Although a firm favourite with match and pleasure anglers, the pursuit of specimen dace is not exactly the most common pastime amongst specialist anglers. But, Andy Burden wonders whether now is the right time to have a go at those dog dace of winter

You could be forgiven for thinking that dace are a uncommon species in our rivers, or perhaps dace anglers are a very secretive bunch, or equally as uncommon as their quarry. But I think we all know that none of this is true, any angler fishing any of Britain’s rivers will no doubt have caught dace. Although a firm favourite with match and pleasure anglers, particularly in the winter months, you very rarely see reports of captures of specimen dace. In fact I’m racking my brains to think of some anglers across the country who actually do, on occasion, pursue specimen dace and publicise their captures. However, excluding myself I can only think of Martin Bowler and the well-documented antics of possibly the most well-known dace fanatic Dennis Flack, and that’s about it.

To be honest we all really know why dace are not as in vogue a species as chub or barbel and that is the size to which they grow, if they attained weights of four and five pounds I think it would be a different story. I have long held an affinity for dace, I suppose when you have some of the finest specimen dace fishing in the country within a few miles of your home, as I have, then they are just another indigenous species that become part of your angling calendar.

There’s no denying the river Wear’s ‘claim to fame’ is undoubtedly the dace fishing, throughout the winters of 1989 to 1991 if you wanted a decent peg in an area where there was a well known large shoal you would need to be on the bank, waiting for first light. To get one of the prime swims above the dam in Chester-le-Street I would often arrive at four in the morning. The early morning start was well worth it though. I remember arriving late one foggy January morning and just managing to squeeze in to the last remaining peg on the pool above the dam on the day ticket bank. There were a dozen anglers on my bank and a further eight match anglers on the opposite bank, the fish were shoaled mid-river throughout the length of the pool and all the floats targeting this area on the parade downstream was just a ridiculous site. But the fishing was that good with between twenty to thirty pound of quality dace between 12oz to 1lb commonly landed. Furthermore, about a third of your catch would have consisted of fish close to or exactly 1lb.

Glory years
However, it wasn’t just this particular stretch where the fishing was so good, most of the lower river also showed this form, but it wasn’t to last. By 1992 the glory years were over, all of a sudden the fish just seemed to vanish, one year they were there the next they were gone - along with the anglers. I’ve heard a lot of different reasons for this over the years the commonest ones being cormorant predation and the influence of the influx of mine water following the demise of the region’s coal mining.

The fact of the matter is that dace species populations and their distribution throughout a river system is just part of a natural cycle. A couple of years ago I was talking to a local Environment Agency Fisheries Science Officer and he indeed confirmed this theory. Test nettings carried out on the Wear had yielded increasing numbers of small dace, and although we’ve had some terrible summer floods, big ‘dog dace’ as they are locally known, are once again coming to a peak of this cycle. In fact, we are approaching some potentially fantastic specimen dace fishing on the Wear and this time I’ll be prepared to take full advantage while it lasts.

Summer dace
Unusually for the North East, we have been graced by very little rain this summer and all species of fish in the Wear are at some of the best weights for a number of years. A low clear river full of weed and natural food throughout the summer months has certainly been to the liking of the Wear’s dace population and for the first time in many years this Summer I was able to observe and follow the movements of a shoal of around seventy dace. Several of the fish in this group were obviously over a pound and with the previous Winter’s struggle to catch a decent dace still fresh in my mind I began to target this shoal of fish. They were conveniently placed, in fact I had to walk past this stretch of the river when going barbel fishing so if I didn’t always fish for these dace I still always allowed half an hour or so to observe them.

It didn’t immediately occur to me why the swim would be devoid of the dace when I walked past early in the morning, but they would be settled in residence when I would come back up the river about dinnertime. Initially thinking they would just be in some other part of the pool, perhaps in the main flow, but then I remembered an article I had read in Waterlog magazine some years ago, which discussed research that had been carried out by the Institute of Freshwater Ecology on the River Frome. The basic findings of this research being that not only did these chalk stream dace have annual migrations; they also had daily ones, travelling up to several hundred yards and back in any twenty-four hours.

It immediately became apparent to me that the dace I was watching could also be conforming to this type of behaviour and so I set aside the following weekend to see if I could confirm this. I arrived at the swim about 3pm on the Friday and the dace were in residence, two foot of fast flowing water over sandstone. As the float runs through a bit too fast this type of swim is best fished with a paternostered swim feeder. I like a trace of around three feet of 2lb nylon with a size sixteen wide gape hook to fish double white maggot. I caught five fish in quick succession before a two-pound chub stirred things up a bit and agitated the dace. I carried on feeding the maggots but stopped fishing, as the dace seemed disinterested. Sure enough as the sun started to go behind the trees the dace moved down the pool and to my surprise disappeared into the broken water of the gravel shallows. I waited a while before slowing walking past the shallows and onto the next smaller pool and there they were, tucked away under a trailing willow fairly close to the bank.

I was on the river at first light the next day and by 8am having observed the same fish return to the previous days position I was more than satisfied that these dace did indeed migrate on a daily basis. The location and observation of dace throughout the summer, although fascinating, is no indication as to their whereabouts during the winter months and I have yet to find it possible to observe any annual migration to their winter quarters, although there is no doubting that this is the case.

Winter fishing
If you don’t have first hand knowledge of a river or access to local information, one of the easiest ways to locate the whereabouts of dace shoals in the winter is to study the match reports in the weekly angling press. A walk along any of the popular free stretches of the river Wear around Durham and the well-worn swims are a dead give away. If you can find the position of the main dace shoals by November, the location problem is solved, as they will stay in the same pool or stretch of river until the end of the season. 

The best way to pin point the exact location of dace during the winter months though is to be on the bank at any potential stretch a couple of hours before it gets light, for if dace are present in numbers they will be topping. The swims I know to be winter dace hot spots have fairly common features in that they are generally large, long, often straight and apparently featureless. One common factor is a smooth, sandy bottom with a fairly even depth. Dace certainly prefer deeper water in winter but I know good areas that are five foot deep and equally as good swims that are nine foot deep. Swims such as this are well suited to a mid river waggler and maggot approach, on some days the maggot feeder will be a better option its just a matter of trail and error on the day. I will usually start on the float feeding ten maggots every run through, but will change to the feeder if bites are not forthcoming or strong wind makes float control a problem.

Record potential
The long standing British record dace of 1lb 4oz 4dr, has been beaten on more than one occasion by fish from the Wear, each time the exact procedures for making a record claim were not followed correctly and subsequently these fish were never accepted. The capture of a 1lb 5 oz fish in a match a few years ago being the most recent claim. Even so the potential is certainly there and it always seems to be this one stretch that throws up the true giants.

One thing that does come to the fore if you begin to look into the captures of these larger than average dace is you can bet your bottom dollar they were caught on the swimfeeder. Whilst discussing the merits of River Wear dace with a match angler turned carp angler one day last year he set my mind thinking about the feeder. His theory being that the swimfeeder was a more selective way of catching the larger dace as they were old and lazy, if in his match fishing days he began catching small dace on the float a switch to the feeder would more often than not produce a better stamp of fish that didn’t want to go chasing the bait about unlike the smaller ones. And are we in for a return to the glory days of 1990? well perhaps not just yet, but maybe in another couple of years who knows. One thing is for sure though and that is once again specimen dace are a realistic target for anglers considering trying their luck on the Wear.

This article was first published in Coarse Angling Today December 2001