2. “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” –
3. “The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of that which is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.” – John Buchan
4. “If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.” – Doug Larson
5. “Sharing the fun of fishing turns strangers into friends in a few hours.” – Eugenie Clark
6. “Great fish do not swim in shallow waters.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
7. “The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad.” – A.K. Best
8. “Be patient and calm—for no one can catch fish in anger.” – Herbert Hoover
9. “Most of the world is covered by water. A fisherman’s job is simple: pick out the best parts.” – Charles Waterman
10. “Fishing provides time to think, and reason not to.” – Carl Safina
11. “The act of fishing for fish, dreams, or whatever magic is available is enough. It transports us to a special world, and a state of mind, where we are free.“ – Fennel Hudson
12. “‘Carpe Diem,’ does not mean ‘fish of the day.’” – Anonymous
13. “The best time to go fishing is when you can get away.” – Robert Traver
14. “As no man is born an artist, so no man is born an angler.“ – Izaak Walton
15. “Some go to church and think about fishing, others go fishing and think about God.” – Tony Blake
16. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” – Maimonides
17. “You can’t buy happiness, but you can go fishing, and that’s pretty much the same thing.” – Anonymous
18. “When they go fishing, it is not really the fish they are after. It is a philosophic meditation.” – E.T. Brown
19. “When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.” –
20. “Fishing is much less about the fishing, and much more about the time alone with your kid, away from the hustle and bustle of the every day.“ – Dan Pearce
21. “I fish to scratch the surface of those mysteries, for nearness to the beautiful, and to reassure myself the world remains.” – Carl Safina
22. “If you have the virtue of patience, an hour or two of casting alone is plenty of time to review all you’ve learned about the grand themes of life.” – Carl Safina
23. “There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind.” – Washington Irvin
24. “I know that the human being and the fish can coexist peacefully.” – George W. Bush
25. “Somebody just back of you, while you are fishing, is as bad as someone looking over your shoulder while you write a letter to your girl.” –
26. “I propose that it only matters that you attempt to catch a fish. Doing so brings you close to nature.“ – Fennel Hudson
27. “Fishing is not an escape from life, but often a deeper immersion into it.” – Harry Middleton
28. “There are always new places to go fishing. For any fisherman, there’s always a new place, a new horizon.” – Jack Nicklaus
29. “Fishing in a place is a meditation on the rhythm of a tide, a season, the arc of a year, and the seasons of life.“ – Carl Safina
30. “It doesn’t matter if the rod is or isn’t bent. Time spent fishing is time well spent.” – Justin Morgan
31. “I fish because I love to, not because I regard fishing as so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of man are equally unimportant; and not nearly so much fun.” – Anonymous
32. “I’ve gone fishing thousands of times in my life, and I have never once felt unlucky or poorly paid for those hours on the water.” – William Tapply
33. “I like to fish. Fishing is always a way of relaxing.” – Tom Felton
34. “A day without fishing is like a day without sunshine.” – Anonymous
35. “Soon, after I embraced the sport of angling I became convinced that I should never be able to enjoy it if I had to rely on the cooperation of the fish.” – Sparse Grey Hackle
36. “The fishing is a great relief for me. When I’m out there’s no cell phone ringing. I’m out there fishing with bears. I’m in the middle of God’s country catching tons of fish. I just absolutely love it.” – Rich Barry
37. “I thoroughly enjoy getting away from the game and going out fishing because it’s so relaxing, so quiet, and peaceful. I mean, there’s no noise other than nature and it’s so different from what I do in a tournament situation that it just eases my mind.“ –
38. “The solution to any problem—work, love, money, whatever is to go fishing, and the worse the problem, the longer the trip should be.” – John Gierach
39. “I love fishing, any kind of fishing.” – Brandi Carlile
40. “I have fished through fishless days that I remember happily without regret.” – Roderick Haig Brown
41. “I love any discourse of rivers, and fish and fishing.” – Izaak Walton
42. “I don’t go fishing to escape my life; I go fishing to live my life.” – Anonymous
43. “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
44. “I love talk and I love fishing. I’m having a ball.” – Martin Milner
45. “Probably fishing is my first passion.“ – Luke Bryan
46. “I am firmly convinced that the ideal combination leading to a happy life is to have the time to both fish and read.” – Brian Murphy
47. “No life is so happy and so pleasant as the life of the well-governed angler.” – Izaak Walton
48. “Life is like a game, but fishing is serious.” – Anonymous
49. “Some people will just never understand us, fishing isn’t just a pastime or a sport, it’s a way of life.” – Anonymous
50. “Many of the most highly publicized events of my presidency are not nearly as memorable or significant in my life as fishing with my daddy.” –
51. “There are two things in life you should never be late for, number one is church and number two is fishing.” – Anonymous
52. “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
53. “Thank you, dear God, for this good life and forgive us if we do not love it enough. Thank you for the rain. And for the chance to wake up in three hours and go fishing: I thank you for that now, because I won’t feel so thankful then.” – Garrison Keillor
54. “I love the water. I can concentrate and forget all my worries. I count my blessings while fishing.” – George W. Bush
55. “In this ever-changing world, there are few things that have remained constant for me. The chance of hooking a nice trout still excites and thrills me to this day—just as it did when I was a kid. I like that!“ – M.A. Bookout
56. “Well, I love fishing. I wouldn’t kill a fly myself but I’ve no hesitation in killing a fish. A lot of men are like that. No bother. Out you come. Thump. And that’s not the only reason.” – Norman MacCaig
57. “Fishing, with me, has always been an excuse to drink in the daytime.” – Jimmy Cannon
58. “When we fish, we are awake. We are attuned to the environment, to the world, to the reverence and wonder of life.” – Dan Baughman
59. “I used to like fishing because I thought it had some larger significance. Now I like fishing because it’s the one thing I can think of that probably doesn’t.” – John Gierach
60. “Fishing adds years to your life, and life to your years.” – Anonymous
61. “There is no limit to how many times you can go fishing.” – Anonymous
62. “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
63. “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
64. “Having a fishing rod in your hand is merely an excuse to explore out-of-sight depths and reveal mysteries that previously only existed in dreams.“ – Fennel Hudson
65. “I don’t want to sit at the head table anymore. I want to go fishing.” – George Bush
66. “One thing becomes clearer as one gets older and one’s fishing experience increases and that is the paramount importance of one’s fishing companions.” – John Ashley Cooper
67. “There is only one reason in the world to go fishing: to enjoy yourself. Anything that detracts from enjoying yourself is to be avoided.” – Leigh Perkins
68. “Everyone should believe in something. I believe I’ll go fishing.” – Henry David Thoreau
69. “I want everybody to go jump in the ocean to see for themselves how beautiful it is, how important it is to get acquainted with fish swimming in the ocean, rather than just swimming with lemon slices and butter.” – Sylvia Earle
70. “I still don’t know why I fish or why others fish, except that we like it and it makes us think and feel.” – Roderick Haig-Brown
71. “I fish because the voice in my head tells me to.” – Anonymous
72. “Opportunity is ever worth expecting; let our hood be ever hanging ready. The fish will be in the pool where you least imagine it to be.” – Ovid
73. “To go fishing is one of the most pleasurable experiences I can imagine.“ – Fennel Hudson
74. “When nothing is going right, go fishing.” – Anonymous
75. “Fishing is marvelous, there is the irresistible urge to tangle with the mysterious and unknown, to rely on intuition and hunches.” – Katharine Weber
76. “At high tide, fish eat ants; at low tide, ants eat fish.” – Thai Proverb
77. “No good fish goes anywhere without a porpoise.” –
78. “Different fields, different grasshoppers; different seas, different fish.” – Indonesian Proverb
79. “A chub is the worst fish that swims.” – Izaak Walton
80. “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” –
81. “No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.” – John Ruskin
82. “Fish is the only food that is considered spoiled once it smells like what it is.” – P.J. O’Rourke
83. A fish only begins to realize its potential the moment you throw it in deep waters.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
84. “Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught.” – Anonymous
85. “Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once.” – Lee Wulff OL
86. “A man’s ‘one last cast’ is like a woman’s ‘I’ll be ready in five minutes!’” – Anonymous
87. “Average girls dance on poles, the best ones fish with them.” – Anonymous
88. “Women know why men love to go fishing. It is the only time they will hear the words ‘wow, that’s a big one!’” – Anonymous
89. “A real woman will not make you choose between her and fishing, she will make you take her fishing.” – Anonymous
90. “Women are like fish; fun to catch, fresh ones are better and when you decide to keep one, it will cost you a lot of money.” – Anonymous
91. “A woman, who has never seen her husband fishing, doesn’t know what a patient man she married!” – Anonymous
92. “I do fish. I think there is a connection between thinking and fishing mostly because you spend a lot of time up to your waist in water without a whole lot to keep your mind busy.“ – Anthony Doerr
93. “Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.” – Henry David Thoreau
94. “Reading about is a lot more interesting than reading about chess, but you have to wonder: don’t any of these guys ever go fishing?” – Anonymous
95. “Early to bed, early to rise, fish all day—make up lies.” – Anonymous
96. “The only thing bad about winning the pennant is that you have to manage the All-Star Game the next year. I’d rather go fishing for three years.” – Whitey Herzog
97. “Most fishermen swiftly learn that it’s a pretty good rule never to show a favorite spot to any fisherman you wouldn’t trust with your wife.” – John Voelker
98. “Talk to a hungry man about fish, and you’re a consultant.” – Scott Adams
99. “There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.” –
100. “Fisherman’s prayer: Lord, help me to catch fish so large that even I, in the telling of it, never need to lie.” – Anonymous
101. “The gods do not deduct from man’s allotted span the hours spent in fishing.” – Herbert Hoover
102. “Look at where Jesus went to pick people. He didn’t go to the college—she got guys off the fishing docks.” – Jeff Foxworthy
103. “Men and fish are alike. They both get into trouble when they open their mouths.” – Anonymous
104. “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he’ll sit in a boat with a fishing pole and drink beer all day.” – Lorena McCourtney
105. “Comedians get jokes offered to them, rock stars get women and underwear thrown on stage, and I get guys that want to take me fishing.“ – Les Claypool
106. “Good things come to those who bait.” – Anonymous
107. “Tight lines, warm breezes, good friends, plenty of bait, it doesn’t get any better.” – Anonymous
108. “Gone fishin’, be back at dark-thirty!” – Anonymous
109. “So long, and thanks for all the fish.” – Douglas Adams
110. “Fishing is fun, catching is better.” – Anonymous
111. “A bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at the office!” – Anonymous
112. “Gone fishing, catch you later!” – Anonymous
113. “Dad is my name, fishing is my game.” – Anonymous
114. “Good friends are like fish. You need to have the patience to catch a good one.” – Achirman Roy
115. “I’m a man of few words, let’s fish.” – Anonymous
116. “Those who die with the most days fishing wins.” – Anonymous
117. “There are two types of fishermen: those who fish for sport and those who fish for fish.” – Anonymous
118. “It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming.” –
119. “Calling fishing a hobby is like calling brain surgery a job.” – Paul Schullery
120. “A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of that worm.” –
121. “The fish and I were both stunned and disbelieving to find ourselves connected by a line.” – William Humphrey
122. “A river is honored for its fish, not its size.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
123. “Angling is extremely time-consuming. That’s sort of the whole point.” – Thomas McGuane
124. “Catching fish is low on my agenda when I go fishing. I’m much more interested in savoring the day and exploring the wildlife of the river.“ – Fennel Hudson
125. “If I fished only to capture fish, my fishing trips would have ended long ago.” – Zane Grey
126. “I go fishing not to find myself but to lose myself.” – Joseph Monninger
127. “Bragging may not bring happiness, but no man having caught a large fish goes home through an alley.” – Anonymous
128. “The fishing is good in troubled waters.” – German Proverb
129. “Do not tell fish stories where the people know you. Particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.” – Mark Twain
130. “Procrastifishing: the art of going fishing when you should be doing something else.” – Anonymous
131. “To fish or not to fish? That’s a dumb question.” – Anonymous
132. “You say I’m a compulsive fishing freak like it’s a bad thing.” – Anonymous
133. “Work is for people who don’t know how to fish!” – Anonymous
134. “I spent most of my money on fishing. The rest I wasted.” – Anonymous
135. “If fishing is interfering with your business, give up your business.” – Sparse Grey Hackle
136. “Of course, I talk to myself when I’m fishing. Sometimes I need expert advice.” – Anonymous
137. “If I’m not fishing, I’m thinking about it.” – Anonymous
138. “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!” – Anonymous
139. “A wise man once said ‘Fuck it, I’m going fishing,’ and he lived happily ever after.” – Anonymous
140. “There is no loss in fishing. You either catch or you learn. Either way, it’s better than work.” – Anonymous
141. “Fly fishermen are born honest, but they get over it.” – Ed Zern
142. “My biggest worry is that when I’m dead and gone, will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it.” – Koos Brandt
143. “Daddy taught me how to fish but taught me how to catch a fish!” – Anonymous
144. “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Give a man a subprime fish loan and you’re in business, buddy.” – Stephen Colbert
145. “Sometimes, when the water is quiet, you can almost hear the fish laughing at you.” – Anonymous
146. “Fly-fishing is a magic way to recapture the rapture of solitude without the pangs of loneliness.” – John D. Voelker
147. “I got 99 problems and fishing solves all of them.” – Earl Dibbles Jr.
148. “Fly-fishing is the most fun you can have standing up.” – Anonymous
149. “Fishing is a discipline in the equality of men—for all men are equal before fish.” – Anonymous
150. “Fishing seems to be the favorite form of loafing.” – F. W. Howe
151. “I got a fishing rod for my wife—good trade.” – Anonymous
152. “He who wants to catch fish must not mind getting wet.” – Spanish Proverb
153. “A man and his boat do not need to be justified.” – Anonymous
154. “You think of its speed, its floating, flashing body seen through the water. If I made fins and eyes and scales, I would arrest its movement, give a pattern or shape of reality. I want just the flash of its spirit.” – Constantin Brancusi
155. “Those who fish get to know and understand a river in a way few others can.” – W.D. Wetherell
156. “Last year I went fishing with . He was using a dotted line. He caught every other fish.” – Steven Wright
157. “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 McManus
158. “If fishing is a religion, fly fishing is high church.” – Tom Brokaw
159. “My golf game’s gone off so much that when I went fishing a couple of weeks ago my first cast missed the lake.” – Ben Crenshaw
160. “By the time I had turned 30, I’d realized two important things. One, I had to fish. Two, I had to work for a living.” – Mallory Burton
161. “Fishing is the sport of drowning worms.” – Anonymous
162. “If all politicians fished, instead of spoke publicly, we would be at peace with the world.” – Will Rogers
163. “The two best times to fish is when it’s rainin’ and when it ain’t.” – Anonymous
164. “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.” – Mitch Hedberg
165. “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
166. “I love fishing and surfing, and I work out every day.” – Karl Urban
167. “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’Neill
168. “It is to be observed that ‘angling’ is the name given to fishing by people who can’t fish.” – Stephen Leacock
169. “Just as in cooking there’s no such thing as a little garlic, in fishing, there’s no such thing as a little drag.” – H.G. Tapply
170. “I only make movies to finance my fishing.” – Lee Marvin
171. “The angling fever is a very real disease and can only be cured by the application of cold water and fresh, untainted air.” – Theodore Gordon
172. “A fisherman lives here with the catch of his life.” – Anonymous
173. “I fish better with a lit cigar; some people fish better with talent.” – Nick Lyons
174. “I am an old-fashioned angler seeking to fish in a peaceful and relaxing way in traditional surroundings. Other anglers are too noisy, too busy, and catch fish that might break my landing net.“ – Fennel Hudson
175. “Creeps and idiots cannot conceal themselves for long on a fishing trip.” – John Gierach
176. “Sure, it was your idea and your fly, but he caught the big fish. Remember, fairness is a human idea largely unknown in nature.” – John Gierach
177. “If, as I suspect, trout fishing is something of a disease, then it is also something of therapy in itself.” – Tom Sutcliffe
178. “I love fishing. It’s transcendental meditation with a punchline.” – Billy Connolly
179. “The true angler can welcome even a low river and a dry year, and learn of it, and be the better for it, in mind and in spirit.“ – G.M.W. Wemyss
180. “Angling is just a way of relaxing and escaping in the countryside.“ – Fennel Hudson