Huge perch brace
for father-andson team goes 8lb!
SIXTY-ONE-YEAROLD Jeremy Weitz was left stunned when fishing a Southern chalk stream after he banked the biggest dace he had ever seen – a superb 1lb 3oz specimen.
The Bournemouth rod described the fish as ‘truly massive’ as he measured it at a staggering 14ins long and was thinking he may even have shattered the 1lb 5oz British record set by Simon Ashton in 2002 on the River Wear – but sadly was just 2oz short.
An ecstatic Jeremy told Angling Times: “On the day I really didn’t fancy my chances because the recent rainfall had the river running very high.
“I caught fish steadily all day in the end but despite catching some nice roach to 1lb 4oz – this dace was in a completely different class.
“I’ve had dace to 1lb 1oz from Southern rivers in the past and they usually are around 13ins long so I was thinking this fish was bigger than it eventually weighed to be honest.”
Confirmation that the fish was almost certainly a dace was confirmed by Alan
Henshaw, the Environment Agency’s National Fish Farm Manager, who said:
“This looks like a true dace from the lateral line counts, the head and the concave dorsal.
“It is very difficult to be 100 per cent sure, however, without being able to see all the fins clearly.
“Dace can hybridise with several species including chub, roach and ide. Identifying hybrids is also difficult unless you use genetic techniques.”
The fish, which most believe to be a true monster dace, was caught on a paternostered piece of sweetcorn on a size 12 wide gape hook tied to 3lb mainline, with a 7g bomb and 0.5oz quivertip for sensitive bite indication.