Life & Stuff

Life, the Universe, and the whole damn thing!

26
Dec
2018

Five New Fishing Quotations and Sayings

“In certain circles, it is rumoured that anciently there was a fly pattern that possessed such magical fish-catching mojo that no fish could resist its siren call. A fly with material so secretive that it was said there existed only one source of it hidden high in the Andes of Patagonia on the testicles of a golden Guanaco. A fly pattern so powerful that any angler who should possess it was assured of 100 fish days and to whom women instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano. ” #1306

“Keep them wet. Take the ego out of the shot. Then they are everyone’s fish that brings back a wonderful memory.” #1307

“I think the chief part of the ecstasy of fishing with the fly is to be found in the qualities of the fly rod, and if I am right in this, the more exquisite the rod the keener and more perfect the pleasure to be derived from the sport.” #1308

“In the mornings, when the grasses were still wet with a bright silver sheen and the antelope fled and the curlew flew ahead of us as we rattled along the rutted and pitted track across the benches down to the river, we always felt the nervous tingling of expectation.” #1309

“The sun never sets on the brown trout empire.” #1310

All the quotations and sayings about fishing can be found here. You can also find author and publication details, where available.

Posted by Tony Bishop
29
Apr
2017

More Fishing Quotes, and a wee bit of C and R

Been a bit quiet since I found out that Bladder Cancer had got its hook into me. So, the medics and I have spent quite a bit of time trying to persuade it to take up Catch and Release. Right now, things appear to be at a stalemate, so I thought a few more fishy quotes would be in order.

“If you had to choose between marriage and fishing – would you pick freshwater or saltwater” #1276

“I don’t go fishing to escape my life; I go fishing to live my life.”  #1277

“Fishing is like that. It keeps you off balance, surprises you. It takes humility to learn, to accept that you may need a lesson or two even in your advanced stage of enlightenment.”  #1278

“I go fishing, because without it, I’m basically a 2-year-old whose blankie is in the washer.” #1279

“Brown trout, speckled cunning, a fox with fins” #1280

Explore all quotes, sayings, and silliness around fishing, here.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fishing quotes, Life & Stuff
23
May
2015

Five New Fishing Quotations And Sayings – 23 May 2015

Five more fishing quotations and sayings hooked out of the river of words devoted to the sport we love. Total quotes now 1245, see them all here.

“Everybody should be quiet near a little stream and listen.” (1241)

“Everyone gets hung up in trees or stream-side brush.  Everyone.  Fly fishers who tell you different are either lying or never fish in those tricky places where the best fish lurk.” – Tom Rosenbauer (1242)

“I’d still consider them my favorite angling destinations. Elements contributing to a quality location are highly personal but, for me, mountains and wildness are essential. I like areas where humans vie with wolves and grizzlies for apex predator status. Places where logging hasn’t beaten back nature, where urbanity is nonexistent, and where rivers flow only through rocks, not concrete dams.” – Photographer Adam Tavender (1243)

“Even if you can’t cast very far, you can still catch a lot of fish, writes Chad Shmukler. “The anglers on the stream that aren’t throwing line farther than they need to are often the ones catching the most fish.”” – Chad Shmukler In a recent article on Hatch Magazine (1244)

“It is just as well to remember that angling is only a recreation, not a profession.  We usually find that men of the greatest experience are the most liberal and least dogmatic.” – Theodore Gordon (1245)

Posted by Tony Bishop in fishing quotes, fly fishing, Life & Stuff
10
Apr
2015

Five New Fishing Quotations and Sayings: 15 April 2015

More musings on the world of fishing and our place in it.

“I personally don’t happen to care a whoop for bass fishing or bass; in fact I loathe it and them; but I have no quarrel with the queer people who do, only a sort of bewildered pity.”

– Robert Travers (Num 1236)

“It is all about having a deep respect for nature, and then tricking nature into eating a plastic frog.” (Num 1237)

“There is no greater symbol of hope than an oversized fishing net.” (Num 2138)

“If we become conceited through great success, some day the trout will take us down a peg.”

– Theodore Gordon (Num 1239)

“Any time a professional fishing writer complains about his job, the world is rightfully licensed to kick his butt until he shuts up and realizes he isn’t exactly leading a life of quiet desperation out there on the Deschutes or the Tay or the Golfo Dulce.”

– James Babb (Num 1240)

See all 1240 quotes here.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fishing quotes, fly fishing, Life & Stuff
20
Feb
2015

Five new fishing quotations and sayings: February 20 2015

More insight and introspection on this recreational addiction of ours, which some call fishing. New quotes are numbers 1231 to 1235. See all 1235 fishing quotations and sayings here.

“The outdoor life pleased these old men because they believed any properly obsessed fly fisherman carried the rivers and trout inside him.”
– Harry Middleton

“That’s about as big as a fish that big gets”
– A Nonymouse

“There are always new places to go fishing. For any fisherman, there’s always a new place, always a new horizon”
– Jack Nicklaus

“Education is important – but fishing is importanter”
– Hu Nose

“…water that isn’t fit for trout won’t much longer be fit for us.”
– Arnold Gingrich

Posted by Tony Bishop in fishing humour, fishing quotes, fly fishing, Life & Stuff
19
Jan
2015

Five New Fishing Quotations and Sayings 19 Jan 2015

Five more fishing quotes and sayings, and the total rises to 1230, all available on the Quotes Page.

Number 1226

“Nothing in this world so enlivens my spirit and emotions as the rivers I know.  They are necessities.” – Nick Lyons

Number 1227

“There is a cost to a fish being caught, even if it is promptly released.” – Paul Guernsey

Number 1228

“You did not kill the fish only to keep alive and to sell for food, he thought. You killed for pride and because you are a fisherman. You loved him when he was alive and you loved him after. If you love him, it is not a sin to kill him. Or is it more?” – Ernest Hemmingway

Number 1229

“You are killing me, fish, the old man thought. But you have a right to. Never have I seen a greater, or more beautiful, or a calmer or more noble thing than you, brother.”
– Ernest Hemmingway

Number 1230

“…buying a fly rod in the average city store, that is, joining it up and safely waggling it a bit, is much like seeing a woman’s arm protruding from a car window: all one can readily be sure of is that the window is open.” – Robert Travers

Posted by Tony Bishop in fishing humour, fishing quotes, Life & Stuff
06
Nov
2013

Overhyping the Fear Factor Doesn’t Help Fishing

Kirk Deeter, of Field &Stream, wonders whether the fishers of tomorrow are getting the right message.  

“I gave another elementary school talk the other day, and was once again blown away by the enthusiasm 10-year-olds have for fishing. They asked many great questions, but there was a pattern that left me feeling concerned. funnyshark

"Have you ever been attacked by a shark?" (Nope… but I’ve watched them jump and thrash when I’ve fought them on a fly rod, and I’ve had them brush against me when I’m scuba diving.)

Have you ever been bit by a rattlesnake? (No… but I am afraid of them, so I try really hard not to step on them.)

What fish scares you the most? (The trout that’s rising, and I cannot figure out how to catch it… I think I’m losing my mind.)

Have you ever seen a big fish kill anyone? (No, not any people. I’ve seen big fish eat little fish, and birds, and that sort of stuff.)

Have you ever been attacked by a "river monster?" (Not yet.)

Look, I get what the show "River Monsters" is all about…”

Read the whole story.

Posted by Tony Bishop
10
Mar
2009

You only ever fish a river once

I come across a lot of non-fishing related quotes in my search for quotes on things fishy. This one caught my eye.

It is believed to be an old Greek saying. "You never bathe in the same river twice."
I think a quick change of words can reveal another truism: "You never fish in the same river twice".

Rivers change from moment to moment and day to day. Water flows and currents subtly shift. Wind ruffles the surface.

Light changes in intensity and direction. Bottom features seen in one light, reveal new features in a different light or at a different light angle.

Hatches begin and die.

Trout move into and out of lies. New light directions expose new lies. Unseen rain falls and water colour changes. Seasons change and fish habits change with them.
Floods come and go and the river changes again.

Maybe this is why we can fish one river, time after time, year after year, and still find something new every time we fish – for it is never the same river- that for me is one of the prime reasons that keeps me fishing.

Posted by Tony Bishop in fly fishing, Life & Stuff
03
Mar
2008

Fishing in Baseball Caps – Words Of Warning

Last week I had some pre-cancerous lumps removed from my ears, and back of my legs. These were ‘burnt’ out using liquid nitrogen. Another two on my neck had moved a bit too far past the ‘pre’ stage and had to be surgically removed.

Unfortunately this has become almost routine over the last 15 years. Every couple of years another lump or two pops up that has to be removed.

Part of this is down to the the unhappy fact that here in New Zealand we lead the world in the incidence of skin cancer per head of population. This is not just down to the fact that we have virtually no airborne pollution to filter out the bad rays, but also down to the fact that we spend a great deal of time out in the sun.

Unfortunately for old farts like me slipping past 60, we did not know about the dangers of long-term unprotected exposure to the sun back when we were young, but we are paying the price now.

While the doctor was treating my lumps we were chatting, he was a keen fisherman, so a subject wasn’t hard. So I asked him about skin protection  for fishermen – and he trotted out the usual; cover-up exposed bits, slap on heaps of a total sun-blocker on bits unable to be covered, and re-slap every 30 minutes.

But it was the last bit of advice that got my attention – throw away your baseball cap and buy a wide-brimmed hat. Most of the skin cancers he sees on out-door people are on the face, neck and ears.

To use his own words, “baseball caps do not cover neck, ears, cheeks or throat – they are about as much use as chocolate tea-pot. Any one who spends a lot of time in the sun, like  a fisherman, who wears a baseball cap is simply a bozo.”

Posted by Tony Bishop in Articles and stories on fishing in general, Life & Stuff