“Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught.” - Author Unknown

“It is not how abundant nor how considerable our catch be, but rather to the sport, and the manner in which our quarry, the noble trout, is angled.” – J.B. Martin

“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.” – Henry David Thoreau

“In the best stories about fly fishing … big fish are caught or lost; people say wild and spontaneous words; event becomes memory and sometimes, in the hands of a master, bleeds into art.” – Nick Lyons, author of Bright Rivers and Confessions of a Fly Fishing Addict

“Fishing takes anglers to the best places, at the best times of year.” – Anonymous

“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

“The gods do not deduct from man’s allotted span the hours spent in fishing.” - Babylonian Proverb

“I am not against golf, since I cannot but suspect it keeps armies of the unworthy from discovering trout…” – Paul O’Neil

“Reading about baseball is a lot more interesting than reading about chess, but you have to wonder:  Don’t any of these guys ever go fishing?” – Dave Shiflett, quoted in Houston Chronicle, 29 April 1990

“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

“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” – Henry David Thoreau

“I don’t want to sit at the head table anymore. I want to go fishing.” - George Bush

“The fish is not so much your quarry as your partner.” – Arnold Gingrich

“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

“The only thing bad about winning the pennant is that you have to manage the All-Star Game the next year. I’d rather go fishing for three years.” – Whitey Herzog

“Fly-fishers are usually brain-workers in society. Along the banks of purling streams, beneath the shadows of umbrageous trees, or in the secluded nooks of charming lakes, they have ever been found, drinking deep of the invigorating forces of nature – giving rest and tone to over-taxed brains and wearied nerves – while gracefully wielding the supple rod, the invisible leader, and the fairy-like fly.” – James A. Hensall, MD, 1855

“Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once.” – Lee Wulff

“Fishing is much more than fish. Fishing is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.” – Herbert Hoover

“The angling fever is a very real disease and can only be cured by the application of cold water and fresh, untainted air.” – Theodore Gordon

“There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy, especially in Presidents. Those are prayer and fishing.” – Herbert Hoover

“If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.” - Doug Larsen

“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 in a place that was less than beautiful.” – Charles Kuralt-1990

“If fishing is interfering with your business, give up your business.” – Alfred W. Miller

“Some go to church and think about fishing, others go fishing and think about God.” – Tony Blake

“What a tourist terms a plague of insects, the fly fisher calls a great hatch.” - Patrick F. McManus

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” -Chinese Proverb

“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 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

“…of all the liars among mankind, the fisherman is the most trustworthy.” - William Sherwood Fox, Silken Lines and Silver Hooks, 1954

“The only reason I played golf was so that I could afford to go hunting and fishing.” - “Slammin’ Sammy” Snead

“There is no greater fan of fly-fishing than the worm.“  - Patrick F. McManus, Never Sniff a Gift Fish, 1979

“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

“Only after the last tree has been cut down; Only after the last river has been poisoned; Only after the last fish has been caught; Only then you will find out that money cannot be eaten.” – Cree Indian Prophecy

“Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics that it can never be fully learnt.” - Izaak Walton, The Compleat Angler

“Many of the most highly publicized events of my presidency are not nearly as memorable or significant in my life as fishing with my daddy.” – Jimmy Carter

“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

“If fishing is like religion, then fly-fishing is high church.” – Tom Brokaw

THE TESTAMENT OF A FISHERMAN, Robert Traver 1964, (Judge John Voelker 1903-93)

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.