Fly fishermen are born honest, but they get over it.
I make it a rule never to weigh or measure a fish I've caught, but simply to estimate its dimensions as accurately as possible, and then, when telling about it, to improve these figures by roughly a fifth, or twenty percent. I do this mainly because most people believe all fishermen exaggerate by at least twenty percent, and so I allow for the discounting my audience is almost certain to apply.
The best time to go fishing is when you can
Contrary to common belief, it is not true that if you cut a worm-fisherman in half, each half will grow into a complete fisherman. For which we should all be eternally grateful.
I get all the truth I need in the newspaper every morning, and every chance I get I go fishing, or swap stories with fishermen to get the taste of it out of my mouth.
The truth is, fish have very little sex life. If you have ever tried to make love under water, you will know why.
I don't regard nature as a spectator sport.
People who fish for food, and sport be damned, are called pot-fishermen. The more expert ones are called crack pot-fishermen. All other fishermen are called crackpot fishermen. This is confusing.
Fly fishing or any other sport fishing, is an end in itself and not a game or competition among fishermen. . . .
Most fishing rods work better if you grasp them at the thick end. If you grasp a fisherman at the thick end, you may get a thumb bit off.
...there are few things deader than a dead brown trout stream.
... it takes several years of serious fishing before a man learns enough to go through a whole season with an unblemished record of physical and spiritual anguish.
The chief difference between big-game fishing and weightlifting is that weightlifters never clutter up their library walls with stuffed barbells
It is easy to tell tourists from tarpon. Tarpon have a narrow, bony plate inside the mouth of their lower jaw. Tourists have both upper and lower plates.
I don't mind my hand shaking so much; it improves my S cast.
