Dace Fishing: A Simple Guide to Catching River Dace

The common dace (Leuciscus leuciscus) is a streamlined silver fish perfectly suited to life in flowing water.

It has a relatively slender body, silver flanks and a darker grey-green back. The fins are generally pale, although the pelvic and anal fins can sometimes have a yellowish tint.

Dace are sometimes confused with small chub or roach.

Compared with a chub, a dace generally has a slimmer body and a more delicate appearance. One useful feature is the shape of the anal fin: in dace it is typically concave, while the anal fin of a chub is more rounded or convex.

Roach tend to have a deeper body and usually show more obvious red or orange coloration in the fins and eye.

Once you've caught a few dace, their streamlined shape becomes fairly easy to recognise.

Dace are strongly associated with rivers and flowing water.

They particularly like clean, well-oxygenated stretches with a reasonable current, although they can also be found in slower rivers and occasionally other connected waters.

Classic dace swims include shallow gravel runs, smooth glides, the tails of pools and areas where faster water meets a steadier flow.

Bridges, weirs and other features that create changes in current can also hold fish.

During warmer conditions, dace may move into surprisingly shallow and fast water.

In winter, look towards deeper and steadier areas where the fish can conserve energy without completely leaving the flow.

What Do Dace Eat?

Dace are opportunistic feeders.

Their natural diet includes aquatic insect larvae, small crustaceans and other invertebrates, while they will also intercept insects and food particles travelling downstream.

For anglers, this makes them responsive to a range of traditional coarse fishing baits.

Maggots are probably the best all-round starting bait.

Red and bronze maggots are both effective, either singly or in pairs depending on the size of fish and how confidently they're feeding.

Casters can be particularly useful when you're trying to select slightly better dace from a shoal.

Other options include bread, small worms and hemp.

Dace will sometimes feed surprisingly high in the water, particularly when loose feed is regularly passing through the swim.

You don't need heavy equipment.

A 12–14ft float rod is ideal for many river situations, combined with a small fixed-spool reel.

Main line somewhere around 3–4lb breaking strain provides a sensible starting point, with a finer hooklength where conditions allow.

Hooks will depend on bait, but sizes around 18–20 are suitable for single and double maggot fishing.

The tackle should be balanced rather than excessively fine.

Although dace aren't large fish, they use the river current extremely well. Hook a good dace in fast water and it can put a surprising bend into a light float rod.

Trotting a Float for Dace

One of the best ways to catch dace is by trotting.

Trotting simply involves allowing a float and bait to travel downstream with the current while maintaining sufficient control to detect bites and strike effectively.

A stick float is an excellent choice for many dace swims.

Shot the rig so that the bait travels naturally through the water rather than being dragged unnaturally downstream.

Before fishing, establish the depth.

Dace don't always feed directly on the bottom, so it is worth experimenting. Start close to the riverbed and then try shallowing the rig if you suspect the fish are intercepting loose feed higher in the water.

Good float control is important.

Allow the float to travel naturally, but keep in contact with it. If a bow of loose line develops between your rod and float, you'll struggle to hit quick bites.

If there is one part of dace fishing that deserves particular attention, it is feeding.

Dace often respond extremely well to small amounts of bait introduced frequently.

Rather than throwing in a large handful of maggots every 20 minutes, try feeding a small pinch before almost every cast.

The current carries the loose feed downstream, creating a trail that encourages dace to move into your swim and compete.

Your hook bait should then travel through roughly the same area as the loose offerings.

This is why accurate feeding matters.

Throwing maggots five metres to the left on one cast and five metres to the right on the next spreads the fish rather than concentrating them.

Little, often and accurate is a much better approach.

Bites Can Be Very Fast

Dace have a reputation for producing quick bites.

Your float may bury instantly before reappearing almost as quickly.

Sometimes you'll strike and connect with nothing.

That's part of dace fishing.

Keep your rod positioned so you can react quickly and avoid allowing excessive slack line to develop.

If you're missing large numbers of bites, experiment with your shotting pattern, depth and hook size rather than simply striking harder.

You may also find that the fish have moved higher in the water as they compete for your loose feed.

Catching dace is one thing. Finding the better fish can be rather different.

Larger dace may be mixed among smaller fish, but they can also occupy slightly different parts of a swim.

Try fishing towards the end of your trot, along deeper channels or around changes in flow.

Changing bait can also help.

If small dace are attacking single maggots immediately, two maggots, a caster or a small piece of bread may occasionally pick out a better fish.

Don't automatically assume every larger fish you hook is a chub either. A good dace can fight remarkably well in strong current.

Dace Fishing in Winter

Dace can provide excellent winter river fishing.

As temperatures fall, fish often gather into larger shoals in suitable areas.

Look for deeper glides and steady water, particularly where there is still enough current to bring food naturally to the fish.

Scale your feeding back.

The principle of little and often still applies, but the actual quantity may need to be considerably smaller than during summer.

On a cold day, a few maggots regularly introduced into the right swim can be much more effective than heavy feeding.