I FISH
• because I like to.
• because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful; and hid from 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 or cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietism and humility and endless patience.
• because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I, for one, do not 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, I fish not because I regard fishing as being terribly important, but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant, and not nearly so much fun.
AMEN.
--John Volker, Retired Michigan Supreme Court Justice
Hoover on fishing.
Fishing is the chance to wash one's soul with pure air.
It brings meekness and inspiration, reduces our egoism,
soothes our troubles and shames our wickedness.
It is discipline in the equality of men--for all men
are equal before fish.
--President Herbert Hoover , New York Herald Tribune, May 10, 1947.
If people concentrated on the really important things of life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles.
--Doug Larson.
For angling rod he took a sturdy oake;
For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke;
His hooke was such as heads the end of pole;
To pluck down house ere fire consumes it whole;
The hooke was baited with a dragon's tail;
And then on rock he stood to bob for whale.
--Sir William Davenport, 1605-1668.
Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics that it can never be fully learnt.
--Izaak Walton.
There's a fine line between fishing and standing on the shore like an idiot.
--Steven Wright
Catch and Release fishing is a lot like golf. You don't have to eat the ball to have a good time.
--Anon fly fishing guide