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Fishing quotes and thoughts

some famous and not so famous anglers...

Many of these quotes are universally known from many sources but I have recently (2010) found Nick Lyons helpful text "The Quotable Fisherman" which has collated quotes, and I recommend its purchase. In time when I find something unique to his collation I will reference him and his book is to be seen as cover image at the bottom of this page.

I'm a l(l)uring to all to it seems except hungry fish!

Wayne Real 2005

"On Memories...

On the banks of a river, the trash collector and the executive are equals; it is the one with the bigger catch who is superior"

Lennart Borgstrom

ABU and Garcia

What Happened? p239

ex owner ABU

Williamsburg VA 2006

"On Memories...

The most amazing thing about working in the sport fishing industry is that fishing transends all economic and social classes."

to be continued..

Lennart Borgstrom ABU and Garcia What Happened? p239

ex owner ABU Williamsburg VA 2006

"On the ABU Museum in Svangsta.............

Henning Karlsson, the curator, has dedicated a tremendous amount of work in his effort to preserve a small piece of Swedish business history for future generations"

Lennart Borgstrom ex owner ABU Williamsburg VA 2006

The ABU design did much to set the standard of sheer quality and durability, making them the hurdle any new brand must clear before it is accepted.

Vic McCristal (McSea, Practical fishing with Lures 1979 p31)

No angler merely watches nature in a passive way. he enters into its very existence.

John Bailey Reflections on the Water's Edge

Is fishing a good tonic? It can certainly be a good tonic for a harrassed person of the present day, perhaps the best medicine for stress , that special disease of the present generation

[50 years ago] Dr H J Casserman Tight Lines catalog p.16 1959

Fishing is not like billiards, in which it is possible to attain a perfect disgusting perfection.

Arthur Ransome "On Giving Advice to Beginners" Rod and Line 1929

If fishing interferes with your business, give up the business... trout do not rise in the cemetry!

Sparse Grey Hackle ...Fishless Days 1954

Only those become weary of angling who bring nothing to it but he idea of catching fish

Rafael Sabatini 1875-1950

You will search far to find a fisherman to admit a taste for fishing, like a taste for liquor, must be governed lest it come to possess the possessor...

Sparse Grey Hackle, 'Fishless Days' 1954

Fishing and ABU has brought friends together across the globe.

My recent 2 weeks fishing with Swedish mate Uffe Edefuhr was very special and will always be a great memory.

Maybe one day in Sweden, I will catch a dozen species!

Wayne Real

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 fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad.

A.K. Best

Even if you've been fishing for hours and haven't caught anything

except a few cuts , stings and some sunburn,

You're still a lot better off than the bait.

Author Unknown

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"

The wilderness and adventure that are in fishing still recommend it to me

Henry David Thoreau (Walden1854)

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

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

Catch and Release fishing is a lot like golf. You don't have to always eat the ball to have a good time.

Unknown

No man is born an artist

an Angler

Izaak Walton 1653

Last year I went fishing with Salvador Dali. He was using a dotted line. He caught every other fish.

Anon

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

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 favourite, was a dry-fly fisherman.

Norman Maclean- "A River Runs Through It"

All Americans believe that they
are born fishermen. For a man to
admit a distaste for fishing would be
like denouncing mother-love
or hating moonlight.

John Steinbeck

Fishers and fish are very much alike.

They both get into trouble when they open their mouths.

Author Unknown

Angling may be said to be so
like the mathematics that it
can never be fully learnt.

Izaak Walton.

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.

Author 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