Lightning fast silver darts.

I headed west today to target dace. Whilst doing some research on potential venues that hold them I was surprised to find one not to far away. Lillian wanted to have a go too so off we went. We arrived just after midday and I quickly set up my float rod and started fishing. The flow was nice and slow so I went with a small "Puddle Chucker" float to maximise the sensitivity. Setting my depth at three foot and arranging my shot in a shirt button pattern I nicked a single red maggot onto my #18 barbless hook and flicked it out into the water. Feeding maggots regularly just downstream of where I was casting in I watched my float slowly meander down the swim and after only the third or forth run I had a bite which I managed to connect with. A few silver flashes as I reeled the small fish in told me I had caught what I had came for and my first ever dace was soon in my hand.

My first ever silver dart.

This was quickly followed by dace after dace and whilst I did miss a fair amount of bites there were hardly any runs when I didn't get a bite. After my tenth dace I caught a small brown trout which was a pleasant little surprise. The few sessions I've had locally for brown trout haven't been great and I think I'll wait for warmer weather before I go back to the Water of Leith and I'll get in it and try and catch them on dry flies using my nice little 6' #2/3 brook rod.

First brown trout of the year too. A nice bonus.

After catching a few more dace I then tried fishing double maggot to see if I could tempt some bigger fish and this seemed to do the trick almost straight away with a few larger dace taking the more generous hook baits.

A bigger specimen.

Whilst I had to be quick to strike the lightning fast bites I had soon caught over thirty fish and Lillian, who had been relaxing next to me on a blanket, decided she wanted to have a go. It didn't take her long to catch a few as well. Whilst there were clearly a lot of fish in the river and catching them was relatively simple I still found it a very pleasurable way to spend a couple of hours. There is something very hypnotic about watching a float that I really love, even more so as it slowly works its way down a river.

Any second now...

So another nice place to go and spend an hour or two fishing added to my list. A very relaxing way to fish for very nice fish and the quick bites are good fun trying to strike and certainly sharpen your reaction times too. I'll certainly be back there soon catching dace again for sure.

Tight lines, Scott.