ULTIMATE

FLY

TYING

FLY PATTERNS

FLY FISHING NEWS

HOME

Articles

TOP RIVERS

QUOTES

"Lots of people committed crimes during the year who would not have done so if they had been fishing. The increase of crime is among those deprived of the regenerations that impregnate the mind and character of the fisherman."
Herbert Hoover

"Has it ever struck you that trout bite best on the Sabbath? God's critters tempting decent men."
James Barrie, author of Peter Pan, 1891

"I fish all the time when I'm at home; so when I get a chance to go on vacation, I make sure I get in plenty of fishing."

Thomas McGuane

"The reason that all other kinds of fishermen look up to the dry-fly purist is not that he catches more fish than they; on the contrary, it is because he catches fewer. His is the sport in its purist, most impractical, least material form."
William Humphrey

"His love of streams, of fishing, seemed so complete and pure and mysterious. He knew something I didn't... I wanted to learn how to find fish, how to tell a good stream from a bad one, how not to frighten trout in the water, what fly to use. I wanted to experience that, too, to love something so utterly you assumed everyone else was as fascinated with it as you."
from an essay by Gretchen Legler

"Standing in a cool stream with a mountain range or a meadow nearby, fly rod in hand and cigar in mouth, is the way God meant mankind to live."
 Jon Margolis and Jeff MacNelly

"I look into ... my fly box, and think about all the elements I should consider in choosing the perfect fly: water temperature, what stage of development the bugs are in, what the fish are eating right now. Then I remember what a guide told me: 'Ninety percent of what a trout eats is brown and fuzzy and about five-eighths of an inch long.'"
Allison Moir, "Love the Man, Love the Fly Rod", in A Different Angle: Fly Fishing Stories by Women

"One evening I was awakened from a deep sleep by a weird noise coming from my husband, only to find out he was dreaming and he was a Dry Fly.  I suspected then, and now realize, his dreams are not made up of wild crazy women, only episodes of his days of being in the stream." 
Jan Thousand

"The man who coined the phrase "Money can't buy happiness", never bought himself a good fly rod!"
 Reg Baird, from his video Labrador Trout

"Some people are under the impression that all that is required to make a good fisherman is the ability to tell lies easily and without blushing. But that is a mistake.  Mere bald fabrication is useless.  It is in the circumstantial detail, the embellishing touches of probability, the general air of  scrupulous---almost of pedantic---veracity, that the experienced angler is seen."
Jerome K. Jerome

"A fly fishing season does not pass in which I do not find myself misguided by following one of my favourite precepts. "
Huish Edye The Angler And The Trout [1945]

"Certainly no aspect of fly fishing is as enjoyable as those which have a good, firmly based and well established myth or two for company. "
Conrad Voss Bark A Fly On The Water [1986]

"The fisherman fishes. It is at once an act of humility and a small rebellion.  And it is something more.  To him his fishing is an island of reality in a world of dreams and shadow. "
Robert Traver Trout Madness [1960]

"The contentment which fills the mind of the angler at the close of his day's sport, is one of the chiefest charms in his life.."

William Cowper Prime

"We who go a-fishing are a peculiar people.  Like other men and women in many respects, we are like one another, and like no others, in other respects.  We understand each other's thoughts by an intuition of which we know nothing.  We cast our flies on many waters, where memories and fancies and facts rise, and we take them and show them to each other,
and small or large, we are content with our catch. "
W. C. Prime I Go A-Fishing [1873]

"False casting for practice is the best way to achieve the feel of the line in the air, but in actual fishing, false casts should be limited in number to absolute necessity.  In the first place, the more false casts you make, the greater are the chances for the fish to see your arm waving, or the line in the air.  And the greater are your chances to make a mistake in the cast and lose your timing.   Most anglers, especially tyros, false cast too often.   Three false casts should be sufficient for any throw and two is better.  One is perfect."
Joe Brooks, Trout Fishing, an Outdoor Life Book [1972]

"Choose your fly fishing friends wisely. They can have an effect on how many and the size of the trout you catch.  Fly fishers who spend a lot of time fishing together will unconciously adopt some of the other's mannerisms, choice of flies and casting techniques over time.  Surrounding yourself with great fly fishers who catch a lot of trout will help you catch more and larger trout. However, does that mean that  while you as the poorer angler improve your fishing prowess, the better angler's fishing prowess deteriorates?  It could be that as your fishing improves and your friend's deteriorates, he reaches a point where his  fishing begins to improve by watching you the better angler.   If that is the case, somewhere along the line, both of you will become great anglers."  Now, if both of you are piss poor fly fishers . . . . . . .
Jimmy D. Moore, "Character VS Catching" [1998]

"The sporting qualities of a fish are dependent neither on its size nor its weight, but on the effort of concentration, the skill and mastery the fish demands from the fisherman."
Charles Ritz, A Fly Fisher's Life [1959]

"Fishing consists of a series of misadventures interspersed by occasional moments of glory."
Howard Marshall, Reflections on a River [1967]

"Neither time nor repetition has destroyed the illusion that the rise of a trout to a dry fly is properly regarded in the light of a miracle."

Harold Blaisdell, The Philosophical Fisherman [1969]

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

When a man picks up a fly rod for the first time, he may not know, he has been born again.
     Joseph D. Farris

Game fish are too valuable to only be caught once.
          Lee Wulff

"He told us about Christ's disciples being fisherman, and we were left to assume...that all great fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fisherman and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman."
Norman Maclean-A River Runs Through It

PURIST: dry flies only, barbless hooks, and releases a great supper for a baloney sandwich.

Put backing on your line; even if you never use it.  It helps you dream.

To me heaven would be a big bull ring with me holding two barrera seats and a trout stream outside that no one else was allowed to fish in and two lovely houses in the town; one where I would have my wife and children and be monogamous and love them truly and well and the other where I would have my nine beautiful mistresses on nine different floors.
- Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

Flyfishing is like sex, everyone thinks there is more than there is, and that everyone is getting more than their share.
- Henry Kanemoto, on Flyfish@ 1996

There are trout in my river whose attitudes, Are quite of the blackest ingratitude; Though I offer them duns, Most superior ones, They maintain a persistent Black Gnatitude.
- Anonymous

Testament of a Fisherman
I fish because I love to; because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the 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 and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience; because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don't 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, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant - and not nearly so much fun.
- Robert Traver, 1964 (Judge John Voelker, 1903-1993)

Fly-fishing is the most fun you can have standing up.
- Arnold Gingrich, 1969

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 Maclean, A River Runs Through It, 1976

Some go to church and think about fishing, others go fishing and think about God.
- Tony Blake, on Flyfish@

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

Doug Larson

"Rivers and the inhabitants of the watery elements are made for wise men to contemplate and for fools to pass by without consideration."

Izaac Walton

"If fishing is like religion, then fly fishing is high church."

Tom Browaw
 

"I am not against golf, since I cannot suspect it keeps armies of the unworthy from discovering trout."

Paul O'Neil
 

"Calling fly-fishing a hobby is like calling brain surgery a job."

Paul Schullery

"Blessings upon all that hate contention, and love quietness, and virtue, and Angling." 

Izaak Walton
 

"Often I have been exhausted on trout streams, uncomfortable, wet, cold, briar scarred, sunburned, mosquito bitten, but never, with a fly rod in my hand have I been less than in a place that was less than beautiful."

Charles Kuralt
 

Fishing provides the angler a detachment of mind about him, a sense of freedom and length of days, to which it is less easy to attain in these times of trains, letters, telegrams and incessant news.
Modified from Fly Fishing by Sir Edward Grey

Unless one can enjoy himself fishing with the fly, even when his efforts are unrewarded, he loses much real pleasure. More than half the intense enjoyment of fly-fishing is derived from the beautiful surroundings, the satisfaction felt from being in the open air, the new lease of life secured thereby, and the many, many pleasant recollections of all one has seen, heard and done.
Charles  Orvis, 1886

"Fly fishing, may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling, or fishing with a float, I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other. "
Dr. Samuel Johnson [1709-1784]

" I continually read of men who said they would be just as happy not catching trout as catching them.   To me, that even then sounded pious nonsense, and rather more of an excuse than a statement of fact.  No, I want to catch them, and every time I slip on my waders and put up a fly, it is with this in mind. "
Brian Clarke
The Pursuit of the Stillwater Trout [1975]

"It is the constant - or inconstant - change, the infinite variety in fly fishing that binds us fast.  It is impossible to grow weary of a sport that is never the same on any two days of the year. "
Theodore Gordon [1914]

"For this form of fishing [ with a wet fly], the rod is no longer a shooting machine but a receiving post, with super-sensitive antennae, capable of registering immediately the slightest reaction of the fish to the fly. "
Charles Ritz

"Many men fish all of their lives without realizing that it's not the fish they are after. "
Henry David Thoreau

Angling consists as much in a love of the peace of the country and of Nature as in the taking of fish.

Eric Taverner "Trout Fishing from All Angles"
 

"In the recollection of the trout fisherman it is always spring.  The blackbird sings of a May morning.  The little trout jump in the riffles, and the German brown comes surely to the fly on the evening rise. "
R. Palmer Baker "The Sweet of the Year" [1965]

"Catching trout is like catching a bad cold, it's hard to get over.  But then who wants to get over catching trout ? "
BIGTROUTMAN, aka JIMMY  D, Jimmy's Fishing Quotes (July 15, 2001)

“Lo, the fisherman’s wife. All she wants is the spare bedroom back. It’s covered with rods and reels, flies and vests, waders, rain gear, hooks and leaders, etc. For a trip six months from now. Not a safe place to step or sleep or rest! “But honey! I want to be prepared,” he says. So Lo the fisherman’s wife.”
Jody Moore - April, 2000

"The fly angler who says they have never, ever fallen while wading , is either a pathogenic liar, or has never been fly fishing."

Jimmy Moore

"It doesn't take long to understand there's a paradox to all of this.   Here you are on a wonderful, shimmering river casting a fly over the biggest trout you've ever seen in your life when you realize that the reason it's possible is because there is a dam upstream from you.   It doesn't make sense at first.  The river exixts, as you know it, because upstream there is flat water" A reservoir is making all this possible? Nonsense!"
Ed Engle in Fly Fishing Tailwaters

"When it comes to cults, fly fishing isn't much different than most.   Simply put, this means that enough is never enough.  With luck you can reach a pleasant level of mellow fanaticism and maybe even hold down a  regular job at the plant.   But there is a trout bum that lurks in every one of us and I think we all secretly know that a sparse little lean-to under the bridge, say on Henry's Fork of the Snake River, is never more than a cast away. "
Ed Engle in Fly Fishing the Tailwaters, A Fly Fisher's Life [1959]

"These brook trout will strike any fly you present, provided you don't get close enough to present it."

Dick Blalock

"In fly fishing, compromises are often perfectly acceptable; there are few absolutes.  I guess you could say the same thing about marriage."
"Alaska Magazine"  Ken Marsh

My first question to a newbie nymph fisher is; can you fish worms? Best advice I can give someone like that is to do that same thing with a nymph. Dry flies, a different story.
Gert Jensen

No truer words have been spoken - We all learn from each other. The youngins keep us old farts honest, ( well, sort of ) -- your questioning and curious minds bring on many new innovations and ideas; that gift both young and young at heart with more enjoyment from the sport.
Bob Haering

"I shall always remember that trip and the simple pleasure we had, just knocking about the countryside, fishing a bit, the humor of coming back to the Inn fishless and our host grinning from ear to ear without losing his cigar butt, then bringing out those beautiful little brookies, still full of color and as shiny as when they were first taken from the beaver pond.  Fishless day indeed!  Who could have had a better time?"
"Fishless Days, Angling Nights"  Sparse Grey Hackle

"Could it be that trout fishing is only an excuse to enjoy God's gift of the great outdoors?"
Jody Moore, 2000

"Maybe that's because the waters we fish reflect out moods, whims, or thing within that run deep and constant.  Their isolation promises inspiration without interruption;one moment you're holding a dripping, sparkling fish, the next you're look at the water seeing an image of yourself and nobody one else.  For a moment, you know precisely who you are.
"Alaska Magazine"  Ken  Marsh

What is Fly Fishing? "A stick and a string with a fly at one end and a fool at the other."

Anonymous

"Fly tying is a disease!  It permeates through your entire psyche. You do crazy things, like stopping your car on the side of the road so you can cut the tail off a dead squirrel.  You steal thread and beads from your wife's sewing stuff.  You study hollow noodles to see if they can be used as a fly body. You buy nail hardner because it works and is cheaper than Fly shop cement.  You have enough hooks to tie a fly every day for the rest of your life.  You have several tying vices, but are always looking for something better. You know the difference between Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.  You know what a BWO is and can ispell what CDC stands for. You tie more and fish less! Did you know that some of the greatest fly tyers never wet a line? It's true!  Yes, fly tying is an incurable disease! Aren't you glad?  I am!"
Jimmy D. Moore, December 12, 2002

" The ability to cast your flyline seventy feet and flick a gnat off a streamside bush doesn't make you a great trout fisherman! "
Jimmy D. Moore, December 11, 2002

"Now, if all fish were caught with the fly, there would be no need for other rods than the  Trout and Salmon fly-rods; but as such, unfortunately, is not the case we are compelled to adopt other rods in accordance with the mode of fishing, the character of the fish to be caught and the kind of bait to be used."
"Book of The Black Bass"    Dr. Hensahall

"Fisherman spend a lot of time musing while on the water. to ponder whether a fish you caught 10 or 20 years ago might still swim in the same river, and maybe even the same riffle where you caught it in an earlier part of your life, is a pleasant way to pass time between casts."
"Alaska Magazine"    Les Gara

It is not difficult to learn how to cast; but it is difficult to learn not to snap the flies off at every throw.

Charles Dudley Warner, 1862

"I doubt if rifle, shot-gun, or fowling-piece; ever becomes so dear and near  to the sportsman as the rod to the angler, for the rod really becomes a part of himself, as it were, thought which he feels every motion of the fish when hooked, and which, being in a measure under the control of his will, and responsive to the slightest motion of his wrist, seem to be imbued with an intelligence almost life-like."
"Book of  The Black Bass" Dr. Hensall

"It must, of course, be admitterd that large stories of fishing adventure are sometimes told by fisherman -- and why should this not be so? Beyond all question there is no sphere of human activity so full of strange and wonderful incidents as theirs."

Grover Cleveland

"The heart of fly-fishing lies in solving problems.  Observations leads to knowledge-of the prey and its prey.  If you're playing the game right, your fly becomes a convincing counterfeit in the food chain."
"Alaska Magazine"  Ken Marsh

For the rich there's therapy for the rest of us there's Fly Fishing.
Anonymous

"I watch, out of casting range,an amateur detective holding nothing more than a fly rod and a handful of clues."
"Alaska Magazine"     Ken Marsh

But, remember the back cast is the foundation, and that unless it is solid the superstructure will be rickety. Remember also that the motion of the rod through the air should be almost, or quite noiseless. Nothing offends the angler's ear more than the "swish" of a fly-rod. It is like a false note to an educated musical ear. It indicates a degree of force about as appropriate to the end in view, as a burglar's jimmy to opening a watch. This should never be, except possibly when casting directly against the wind or for distance only.
- Henry P. Wells, "Fly-Rods and Fly-Tackle", 1885

In Praise of the Wet Fly Oh, thrilling the rise to the lure that is dry, When the shy fish comes up to his slaughter. Yet rather would I, Have the turn to my fly, With a cunning brown wink under water. The bright little wink under water!, Mysterious wink under water! Delightful to ply The subaqueous fly, And watch for the wink under water!
- George Edward MacKenzie Skues, 1904

"By and large the reporting is factual, but in a few instances I have claimed the right of readjusting the facts to which every angler is entitled."
"Fishless Days, Angling Nights"  Sparse Grey Hackle

"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."
"Fishless Days, Angling Nights"  Sparse Grey Hackle

It is well known that no person who regards his reputation will ever kill a trout with anything but a fly. It requires some training on the part of the trout to take to this method. The uncultivated, unsophisticated trout in unfrequented waters prefers the bait; and the rural people, whose sole object in going a-fishing appears to be to catch fish, indulge them in their primitive taste for the worm. No fly angler however, will use anything but the fly, except when he happens to be alone.
- Charles Dudley Warner, 1862

The trout fly does not resemble any known species of insect. It is a "conventionalized" creation, as we say of ornamentation. The theory is, that, fly-fishing being a high art, the fly must not be a tame imitation of nature, but an artistic suggestion of it. It requires an artist to construct one; and not every bungler can take a bit of red flannel, a peacocks feather, a flash of tinsel thread, a cock's plume, a section of hen's wing, and fabricate a tiny object that will not look like any fly, but will still suggest the universal conventional fly.
- Charles Dudley Warner, 1862

In the fly book the sportsman collects his treasures--the fairy imitations of the tiny nymphs of the waterside --and it is the source of much delight in inspecting, replenishing and arranging during the season when the trout are safe from honorable pursuit.
- R.B. Roosevelt

You may always know a large trout when feeding in the evening. He rises continuously, or at small intervals-in a still water almost always in the same place, and makes little noise--barely elevating his mouth to suck in the fly, and sometimes showing his back fin and tail. A large circle spreads around him, but there are seldom any bubbles when he breaks the water, which usually indicates the coarser fish.

- Sir Humphrey Davy, 1868

" When the word began to get out, the idea of tying imitations of aquatic worms was not met with universal approval in the fly fishing community.  It seems that worms had somehow gotten a bad name.  I think a fishing pal of mine hit it on the head when he said, " It just pisses them off that you can catch trout, I mean really big trout, on a fly that a five-year old can tie in twenty seconds! "

Ed Engle, Fly Fishing The Tailwaters (1991)

"It's not how the fishing is at any given moment, but he accumulation of a lifetime of experiences that counts."
"Treasury of Fly Fishing"   edited by Tom Paugh

"What do you want to do this afternoon, old man?", he asked.
"Fish," I said.  "But you can't always fish," he said.
I told him I could and I was right and have proved it for thirty
years and more. "Well, well," he said, "please yourself, but isn't it dull
not catching anything?"And I said, as I've said a thousand times since,
"As if it could be."
Roland Pertwee, "The River God" [1928]

"The true fisherman approaches the first day of fishing season with all the sense of wonder and awe of a child approaching Christmas."
Robert Traver, Trout Madness [1960]

 WET OR DRY ?

Halford argued dry and Skues argued wet
and that age old arguement isn't over yet!

Some of us fish both wet and dry and
never bother to understand "why".

Some fish only wet and some only dry and
some don't care as long as it's a pretty little fly.

“Might as well fish a worm”, said the dry fly
man as he shifted his feet in the burning hot sand.

“To catch big browns you must fish wet my friend”,
said the wet fly man as he slowly sipped his Gin.

“I’ll catch’em on top”, said the dry fly man and
and if I try long enough that I can.

“Why waste your time with that pretty little fly”,
when you could go deep with something really sly.”
countered the wet fly guy,

“But I must see the take”, said the dry fly man,
as he slowly cast his dry fly again and again.
 
“I’ll fish my wet while you watch your dry”,
quipped the wet fly guy, as his fresh hooked brown
rocketed toward the sky!

Alas, be they wet or be they dry. 
I'll fish them both til the day I die!

Jimmy D. Moore, Copyright November 2, 2002

All good fisherman stay young until they die, for fishign is teh only dream of youth that doth not grow stale with age."

J.W. Muller

"To catch the fish you must be the fish. But, if you are also what you eat, you must also surely be the fly.  What if you try to eat yourself then you become you all over again. Oh the insanity of becoming a fly fisherman. The peace is in doing and not thinking so much.
By: Justin W. Felter 

"But remember this-some of the best fly fishermen I've ever known were merely ordinary casters, while some of the best casters I've ever seen known were poor fishermen."
"Trout"  Ray Bergman

"Of all the memories that have clung to the day's events, and of all the sights and sounds to which I was heir that morning, none so electrified me as did the first wild, panic-stricken shriek of that tiny, unprepared reel. If ever a thing inanimate screamed in abject terror it was that ounce or two of delicate and airy metal."
"The Banshee Shadow Flies" by Gordon Grand.

"My First casts are accompanied by a sense of mild desperation, fishing's equivalent of buck fever. I'm forced to remind myself that here is no hurry."
Ken Marsh in "Alaska Magazine

"At the time in my angling career when I knew the least I thought I knew everything and did not hesitate to let others know that I did.  Now that the years of hard work and earnest desire to accomplish something worth while have given me some knowledge I feel that I know nothing, that I am simply floundering upon a sea of uncertainty, always looking for the perfect answer but never finding it."
"Trout"   Ray Bergman

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.
Ed Zern 1977

"The fish is an animal that grows  excessively fast between the moment when it is taken and the moment when the fisherman describes it to his friends."

"Fly-fishing sometimes comes off (rightly) as a marriage of sport and art. a sensual melding of action, vision, physics, philosophy.  It becomes a kind of expression, an extension of ourselves as we imitate form, color, movement and other elements of nature (explaining, perhaps, why there are as many reasons to stand thigh-deep in ice water waving a stick as there are moods and fly-fisherman)."
Ken Marsh in Alaska Magazine

" Drunk fisherman, polluted stream. "
 Breton Proverb

"There's something about fly fishing a stream or river that grows on you.  It affords more opportunities to meld with nature than other types of fishing, although each has its own special magnetism.  In what other kinds of fishing can you  smell the sweetness of the native flowers
along the banks of the stream, see the eagle as he searches for his next meal, or the bear fishing for breakfast, watch the different hatches and try to identify and match them, listen to the sounds of the stream from the tinkling of a small brook as you wade upstream, to the throaty roar
of a whitewater river as you dart and dip along in your drift boat, searching for that special "seam" where you know there'll be a big trout.  Yes, there's something about fly fishing a stream that grabs you and won't let go.  I was grabbed a long time ago and I must say that I won't let go either."
Jimmy D. Moore, October 29, 2002

"No sport affords a greater field for observation and study than fly
fishing, and it is the close attention paid to minor happenings upon the
stream that marks the finished angler. "

(George M. L. La Branche)

"I've had great success with the bargain-basement model.  Even thought a medium-size trout will bend the rod into a full curl that would make the proudest ram jealous, I keep fishing.  I continue casting with finesse to avoid a larger fish hat might beak the rod.  I've thought about developing a stronger rod made from steel like in the  old days, but the lighting bolt thing that all true fishermen must worry about makes it an impractical invention."
Stephen Hann in "Alaska Magazine"

"All of the other elements contributing to the  pleasures of fly fishing- the beauty and mood of the lake, stream or saltwater fishing, the mettle of the fish, the artful handling, the tender flesh or possible releasing the fish unharmed- tend to be subordinate tot hat electrifying instant when the angller's skills cause the fish to take."
"Creative Fly Tying and Fly Fishing"  Rex Gerlach

You know it will "take it" without a doubt.
                        You're all charged up and ready to strike
                          But the fly floats by because something's not right
                            You are still a fly fisherman.
                              You open your fly box and select a new fly
                                Then lengthen the tippet before the next try
                                  Change your position to help with the cast
                                    And hope you have made the right decision at last
                                      Now you are a doubtful fly fisherman.
      - George Harvey A Fly Fisherman (last 20 lines),
        in "Fly Fisherman" magazine, December, 2002 [Flyfishing]

"Fishing books should ooze from a riverbank, not rocket out of publisher's offices in big cities."
Neil Patterson Chalkstream Chronicles

"In 1918 I realized that the growing use of the automobile, with its easy transportation, would soon spoil all public trout fishing."
Edward R. Hewitt A Trout and Salmon Fisherman for Seventy-Five years [1948]

"Fishing books, lit by emotion recollected in tranquility, are like poetry.  We do not think of them as books but as people.  They are our companions and not only riverside.  Summer and winter they are with us and what a pleasant company they are."
Arthur Ransome The Fisherman's Library [1959]

"Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day.  Teach him to fly fish and
he'll move to Montana."

"Often, I've been exhausted on trout streams, uncomfortable, wet, cold, briar-scarred, sunburned, mosquito-bitten, but never, with a flyrod in my hand, have I been unhappy."
Charles Kuralt

"I've always been fascinated by fly shops.  I'm thinking of buying one to go with the used trout stream that I purchased on Ebay last week."

"Fishing simply sent me out of my mind.  I could neither think nor talk of anything else, so that mother was angry and said that she would not let me fish again because I might fall ill from such excitement."
Sergei Aksarov [1791-1859]

"You will search far to find a fisherman who'll admit that a taste for fishing, like a taste for liquor, must be governed lest it come to possess its possesor." 
Sparse Grey Hackle.

"He slept with his fly rod standing in the corner next to his bed. He didn't bother taking off his shirt and pants.  His vest on the bed post and his wading boots were placed where he could swing off the bed, and like a fireman ram his feet into them.  His fishing hat was by his pillow.  The only thing difference was that he didn't have a pole to slide down to the stream."
"Opening Day" Jimmy D. Moore

"I carried my normal fly fishing stuff, three rods, one each for big water, medium water and one for small streams with overgrown banks. I took my normal six boxes of flies, including my steelhead box.  Don't know why I did that other than they are so pleasing to my eyes, for I sure wasn't going to catch steelies in New Mexico.  I carried my old vest, my new Filson chest pack and my  belly pack, my  lite weight waders, my wading boots, and my rain jacket with hood.  I had enough fly fishing equipment for three people.  But, when it came time to hit the water, I took only my little flea rod, a six foot 2 wt Gallatin, one box of trout flies, stuffed in a big pocket of my fishing shirt,  some extra tippet and my gortex rain jacket, and a bottle of spring water and a energy bar stuck in the hip pockets of my baggy shorts.  I did wear my wading boots, and for the first time in my fishing life, I used a wading staff. I fished less, but enjoyed it more, pausing often while leaning on my staff to admire the beauty of the Fall colors that were beginning to make their way into the trees along the banks. A light breeze with a tinge of coolness during the heat of the day gave notice that Fall was only a few days away. I inhaled the sweetness of the clean mountain air while stopping to watch a squirrel as it scurried to find food to store for winter. Suddenly, I was brought back to the stream by a light tug on my line, a nice twelve inch rainbow.  Yes, I was in Fly Fishing Heaven!"
Jimmy D. Moore Outdoor Memories

"The thing to remember when fishing the Green River in Utah is this: If you can see your fly on the water, it is too big."
Wes Johnson

 
The Fly Fishing Loop is sponsored by flydepot.com
[ Home Waters | Next | Random | List | Search ]

FlyFishing Forum Partner