THE WAYS OF A TROUT 



193 



nymphs as they are called as well as the larvae are freely 

 devoured by trout beneath the water. Sometimes we see 

 the undulations produced in a pool by trout which are not 

 rising and causing rings, but twisting and rolling beneath 

 the water in an obscure but methodical way. The trout 

 are then groping about either for nymphs rising to the 

 surface in order to shed their skins and fly off as duns, or on 

 larvae at the bottom. The simultaneous behaviour of all the 



HAMPSHIRE WATER MEADOWS 



trout in a pool in this way betokens a large rise of nymphs, 

 most of which they devour before they reach the surface. 

 This trick of the trout is most frequent in cold springs and 

 summers, when they seem never to acquire properly the 

 habit of feeding on the surface. It is very exasperating to 

 dry-fly fishermen, whose strict rules forbid them to fish 

 except for fish plainly rising on the top of the water. The 

 presentation above water of the tail instead of the head 

 of the fish as it grubs for larvae is even more painful to the 

 purist fisher, who imputes to his fish a code of procedure 



