"Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after."
Henry David Thoreau
"Game fish are to valuable to be caught only once."
Lee Wulf
"Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are made for wise men to contemplate and for fools to pass by without consideration."
Izaac Walton
"Blessing upon all that hate contention, and love quietness, and virtue, and Angling."
Izaac Walton
"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 fishermen and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly-fisherman."
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.
Norman Maclean-A River Runs Through It
"To go fishing is the chance to wash one's soul with pure air, with the rush of the brook, or with the shimmer of sun on blue water. It brings meekness and inspiration from the decency of nature, charity toward tackle-makers, patience toward fish, a mockery of profits and egos, a quieting of hate, a rejoicing that you do not have to decide a darned thing until next week. And it is discipline in the equality of men - for all men are equal before fish."
Herbert Hoover
"Unless one can enjoy himself fishing with the fly, even when his efforts are unrewarded, he loses much real pleasure. 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 on life secured thereby, and the many, many pleasant recollections of all one has seen, heard and done."
Charles F. Orvis
"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 Hemmingway
"Fly-Fishing helps you understand just how unimportant your big real life problems really aren't."
The
Little Trout Fly-Fishing Book (Wisdom Handed Down Through the Ages)
by Keith Myers
"Work is for those who do not know how to fish."
Author Unknown
"I once gave up fishing, it was the most terrifying weekend of my life."
Author Unknown
"Poets talk about "spots of time", but it is
really the fishermen who experience eternity compressed into a moment. No one
can tell what a spot of time is until suddenly the whole world is a fish and the
fish is gone. I shall remember that son of a bitch forever."
Norman Maclean
"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
"You will find angling to be like the virtue of
humanity, which has a calmness of spirit and a world of blessing attending upon
it."
Izaak Walton
Final
Words
An old man in his final breaths called in his family and said "I must
apologize to you all. I suppose I haven't been the perfect father and husband. I
shamefully admit that I spent as much of my life as I could in the woods and on
the streams. I was rarely at home during the fishing seasons and I'll admit that
I spent too much time at the fly shop, and too much money on rods and lines and
reels." He paused here to rest for a minute, then continued. "I've
been a terrible father and I hope you all forgive me." Then he paused again
and looked around. Then he closed his eyes and smiled and said in a half whisper
to himself, "and on the other hand....I have caught a helluva lot of
trout."
(***This one reminds me of my grandfather and my wife's grandfather.)
Anonymous
Testament
of a Fisherman
I fish because I love to; because I love the environs where trout are found,
which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are
found, which are invariably ugly; because of all the television commercials,
cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape; because, in a
world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my
fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion;
because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by
power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience; because I
suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don't
want to waste the trip; because mercifully there are no telephones on trout
waters; because only in the woods can I find solitude without loneliness;
because bourbon out of an old tin cup always tastes better out there; because
maybe one day I will catch a mermaid; and, finally, not because I regard fishing
as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other
concerns of men are equally unimportant - and not nearly so much fun.
-
Robert Traver