UNCLASSIFIED 59 



OF THE PORPOISE ROLL. 



There is one peculiarly irritating kind of rise in 

 which trout indulge. Just like porpoises, they 

 come up, and, scarcely breaking the surface with 

 the head, expose first the back fin and then the 

 tail as they go down. Often of an afternoon or 

 evening it seems as if every trout in the river were 

 busy at this game. The difficulty is to know, on 

 such occasions, what they are taking. " Detached 

 Badger" (p. 119 of " Dry-Fly Fishing ") suggests 

 larvae, but though at times I have caught fish thus 

 rising with sunk flies, I am inclined to doubt their 

 taking nymphs or larvae, and to suspect spinners. 

 This (even if the trout be taking nymphs) is not 

 properly described as " bulging," that term being 

 confined to the swashing rises when a fish rushes to 

 and fro, making visible waves, ending in a boil as 

 it turns in the act of fielding the subaqueous insect. 

 Fortunately, this porpoise type of rise is rare, for 

 when trout indulge in it sport is consistently bad. 

 I have been promising myself for the last two or 

 three seasons that, when I drop on such a rise, I 

 will try Mr. F. M. Halford's spent spinner patterns, 

 but in an average number of days' fishing I have 

 failed to drop on an occasion when the trout have 

 been thus rising. 



8—2 



