shoal is impressive and would rival any river, any where in Britain and I stand by that assertion. The gear that I used was very straight-forward, an 11ft float rod, 3lb line on an Okuma "Sheffield" pin and a 5AA Avon trotter, this setup is light and very well balanced and didn't take long for the net to be used, a nice Dace of 8oz 2dr to start with...nice. Over the course of the next hour the fishing was consistent with six Dace coming to net, all of which were over 9ozs with the best going 11oz 6dr. Then the fishing went a little quite after a 4lb Barbel tore through my swim, then followed by a Chub, a move had to be made, it paid instant dividends with this cracking 12oz 6dr silver dart.

11oz 6dr.

The best of the day in the bag.

What a pristine example of a big Dace. Immaculate, 12oz 6dr.

 Once I had caught that Dace I left the shoal alone to grow on and I'll be back later in the year for them, I continued my legwork though in search of other shoals that I know exist but are very transient, so pinning them down is a challenge but one that I always relish. I did find Dace but only a couple, the Trout were being a pain but when they come at this size you really don't care! Job's a good'un.

My third biggest ever Brownie at 6lb 4oz.