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Fishing quotes and thoughts
by
some famous and not so famous
anglers...
I'm a l(l)uring to all to it seems except hungry fish!
Self 2008
Of all the liars among mankind, the fisherman is the most
trustworthy.
William Sherwood Fox, Silken Lines and Silver Hooks, 1954
Govern a family as you would catch a small fish - very gently.
Chinese Proverb
They
say Catch and Release fishing is a lot like golf.
You
don't have to eat the ball to have a good time
Author unknown
I love fishing. You put that line in the water and you don't know what's
on the other end. Your imagination is under there.
Robert Altman
There are two types of fisherman - those who fish only for
fish and those
who fish for sport.
Author Unknown
I think I fish, in part,
because it's an anti-social,
bohemian business that,
when gone about properly,
puts you forever
outside the mainstream culture
without actually landing
you in an institution.
John Gierach
I PRAY THAT GOD WILL SEND ME
A FISH SO BIG THAT EVEN I
WHEN TALKING OF IT AFTERWARDS
WILL HAVE NO NEED TO LIE!
Irish Blessing
Scholars have long known that fishing eventually turns men into philosophers.
Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to buy decent tackle on a philosopher's
salary.
Patrick F. McManus
I am
not against golf, since I cannot but suspect it keeps armies of the
unworthy from discovering trout...
Paul O'Neil
Even eminent chartered accountants are known, in their capacity as fishermen,
blissfully to ignore differences between seven and ten inches, half a pound and
two pounds, three fish and a dozen fish.
William Sherwood Fox, Silken Lines and Silver Hooks, 1954
All fishermen are liars; it's an occupational disease with them like
housemaid's knee or editor's ulcers.
Beatrice Cook, Till Fish Do Us Part,
1949
There will be days when the fishing is better than one's most optimistic
forecast, others when it is far worse. Either is a gain over just staying
home.
Roderick Haig-Brown, Fisherman's Spring, 1951
Give a man a fish and he has food for a day; teach him how to fish and you can
get rid of him for the entire weekend.
Zenna Schaffer
The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but
attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.
John Buchan
The gods do not deduct from man's allotted span the hours spent in fishing.
Babylonian Proverb
You do not cease to fish because you get old,
You get old because you
cease to fish!
Writer unknown
It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence
against a fish and loses has it coming.
John Steinbeck
May the holes in your net be no larger than the fish in it.
Irish Blessing
Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught.
A
uthor
unknown
Bragging may not bring happiness, but no man having caught a large
fish goes home through an alley.
Author Unknown
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it
is not fish they are after
Henry David Thoreau
Good things come to those who bait.
Author Unknown
The best way to a fisherman's heart is through his fly.
Author Unknown
An angler is a man who spends rainy days sitting around on the muddy banks of
rivers doing nothing because his wife won't let him do it at home.
Author Unknown
"Carpe Diem" does not mean "Fish of the Day."
Author Unknown
Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; give him a
religion, and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish.
Author Unknown
A bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work.
Author Unknown
Men and fish are alike. They both get into trouble when they
open their mouths.
Author Unknown
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish
and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
Author Unknown
Even if you've been fishing for three hours and haven't gotten anything except
poison ivy and sunburn, you're still better off than the worm.
Author Unknown
Bass fishermen watch Monday night football, drink beer, drive pickup
trucks and prefer noisy women with big breasts. Trout fishermen watch
MacNeil-Lehrer, drink white wine, drive foreign cars with passenger-side air
bags and hardly think about women at all. This last characteristic may
have something to do with the fact that trout fishermen spend most of the time
immersed up to the thighs in ice-cold water.
Author Unknown
Gone fishin', be back at dark-thirty!
Author Unknown
Fishing is the sport of drowning worms.
Author Unknown
Even a fish
wouldn't get into trouble if he kept his mouth shut.
Author Unknown
Zen and the art of ice fishing is an oxymoron.
Author unknown
There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the
mind.
Washington Irving
Somebody just back of you while you are fishing is as bad as someone looking
over your shoulder while you write a letter to your girl.
Ernest Hemingway
The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad.
A.K. Best
If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a
shortage of fishing poles.
Doug Larson
We ask a simple question
And that is all we wish:
Are fishermen all liars?
Or do only liars fish?
William Sherwood Fox, Silken Lines and Silver Hooks, 1954
There he stands, draped in more equipment than a telephone lineman, trying to
outwit an organism with a brain no bigger than a breadcrumb, and getting licked
in the process.
Paul O'Neil, 1965
Give a man a fish and he has food for a day; teach him how to fish
and you can get rid of him for the entire weekend.
Zenna Schaffer
There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an
idiot.
Steven Wright
The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but
attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.
John Buchan
Fishing is a... discipline in the equality of men - for all men are equal before
fish.
Herbert Hoover
Calling fishing a hobby is like calling brain surgery a job.
Paul Schullery
...of all the liars among mankind, the fisherman is the most trustworthy.
William Sherwood Fox, Silken Lines and Silver Hooks, 1954
...trout that doesn't think two jumps and several runs ahead of the average
fisherman is mighty apt to get fried. ~Beatrice Cook, Till Fish Do Us
Part, 1949
Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day. But teach a man how to fish,
and he'll be dead of mercury poisoning inside of three years.
Charles Haas
Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It
is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time
fishing as taking care of the lawn.
Chuck Clark
There is no greater fan of fly fishing than the worm.
Patrick F. McManus, Never Sniff a Gift Fish, 1979
People who fish for food, and sport be damned, are called pot-fishermen.
The more expert ones are called crack pot-fishermen. All other fishermen
are called crackpot fishermen. This is confusing.
Ed Zern, 1947
Enjoy thy stream, O harmless fish;
And when an angler for his dish,
Through gluttony's vile sin,
Attempts, the wretch, to pull thee out,
God give thee strength, O gentle trout,
To pull the rascal in!
John Wolcot
Our tradition is that of the first man who sneaked away to the creek when the
tribe did not really need fish.
Roderick Haig-Brown, about modern fishing, A River Never Sleeps,
1946
Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may
return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.
Herbert Hoover
You must lose a fly to catch a trout.
George Herbert
If you've got short, stubby fingers and wear reading glasses, any relaxation you
would normally derive from fly fishing is completely eliminated when you try to
tie on a fly.
Jack Ohman, Fear of Fly Fishing, 1988
My biggest worry is that my wife (when I'm dead) will sell my fishing gear for
what I said I paid for it.
Koos Brandt
Catching fish is as incidental to fishing as making babies is to sex
William Humphrey, CDAS
There will be days when the fishing is better than one's most optimistic
forecast, others when it is far worse. Either is a gain over just staying
home.
Roderick Haig-Brown, Fisherman's Spring, 1951
Doug Larson:
"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a
shortage of fishing poles."
Unknown:
"Fishing is the sport of drowning worms."
A. K. Best:
"The Fishing was good, it was the catching that was bad."
Unknown:
"Even a fish wouldn't get into trouble if he kept his mouth shut."
Izaac Walton:
"Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are made for wise men to
contemplate and for fools to pass by without consideration."
Patrick F.
McManus: "Smoked carp tastes just as good as smoked salmon when you ain't
go to smoked salmon."
John Voelker:
"Fishing is such great fun, I have often felt, that it really ought to be done
in bed."
Tony Blake:
"Some go to church and think about fishing, others go fishing and think about
God."
Tom Browaw:
"If fishing is like religion, then fly fishing is high church."
Unknown:
"There are two types of fisherman - those who fish for sport and those who fish
for fish."
Babylonian
Proverb: "The gods do not deduct from man's allotted span the hours spent
in fishing."
Paul O'Neil:
"I am not against golf, since I cannot suspect it keeps armies of the unworthy
from discovering trout."
Norman Maclean -
A River Runs Through It: "Eventually all things merge into one and a
river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs
over rocks from the basement of time. On some rocks are timeless raindrops.
Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs."
Unknown:
"The difference between fly fishers and worm dunkers is the quality of their
excuses."
Washington
Irving: "There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a
serenity of the mind."
John Steinbeck:
"It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence
against a fish and loses has it coming."
Patrick F.
McManus: "Scholars have long known that fishing eventually turns men into
philosophers. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to buy decent tackle
on a philosopher's salary."
David Stempko:
"The worst day of fishing is still better than the best day at work."
Arnold Gingrich:
"Fly-fishing is the most fun you can have standing up."
William Sherwood
Fox: "Of all the liars among mankind, the fisherman is the most
trustworthy."
Charles Haas:
"Give a man a fish, and he can eat for a day. But teach a man how to fish,
and he'll be dead of mercury poisoning inside of three years."
Unknown:
"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
Chuck Clark:
"Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It
is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time
fishing as taking care of the lawn."
John Gierach:
"If we carry purism to it's logical conclusion, to do it right {fishing} you'd
have to live naked in a cave, hit your trout on the head with rocks, and eat
them raw. But, so as not to violate another essential element of the
fly-fishing tradition, the rocks would have to be quarried in England and cost
$300 each."
Unknown:
"Work is for those who do not fly fish."
Robert Traver:
Deep down I've always known fly fishing is to the rest of fishing what high
seduction is to rape."
Paul O'Neil:
"There he stands, draped in more equipment than a telephone lineman, trying to
outwit an organism with a brain no bigger than a breadcrumb, and getting licked
in the process."
Unknown:
"All fishermen are liars except you and me and to tell you the truth, I'm not so
sure about you!"
Robert Traver:
"The best time to go fishing is when you can get away".
Patrick F.
McManus: "The two best times to fish is when it's rainin' and when it
ain't."
Jimmy D. Moore:
"My wife said I have so many fly rods and reels that I cannot possibly use them
all. My reply was that I had rods and reels to fish, rods and reels to
tinker with and then my fine crafted rods and reels to "fondle and admire, while
dreaming of trout fishing during the cold winter months. You can imagine
what kind of look she gave me."
Joseph D.
Farris: "When a man picks up a fly rod for the first time, he may not
know, he has been born again."
Ernest
Hemingway: "Somebody just back of you while you are fishing is as bad as
someone looking over your shoulder while you write a letter to your girl."
Paul Schullery:
"Calling fly-fishing a hobby is like calling brain surgery a job."
Izaak Walton:
"Blessings upon all that hate contention, and love quietness, and virtue, and
Angling."
Norman Maclean-A
River Runs Through It: "He told us about Christ's disciples being
fisherman, and we were left to assume...that all great fishermen on the Sea of
Galilee were fly fisherman and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly
fisherman."
Chinese Proverb:
"Govern a family as you would catch a small fish - very gently."
Unknown:
"'Carpe Diem' does not mean 'fish of the day'."
Koos Brandt:
"My biggest worry is that my wife (when I'm dead) will sell my fishing gear for
what I said I paid for it."
New Yorker
Magazine: "Bass fishermen watch Monday night football, drink beer, drive
pickup trucks and prefer noisy women with big breasts.
Trout fishermen watch MacNeil-Lehrer, drink white wine, drive foreign cars with
passenger-side air bags and hardly think about women at all.
This last characteristic may have something to do with the fact that trout
fishermen spend most of the time immersed up to the thighs in ice-cold water."
Henry Kanemoto:
"Fly fishing is like sex, everyone thinks there is more than there is, and that
everyone is getting more than their share."
Unknown:
"Catch and Release fishing is a lot like golf. You don't have to eat the
ball to have a good time."
Ed Zern:
"Fishermen are born honest, but they get over it."
William Sherwood
Fox: "We ask a simple question and that is all we wish; Are fishermen all
liars?; or, do only liars fish?"
Roderick
Haig-Brown: "Anglers...exaggerate grossly and make gentle and inoffensive
creatures sound like wounded buffalo and man-eating tigers."
Unknown:
"Everyone ought to believe in something; I believe I'll go fishing."
Dick Blalock:
"These brook trout will strike any fly you present, provided you don't get close
enough to present it."
Robert Traver:
" The true fisherman approaches the first day of fishing season with all the
sense of wonder and awe of a child approaching Christmas."
Charles Kuralt:
"Often I have been exhausted on trout streams, uncomfortable, wet, cold, briar
scarred, sunburned, mosquito bitten, but never, with a fly rod in my hand have I
been less than in a place that was less than beautiful."
Unknown:
"The awkward fisherman does nothing but disturb the water."
Jimmy D. Moore:
"My wife says I'm hard of hearing. All husbands who have been around the
block a time or two, know it's called "selective hearing". I hear what I
want to hear. I can hear a trout rise. I can hear a spinner hit the water. I can
hear the drumming of a grouse at half a mile, but I danged well can't hear her
when she wants me to make the bed, or paint the house, etc. etc. I
secretly had my hearing tested just to be sure. The doc says it is
great, a 7 % loss in my left ear and a 10% loss in my right. Very typical
of anyone who does a lot of hunting with a shotgun. But I'm not
about to tell my wife that."
Unknown:
"Who ever said "A bad day of fishing is always better than a good day at work."
Never had their boat sink."
Jack MacKinnon:
"Fishermen don't yield to the weather."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're
doing something wrong.
John Gierach
Be patient and calm - for no one can catch fish in anger.
Herbert Hoover
It is not how abundant nor how considerable our catch be, but rather to the
sport, and manner in which our quarry, the noble trout is angled.
J.B. Martin
The only reason I ever played golf in the first place was so that I could afford
to hunt and fish.
Sam Snead
Scholars have long known that fishing eventually turns men into philosophers.
Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to buy decent tackle on a philosopher's
salary
Patrick McManus
The fish and I were both stunned and disbelieving to find ourselves connected by
a line.
William Humphrey in "The
Armchair Angler"
I've gone fishing thousands of times in my life, and I have never once felt
unlucky or poorly paid for those hours on the water.
William Tapply "A Fly-Fishing Life"
I look into... my fly box, and think about all the elements I should consider in
choosing the perfect fly: water temperature, what stage of development the bugs
are in, what the fish are eating right now. Then I remember what a guide told
me: 'Ninety percent of what a trout eats is brown and fuzzy and about
five-eighths of an inch long.
Allison Moir
In every species of fish I've angled for, it is the ones that have got away that
thrill me the most, the ones that keep fresh in my memory. So I say it is
good to lose fish. If we didn't, much of the thrill of angling would be
gone.
Ray Bergman
The best fisherman I know try not to make the same mistakes over and over again;
instead they strive to make new and interesting mistakes and to remember what
they learned from them.
John Gierach "Fly Fishing the High
Country"
If I'm not going to catch anything, then I 'd rather not catch anything on flies
Bob Lawless.
I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all he
holds dear, is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and
lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious…..a good fishing trip?
Vince Lombardi
...buying a fly rod in the average city store, that is, joining it up and safely
waggling it a bit, is much like seeing a woman's arm protruding from a car
window: all one can readily be sure of is that the window is open.
Anatomy of a Fisherman by Robert
Traver
Why does a salmon rise? Why does a small boy cross the street just to kick a tin
can?
Lee Wulff, The Atlantic Salmon
In these sad and ominous days of mad fortune chasing, every patriotic,
thoughtful citizen, whether he fishes or not, should lament that we have not
among our countrymen more fishermen.
Grover Cleveland
The Essentials of a Good Fly-Hook: The temper of an angel and penetration of a
prophet; fine enough to be invisible and strong enough to kill a bull in a
ten-acre field.
G.S. Marryat
Just as in cooking there's no such thing as a little garlic, in fishing there's
no such thing as a little drag.
H.G. Tapply The Sportsman's Notebook
Smoked carp tastes just as good as smoked salmon when you ain't got no smoked
salmon.
Patrick F. McManus
I think I fish, in part, because it's an anti-social, bohemian business that,
when gone about properly, puts you forever outside the mainstream culture
without actually landing you in an institution.
John Gierach
Fly tackle has improved considerably since 1676, when Charles Cotton advised
anglers to 'fish fine and far off,' but no one has ever improved on that
statement.
John Gierach
Creeps and idiots cannot conceal themselves for long on a fishing trip.
John Gierach
They say you forget your troubles on a trout stream, but that's not quite it.
What happens is that you begin to see where your troubles fit into the grand
scheme of things, and suddenly they're just not such a big deal anymore.
John Gierach
If fishing is interfering with your business, give up your business.
Sparse Grey Hackle
Most anglers, especially tyros, false cast too often. Three false
casts should be sufficient for any throw and two is better. One is
perfect.
Joe Brooks
Game fish are too valuable to only be caught once.
Lee Wulff
I used to like fishing because I thought it had some larger significance. Now I
like fishing because it's the one thing I can think of that probably doesn't.
John Gierach
Something to think about: If you fish the wrong fly long and hard enough, it
will sooner or later become the right fly.
John Gierach
No life is so happy and so pleasant as the life of the well-govern'd angler.
Izaak Walton
Whether I caught fish or not, just the thrill of rolling out that line and
watching my fly turn over has been good enough for me. That and the hundreds of
treasured memories I have of this wonderful sport.
Curt Gowdy
There will be days when the fishing is better than one's most optimistic
forecast, others when it is far worse. Either is a gain over just staying home.
Roderick Haig-Brown
"Often I have been exhausted on trout streams, uncomfortable, wet, cold, briar
scarred, sunburned, mosquito bitten, but never, with a fly rod in my hand have I
been less than in a place that was less than beautiful." Charles Kuralt
"There is only one theory about angling in which I have perfect confidence, and
this is that the two words, least appropriate to any statement, about it, are
the words "always" and "never." Lord Edward Grey
"He told us about Christ's disciples being fisherman, and we were left to
assume...that all great fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fisherman and
that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman." Norman Maclean - A River Runs
Through It
"The trout do not rise in the cemetery, so you better do your fishing while you
are still able." - Sparse Grey Hackle
"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a
shortage of fishing poles." - Doug Larson
"The angler forgets most of the fish he catches, but he does not forget the
streams and lakes in which they are caught." - Charles K. Fox
"The great charm of fly-fishing is that we are always learning." - Theodore
Gordon
"I have fished through fishless days that I remember happily without regret." -
Roderick Haig-Brown
There he stands, draped in more equipment than a telephone lineman, trying to
outwit an organism with a brain no bigger than a breadcrumb, and getting licked
in the process.
Paul O'Neil
"I'm going out to fish," Simon Peter told them, and they said, "We'll go with
you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught
nothing.
John 21:3
Most fishermen swiftly learn that it's a pretty good rule never to show a
favorite spot to any fisherman you wouldn't trust with your wife.
John Voelker
My biggest worry is that my wife (when I'm dead) will sell my fishing gear for
what I said I paid for it.
Koos Brandt
More than half the intense enjoyment of fly-fishing is derived from the
beautiful surroundings, the satisfaction felt from being in the open air, the
new lease of life secured thereby, and the many, many pleasant recollections of
all one has seen, heard and done.
Charles F. Orvis
One fish. Two fish. Red fish. Blue fish. Black fish. Blue fish. Old fish. New
fish. This one has a little star. This one has a little car. Say! What a lot of
fish there are.
Dr. Seuss
You do not cease to fish because you get old, You get old because you cease to
fish!
Writer unknown
All the romance of trout fishing exists in the mind of the angler and is in no
way shared by the fish.
Harold F. Blaisdell
Fishing is not an escape from life, but often a deeper immersion into it...
Harry Middleton
"Overwork: a dangerous disorder affecting high public functionaries who want to
go fishing."
Tom Brokaw
"If fishing is a religion, fly fishing is high church."
Brett Butler
"My ex-husband is the kind of guy who would watch a fishing show on television
and pay attention to it."
Billy Connolly
"I love fishing. It's like transcendental meditation with a punchline."
Buddy Ebsen
"If you're too busy to go fishin', you're too busy."
William Sherwood Fox
"We ask a simple question and that is all we wish: Are fishermen all liars? Or
do only liars fish?"
John Gierach
"The solution to any problem - work, love, money, whatever - is to go fishing,
and the worse the problem, the longer the trip should be."
Nancy Gray
"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you get
rid of him on weekends."
Mitch Hedberg
"You know when they have a fishing show on TV? They catch the fish and then let
it go. They don't want to eat the fish. They just want to make it late for
something."
Ernest Hemingway
"I would like to take the great DiMaggio fishing. They say his father was a
fisherman."
"Somebody just back of you while you are fishing is as bad as someone looking
over your shoulder while you write a letter to your girl."
Herbert Hoover
"All men are equal before fish."
"Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to
the fine simplicity of our forefathers."
"There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy, especially in
presidents. Those are prayer and fishing."
Washington Irving
"There is certainly something in fishing that tends to produce a gentleness of
spirit, a pure serenity of mind."
Samuel Johnson
"A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other."
Stephen Leacock
"A sportsman is a man who, every now and then, simply has to get out and kill
something."
"Angling is the name given to fishing by people who can't fish."
Jeff MacNelly
"Fishing is the only sport where sitting on your butt under a tree looks like a
concentrated activity."
Don Marquis
"Fishing is a delusion entirely surrounded by liars in old clothes."