THE DACE - Leuciscus leucisus
The Dace has an olive green back with silver sides and under belly. They have yellowish eyes and their anal and dorsal fins both have concave edges to them,and are slim in the body and are well suited to there life in the faster clear flowing rivers which they populate.
Dace tend to be a shoal fish, grouping up for protection against predators.
Although found commonly in southern and eastern England,they are found in more localised spots in northern England and Wales. But are not found in Scotland,and they have been introduced by accident to the river Blackwater in Ireland.
The dace feeds well on the surface as well as the bottom. Eating a diet of insects, insect larvae, shrimps, snails, and algae.
The dace start spawning about February March time,earlier than most coarse species.They gather in the shallow runs and like other species,the male dace produce the white spots called tubercles. The female will lay as many as 28,000 light orange eggs on the bottom over gravel and weed,these eggs will then hatch with in a twenty five day period.
Depending as usual on water temperatures,and once hatched grow quickly to mature in about two years,as with many fish species the females grow larger than the males. The British record stands at 1lb 4oz 4dms (574g).So if you land one around 6 to 8 oz you have caught a good sized dace.
