My Favorite Fishing Quotes

I thought it would be fun to throw a post together full of my favorite fishing quotes.  I thought it would be quick and easy, turns out it is not.  And it is something that will continue as long as there are fishermen to philosophize about why they fish and to lie about what they catch.  So here you go...enjoy...


"It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming."  -John Steinbeck

"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, The Philosophical Fisherman, 1969

"There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind."  -Washington Irving

"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

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

"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

"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

"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,  A River Never Sleeps, 1946

"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

"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

"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

"Some men fish all their lives without knowing it is not really the fish they are after."  -Henry David Thoreau

"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."  -???

"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."  -???

"My father was very sure about certain matters pertaining to the universe. To him all good things-trout as well as eternal salvation-come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy."  -Norman Mclean, A River Runs Through It

"If our father had had his way, nobody who did not know how to fish would be allowed to disgrace a fish by catching him."  -Norman Mclean, A River Runs Through It

"Many of us would probably be better fishermen if we did not spend so much time watching and waiting for the world to become perfect."  -Norman Mclean, A River Runs Through It


"If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles."  -Doug Larson

"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


Feel free to add your favorites in the comments below.

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