Horned Dace (semotilus atromaculatus)The Horned Dace or Creek Chub is most likely the first fish most children catch on the end of a rod. It is a hardy and plentiful fish belonging to the minnow (cyprinidae) family. In some streams such as the Upper Main Saugeen, they have become too plentiful, thus they compete with the native Brown and Speckled trout for food and breeding space. Being carnivorous, they will not only eat insects quite readily, they will also attack and eat the fry of the trout and char in our streams. These small minnows have a place in our streams, but not in the numbers that they have grown too.
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The Horned Dace is a prolific breeder. A springtime spawner. In between April and June, the Horned Dace seeks it's breeding sites in shallow riffles over a gravel bottom. The female drops thirty to forty eggs in pit that are hollowed out by the male of the species. These pits are then covered by the males who then await subsequent deposits, covering all eggs, until the female is spawned out. When burying the eggs the male does not waste his time with larger stones. He takes up stones in his mouth and drops then onto the nests creating a mound. He stays and guards the small redd until incubation is complete. |
The Horned Dace grows to an average length of eight inches, however this fisherman has captured the odd one in lengths of up to twelve inches long. When compared in length, the males are considerably longer than the females of the same age. The Horned Dace is easily identified by a black mark at the base of the first three rays of the dorsal fin. It's colour is similar to the fallfish, but it often has a purplish sheen on it's flanks. A small barbel is present at each angle of the upper jaw. When spawning, the males are equipped with six to eight hard tubercles on the head and snout. |
As I have said the Horned Dace is a carnivorous minnow. Stomach contents of specimens examined by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service workers consisted of 51 per cent insects and 26 per cent surface drift; the rest included mollusks, crustaceans, algae, and plant seeds. Reading this statistic did not surprise me, as I have caught these minnows on: worms, crayfish, hellgramites, mayfly larva, maggots, scuds, salamanders, caterpillars, small flowers, peanuts, bits of hotdog, artificial flies, beetles, grubs, etc.... The list just goes on and on. These little fish will put anything in their mouth, including bare hooks. You would think that a minnow that is so easily caught would be extinct. This however is not the case. These little buggers can procreate in a number of stream types. They are hardy, and can survive siltation and increased water temperatures, breeding sometimes in almost dried up creeks. It is distinguished for its tenacity as a bait minnow, on the hook or in the bait bucket; it's ability to survive handling, transporting, and rapid changes to water temperature. |
