DR MARK EVERARD hoped to finish the year off with a big fish and his hard work paid off with this 1 lb 2 oz 8 dr dace.
The associate professor from Great Somerford, Wiltshire, bagged the river record dace from his local Bristol Avon. It completes a ‘set’ of river records.
Mark said: “I set the Bristol Avon record dace back in 1996 and equalled it in 2009, as documented in my book Dace: The Prince Of The Stream. And now I have equalled it again.
“What is interesting is that this new fish, a female, has not yet put on much in the way of spawn and could get very much heavier.
“It could certainly eclipse my 1 lb 4 oz PB that still is the Hampshire Avon river record dace, caught in 1990.”
Avon record dace on ‘pin
Mark continued: “The ‘Dr Redfin 15 Ft Float Rod’ strikes again, as you can see from the image paired with a vintage custom Grice and Young centrepin.
“Reel line was 3 lb Maxima with a chunky great Bolognese float cocked with my usual black-painted masonry nail.
“I used a swivel as a dropper shot, and 2 lb 10 oz hook link to size 12 Kamasan B520 spade-end hook.
“It fell to my favourite bread approach of a decent-sized chunk of soft flake on the hook with liquidised bread, loose-fed each trot.
“I got out for a decent time on Saturday catching a good quantity of fish though none of notable size.
“After working most of Sunday as a storm hammered away outside, I got out for a brief late afternoon session in the howling 40 mile per hour gusting winds, heavy rain and a rapidly falling temperature.
“The dace came along on the crease of a nearside bank slack amongst a mixed bag of roach and dace on a rising and clay-coloured river, conditions that rarely fish well.”
Simon Ashton holds the dace record of 1 lb 5 oz 2 dr from the River Wear in County Durham from 2002.
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