Dave Harrell
Conditions are perfect for big weights of these river silvers…
Float and pole tips for a big bag of river dace
RECENT heavy rain has resulted in high river levels all over the country – but once they drop, I can’t wait to get on rivers like the Severn and Wye in pursuit of dace.
They’re not a fish to be found in all rivers, but when you do locate them, there are normally hundreds of dace to go at and some really big catches can be taken. My favourite dace catch came a while back on the first day of the Hereford Angling Festival when I put 114lb of them on the scales. I’m still claiming that as a five-hour world record!
Everywhere I’ve gone over the past couple of seasons, dace stocks seem to be on the up. I can only assume this is down to water quality. I love catching these fish, and this week we’re looking at tactics to get the very best results from your dace swim.
LOCATION
Dace can be found in huge shoals on many of our rivers, but they can move long distances in a single day. Always be aware of this and don’t give up on a section of river just because you don’t catch on one occasion. I’ve seen some huge migrations of fish on stretches that were devoid of them until water levels lifted. That’s why I think we could be in for a dace bonanza.
At this time of the year, and with air temperatures as they are, dace love swims with pace and depths from 4ft to 10ft. As the season progresses and winter approaches, the deeper swims are usually best.
RODS, REELS AND LINES
To catch a big weight of dace you need to be ready for every eventuality. I use 13ft and 14ft Daiwa Tournament Pro rods in conjunction with my own 3lb (0.14mm) and 4lb (0.16mm) Pro Match reel lines and Pro Rig hook lengths from 0.10mm to 0.14mm. I favour Daiwa TDR reels for all my river floatfishing, and for dace I use the small 2508 model as I find it’s just the right size to make my fishing quick.
WHIPS
Long whip fishing has become really popular for dace fishing over the past few years, and if there are a lot of fish present you will catch them much faster with a whip than you will with the rod – it’s an incredibly efficient way of putting
a big weight together.
I use Daiwa Airity and Tournament whips with the No1 section removed and Grey Hydrolastic fitted in the No2 and No3 sections. I’ve experimented with loads of different solid and hollow elastics but none are as good as Hydro, in my opinion.
I use a tensioner bung to get the tension perfect and this is set in line with hook sizes and how many fish I’m catching. A size 18 or 16 hook will see the elastic set lightly, but once fish are feeding well and you can catch on a size 14, you can tighten the elastic up.
GROUNDBAIT
If the river is pulling through fast and I am faced with more than 6ft of depth, groundbait will come into play.
I use a mix of Bait-Tech Pro Natural and soil in a 75:25 ratio. This is a great mix for adding casters and hemp, which are perfect attractor baits for dace.
This approach is a must to get the best results with long whips, but not so much on the rod and line.
LOOSEFEED
Most of the time, loosefeed will be the way to go for searching your swim with running line rigs. You don’t need huge volumes of bait but you do need to keep the feed going in if you want to keep fish interested. I’d recommend taking three to four pints of maggots for a day session.
Always feed to the response you get. By this, I mean that if you are getting bites quickly this will tell you that there are a lot fish feeding and all the bait is getting eaten, and so you can put more in.
If bites are slow in coming, ease back on the feed, otherwise there will be a danger of overfeeding and killing the swim.