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I don’t suppose I ever entirely release a fish. I may not eat it, but that does not mean I take nothing from it before I let it go.

Paul Schullery, “How Can You Do That?” in Fly Fisherman September 2003

As for the fishing, it need not be good. There need only e a chance that it may be good. I do not much want to kill fish—I would rather release them. What I want to find is some classic situation—a good fish rising in a favorable, but not too favorable, place; the perfect lie that one can fish down to with mounting concentration, through a long reach; the difficult place close under the bank, where trouble is certain from the log jam or the rapid below. These things never grow stale.

Roderick Haig-Brown in a CBS broadcast, “The Man Behind the Rod”

The question is not whether successful fishermen believe in God, but, more to the point, vice versa.

Don Roberts, “Against the Current” in Flyfishing the West October 1981

Personally, I now prefer to name every freshly devised fly pattern, which I easily imagine to be original, after recalcitrant chorus girls I have known. Even though the list, of necessity, is mercifully brief, there is something more appealing about using a Toots O’Sullivan Hopper or a Misty Bubbles Baetis than a Roberts’ this and a Roberts’ that. After all, according to Misty, “Beauty is in the fly of the beholder.”

Don Roberts, “Against the Current” in Flyfishing the West October 1981

Trout fisherman at one time or another dream of that perfect trout stream. The place, type of water and even type of trout may vary, but in general it must offer hungry trout, beautiful scenery, a test of skills and, above all, few other fishermen. In recent years it is this idea that has led me away from many popular rivers and into the back country. In those out-of-the-way spots, landing a ten-inch cutthroat on 8X tippet carries the thrill carries the thrill of much larger trout on the big waters. Light lines and delicate rods become addictive, but, if your casting skills aren’t up to snuff, you may also need aspirin. Fish are wary in small, clear streams; trees and bushes sometimes eat more of your flies than trout do.

Daniel J. Reid, “One of Those Funny Little Creeks” in Flyfishing the West October 1981

I like [casting clinics] because they keep a lot of people off the streams. I like any activity that keeps people out of the water. Reduces crowding. I think we ought to have contests—an all expenses paid visit to every casting clinic in the country for the best suggestion of a streamside activity that keeps people out of the water and away from the fish. Examples would include a streamside fly tying clinic or an ice cream social at the firehouse.

Stephen G. Saltzman, “Cast the Whole Line … But Leave Me Out Of It” in Flyfishing the West December 1981

It is quite easy to debase the sport, change its values, dilute its ethics and destroy its traditional associations with quietness, relaxation and the opportunity to think. Angling is not a competitive sport. The fisherman’s only real competition is with his quarry and his only real challenge is the challenge to himself. Nothing can add to this, but the blight of interhuman competition can certainly detract from it.

-- Roderick Haig-Brown in Bright Waters, Bright Fish

I held the tiny nymph on my fingertip, a mere speck that I duplicated with a clumsy fake. As I cast it into the fast-moving current, I too became a speck, held by the expanse of beauty that surrounded me, engulfed by a sense of peace as enormous as the nymph had been small. Amongst the mighty scheme of things, I felt I had a place.

-- Chiyo Sagara, “Thoughts While Fishing” in The Flyfisher Winter 1981

The supply of hope seems inexhaustible, and one bestows it lavishly on each cast. If the best part of the first pool is reached and passed without a rise, the angler begins to husband his hope a little, but remains still content, reaching forward in thoughts to the next pool, where he presently begins with fresh eagerness and confidence.

-- Lord Grey of Fallodon in Fly Fishing

There is nothing in all sport equal to the glory of success in salmon fishing, but the supreme moment is undoubtedly the actual hooking of the fish.  However great my expectation and keenness, the feel of the fish when it hooks itself comes upon me with a shock of surprise and delight, and there is a sudden thrill in having to do with the weight and strength of a salmon.

-- Lord Grey of Fallodon in Fly Fishing

Piece by piece the raiments of the ceremony are removed from the trunk of the car. If there is one item in the fly fisherman’s collection that seems out of harmony, it is the waders. A trout fly is nearly weightless, but waders are abominably heavy; the rod is a thing of rhythm and grace, but waders are incredibly clumsy to put on, to wear, to take off and even to store neatly. They are the completion of a progression that pays homage to the sensitivity of the trout at one end, but at the expense of the mobility and self-respect of the fisherman at the other.

-- Dr. Charles Bagdade, “The Ritual” in Vol. XII, No. II (1978) The Flyfisher

I early learned that from almost any stream in a trout country the true angler could take trout, and that the great secret was this, that whatever bait you used—worm, grasshopper, grub, or fly—there was one thing you must always put upon your hook, namely, your heart; when you bait your hook with your heart the fish always bite; they will jump clean from the water after it; they will dispute with each other over it; it is a morsel they love above everything else.

-- John Borroughs in Locust and Wild Honey

I have thus run over some of the features of an ordinary trouting excursion to the woods. People, inexperienced in such matters, sitting in their rooms and thinking of these things, of all the poets have sun and romancers written, are apt to get sadly taken in when they attempt to realise their dreams. They expect to enter a sylvan paradise of trout, cool retreats, laughing brooks, picturesque views, balsamic couches, etc., instead of which they find hunger, rain, smoke, toil, gnats, mosquitos, broken rest, vulgar guides and salt pork; and they are very apt not to  see where the fun comes in. But he who goes in a right spirit will not be disappointed, and will find the taste of this kind of life better, though bitterer, than the writers have described.

-- John Borroughs in Locust and Wild Honey

For now, I’ve been savoring the mystery of my unexplored brook. I’m letting it fester and grow in my daydreams. … Eventually, of course, I’ll explore the brook and learn its realities, and it will no longer be a mystery. But for now, the daydreams are better.

-- Bill Tapply, “Trickle Treat,” in Summer 2004 American Angler

One of the beauties of the fly-fishing community is its unshakable optimism. Sure we're all grumbling about the rain and the runoff and our inconceivable inability to catch a trout, but none of us has any doubt that things will get better in the next couple of weeks. In the same way you can convince yourself that the next pool around the bend contains big trout taking drys, some locals assert that this high water will mean bigger, hungrier fish in May, when the Hendricksons hatch. And if that doesn’t happen, we’ll think of something else to believe, because it’s that kind of faith that keeps us on the water.

--Philip Monahan, in Summer 2004 American Angler

I’ve had the good fortune to fish innumerable waters over the years, and as my fly fishing skills developed, I began focusing less on the piscatorial pursuit, and more on simple aesthetic pleasures. With fly fishing it may be the natural progression of things, but for me, while catching trout is important, catching them in wild pristine settings is paramount.

  --Chuck McGuire, “Sights, Sounds and Solitude of High-Country Streams” in June 1995 FlyFishing

The origins of inspirations of some fly patterns are inherently obvious in their names, but the names that intrigue me most are the ones that aren’t so obvious, that raise more questions than they answer. For example, what fascinating set of circumstances could have inspired the naming of the ’52 Buick? Why would someone call a fly the House and Lot? What tale could have prompted a tier to christen his fly the Family Secret? Was the Bouncer named for a pattern that bounces over riffles, or after some big guy who throws people out of bars? It’s probably safe to assume that Dan Quayle didn’t name the Potato Nymph, but if he didn’t, then who did, and why did he or she call it that?

n      Steve Raymond, “What’s in a Name?” May-June 1995 Flyfishing

Ted Trueblood called “Chasing Rainbows” the compulsion to follow every rumor of big trout, secret fishing holes, and lost lakes that filter from any third-hand telling or other unreliable source.

Even with all the manmade alternatives available, most of us are still fascinated by natural fly-tying materials—and some people won’t craft flies with anything else. That’s because natural furs and feathers possess a magic that even the finest-looking artificial materials can’t come close to matching. And if tying with natural materials is a magical experience, then it just makes sense that gathering and preparing your own ingredients only adds to the power of Mother Nature’s spell.

  --Paul Guernsey, “Warm (Sometimes) and Fuzzy” in April 2004 Fly Rod & Reel

I have spent many afternoons in the shadow of ancient anglers. It is time well invested. Picking the brains of fly fishermen who are my seniors is not an uncommon practice, nor is it a bashful spectacle. In fact, the exchange of ideas and concepts within the angling order occurs most frequently through parasitic unions; the elder members are the most valued hosts. … The fly fishing community, by holding its elder members in the highest esteem, serves as a positive example for society at large. Old fishermen are considered to be a resource, never a burden. They are revered for their accumulated wealth of knowledge, their trained perceptions, and their finely honed skills. Ancient anglers are the mentors of the sport.

  -- Don Roberts, “Ancient Anglers” in March-April 1979 Fly Fishing the West

A bass is a moody, greedy, curious but suspicious creature with what passes for a sense of humor. Compared to trout, they’re almost human.

n      John Gierach

True fish cars have unusual powers. Of course, they automatically develop a distinctive aroma that defines their mission in life. But they also have almost-magical abilities. For example, most of them can generate and multiply their own trash. Where at first there was a single MacDonalds wrapper, a used foam cup and empty beer bottle, soon a half-dozen of each appear, as if spawned by the initial clutter. … If you need to make a trip to the local bank to see a loan officer to finance your purchase [of your fish car], you’re looking at the wrong wheels.

n      Editorial, Jack Russell in American Angler, November-December 1992

The best time to fish is with the moon in the right phase, barometer on the rise, appropriate light and temperature – you can’t miss! But remember to hold your mouth right and spit over your left shoulder. … Trout fishing with a fly consists of manipulating an infinite variety of unknown variables. That’s probably what brings all of us to worship at this altar. Don’t pay any attention to anyone who tells you when is the best time to fish, friend. The best time to fish is when you’re fishing.

n      The Best Time to Fish for Trout, Stephen “Salty” Saltzman in Flyfishing December 1989

The principle is so basic and so simple that I find it hard to realize that some people refuse to accept it. A fish supporting stream must have a healthy watershed to sustain it, protect it. A healthy watershed consists of a total forest eco-system. A total forest eco-system translates to old growth forest. Without old growth a river will never be as healthy as it could or should be. Astounding as it may sound an old growth forest is capable of doubling the amount of rainfall compared to an area that has been clear-cut. The way that this happens is that as mists and light showers pass across an old growth area moisture is captured on leaves, limbs and needles of the tree and plant growth. IT slowly trickles down onto the forest floor where it is captured by moss and downed woody debris to later be released slowly into the ground water and percolate into streams and rivers. It is that slow percolation of ground water that maintains the summer flow and cool water temperatures for many of our rives. Without that complex and efficient system streams and the fish they support are threatened.

n      Healthy Forests, Healthy Fisheries, Marty Sherman in Flyfishing, December 1989

Signals of impending change come in many ways, some subtle, others without warning. Little children in fresh school clothes, shorter days and birds flying like they got to be somewhere: They all tell you that autumn is nearby. The cooler nights of early autumn chase summer away – another summer come and gone and like too many before, I ask myself why I didn’t fish more than I did. It’s become the bromide of the season, and the answer is always the same, the working man’s lament.

n      Indian Summer, Craig Springer, in Flyfisher, Autumn 2000

"The capture of a really big fish is a pleasant surprise; were it a forgone conclusion, angling would be robbed of much of its fascination. It is the unknown in our sport which s so tempting".

E. Marshall-Hardy 'Mirror of Angling'

"To thoroughly enjoy fly fishing  you need to get totally immersed every once in a while."

Jimmy Moore

"Just when I've caught a nice trout and feeling very proud of my fly fishing ability, my feet fly out from under me and there I sit, wet, flustered and properly humiliated by the Fly Fishing gods."
Jimmy Moore, "Taken Down a Notch or Two"

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

The psychology of trout remains in a backward state. Indeed, it is highly probably, though not subject to proof, that Neolithic man, after a day of it on the river with hooks made out of thorns, black or white, said precisely the same things about trout as are said today by every little assembly of fishers gathered at a wayside station to await the last train. He paid his tribute to the great mental powers of the trout; so do they. He remarked on its great ability to learn from experience; its mastery of the disguises of hooks; its profound wisdom in old age—so do they. He wondered what trout thought about him; and today they raise conjectures on the subject of what the old fellow “is saying to himself” about them as he lurks in his favourite hold beneath the big root of the alder-tree.

Alexander Urquhart, “The Cunning of Trout”

Thus, as the angler looks back he thinks less of individual captures and days than of scenes in which he fished. The luxuriance of water-meadows, animated by insect and bird and trout life, tender with the green and  gay with the blossoms of early spring; the nobleness and volume of great salmon rivers; the exhilaration of looking at any salmon pool, great or small; the rich brownness of Highland water; the wild openness of the treeless, trackless spaces which he has traversed in an explorer’s spirit of adventure to search likely water for sea-trout; now on one, now on another of these scenes an angler’s mind will dwell, as he thinks of fishing. Special days and successes he will no doubt recall, but always with the remembrance and the mind’s vision of the scenes and the world in which he has fished. For, indeed, this does seem a separate world, a world of beauty and enjoyment. The time must come to all of us, who live long, when memory is more than prospect. An angler who has reached this stage and reviews the pleasure of life will  e grateful and glad that he has been an angler, for he will look back upon days radiant with happiness, peaks and peaks of enjoyment that are not less bright because they are lit in memory by the light of a setting sun.

n      Lord Grey of Fallodon, “Looking Back”

Mark well the various seasons of the year,

How the succeeding insect race appear;

In this revolving moon one colour reigns,

Which in the next the fickle trout disdains.

Oft have I seen a skillful angler try

The various colours of the trech’rous fly;

When he with fruitless pain hath skimm’d the brook,

And the coy fish rejects the skipping hook,

He shakes the boughs, that on the margin grow,

Which o’er the stream a waving forest throw;

When if an insect fall, (his certain guide)

He gently takes him from the whirling tide;

Examines well his form, with curious eyes,

His gaudy vest, his wings, his horns are size;

Then round his hook the chosen fur he winds,

And on the back a speckled feather binds;

So just the colours shine through ev’ry part,

That Nature seems to live again in art.

Thomas Best

Patience is ever allowed to be a great virtue, and is one of the first requisites for an angler.

Charles Bowlker

The Kinds of Anglers

There is the Fussy Angler, a great bore; of course you will shun him. The “Snob” Angler, who speaks confidently and knowingly on a slight capital of skill or experience. The Greedy, Pushy Angler, who rushes ahead and half fishes the water, leaving those who follow, in doubt as to whether he has fished a pool or rift carefully, or slurred it over in his haste to reach some well-known place down the stream before his companions. The company of these, the quiet, careful angler will avoid.

We also meet sometimes with the “Spick-and-Span” Angler, who has a highly varnished rod, and a superabundance of useless tackle; his outfit is of the most elaborate kind as regards its finish. He is a dapper “well got up” angler in all his appointments and fishes much in-doors over his claret and poteen, when he has a good listener. He frequently displays bad taste in his tackle, intended for fly-fishing, by having a thirty dollar multiplying reel, filled with some of Conroy’s very best relaid sea-grass lines, strong enough to hold a dolphin. If you meet him on the teeming waters of northern New York, the evening’s display of his catch, depends much on the rough skill of his guide.

The Rough-and-Ready Angler, the opposite of the aforenamed, disdains all “tomfoolery” and carries his tackle in an old shotbag, and his flies in a tangled mess.

We have also the Literary Angler, who reads Walton and admires him hugely; he has been inoculated with the sentiment only; the five-mile walk up the creek, where it has not been fished much, is very fatiguing to him; he “did not know he must wade the stream,” and does not until he slips in, and then he has some trouble at night to get his boots off.  He is provided with a stout bass rod, good strong leaders of salmon-gut, and a stock of Conroy’s “journal flies,” and wonders if he had not better put on a shop just above his stretcher-fly.

The Pretentious Angler, to use a favorite expression of the lamented Dickey Riker, once Recorder of the City of New York, is one “that prevails to a great extent in this community.” This gentleman has many of the qualities attributed to Fisher, of the “Angler’s Sourvenir,” to Sir Humphrey Davy. If has attained the higher branches of the art, he affects to despise all sport which he considers less scientific; if a salmon fisher, he calls trout “vermin;” if he is a trout fly-fisher, he professes contempt for bait fishing.

The True Angler is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of gentle old Izaak.  He has no affectation, and when a fly-cast is not to be had, can find amusement in catching Sunfish or Roach, and does not despise the sport of any humbler brother of the angle. With him, fishing is a recreation, and a “calmer of unquiet thoughts.” He never quarrels with his luck, knowing that satiety dulls one’s appreciation of sport as much as want of success, but is ever content when he has done his best, and looks hopefully forward to a more propitious day.  Whether from boat or rocky shore, or along the sedgy bank of the creek, or the stony margin of the mountain brook, he deems it an achievement to take fish when they are difficult to catch, and his satisfaction is in proportion.  If he is lazy, or a superannuated angler, he can even endure a few days’ trolling on an inland lake, and smokes his cigar, chats with the boatman, and takes an occasional “nip,” as he is rowed along the wooded shore and amongst the beautiful islands.

            A true angler is generally a modest man; unobtrusively communicative when he can impart a new idea; and is ever ready to let a pretentious tyro have his say, and good-naturedly (as if merely suggesting how it should be done) repairs his tackle, or gets him out of a scrape. He is moderately provided with all tackle and “fixins” necessary to the fishing he is in pursuit of. Is quietly self-reliant and equal to almost any emergency, from splicing his rod or tying his own flies, to trudging ten miles across a rough country with his luggage on his back. His enjoyment consists not only in the taking of fish; he draws pleasure from the soothing influence and delightful accompaniments of the art.

            With many persons fishing is a mere recreation, a pleasant way of killing time.  To the true angler, however, the sensation it produces is a deep unspoken joy, born of a longing for that which is quiet and peaceful, and fostered by an inbred love of communing with nature, as he walks through the grassy meads, or listens to the music of the mountain torrent. This is why he loves occasionally – whatever may be his social propensity indoors – to shun the habitations and usual haunts of men, and wander alone by the stream, casting his flies over its bright waters; or in his lone canoe to skim the unruffled surface of the inland lake, where no sound comes to his ear but the wild, flute-like cry of the loon, and where no human form is seen but his own, mirrored in the glassy water.

            No wonder, then that the fly-fisher loves at times to take a day, all by himself; for his very loneliness begets a comfortable feeling of independence and leisure, and a quiet assurance of resources within himself to meet all difficulties that may arise.

            When the hoarse roar of the creek, where it surges against the base of the crag it has washed for ages, strikes his ear, or he hears it brawling over the big stones, his step quickens, and his pulse beats louder – he is no true angler if it does not – and he is not content until he gets a glimpse of its bright rushing waters at the foot of the hill.

            That like voices from far off

            Call to us to pause and listen,

            Speak in tones so plain and childlike,

            Scarcely can the ear distinguish

            Whether they are sung or spoken.

            What an unveiling of the heart it is, when the angler is alone with God and nature.

Thaddeus Norris

A fisherman,” wrote Roderick Haig-Brown, “is good in proportion to the satisfaction he gets out of his sport. [So] a merry duffer is better than a dour master.”

A pessimist is any angler who thinks the weather is too bad to fish. An optimist is any wife who thinks her husband won’t fish anyway.

"I compare fishing with a cane rod to driving a fine automobile, eating Blue Bell Ice Cream, savoring good whiskey, or sitting by a roaring fire in the dead of winter reading Sparse Grey Hackle. Need I say more?"
JIMMY D MOORE - June 4, 2004

There can be no hard and fast rule covering the flies used in trout fishing. One can only experiment and then apply the results of such experiences to his fishing.

Ray Bergman in Just Fishing

Fishing, if I a fisher, may protest

Of pleasures is the sweet’st, of sports the best,

Of exercises the most excellent,

Of Recreations the most innocent.

But now the sport is marred, and wot ye why?

Fishes decrease, and fishers multiply.

“Fishing,” by Reverend Thomas Bastard, 1498

With every cast the possibility of perfection arises. That brief moment when randomness ceases to exist and time and the universe stop to enjoy the beauty of your struggle. That pristine balance of love and loss, of hope and terror radiating from a single point at the end of a clear strand of line, up through your trembling hands and body and into your very heart, leaving it overflowing with God’s best intentions.

Lyman Yee, “The Headlock Manifesto” in Fly Rod & Reel, July/October 2004.

"Fly tackle has improved considerably since 1676, when Charles Cotton advised anglers to 'fish fine and far off,' but no one has ever improved on that statement."

 John Gierach  "Fly Fishing the High Country"

"Fish are strange creatures. They're even more unpredictable than women - and that's going some."
R.V "Gadabout" Gaddis (1967)

"If I'm not going to catch anything, then I 'd rather not catch anything on flies"

-- Bob Lawless.

definition of a flyrod-----an antenna, which transmitts, peace, tranquility, excitement, fellowship, and most of all, an awareness, and appreciation, for the outdoors.---

A fisherman is always hopeful -- nearly always more hopeful than he has any right to be. - Roderick Haig-Brown

"Right here, may I inject a thought that may prevent the ruination of a good rod -- perhaps loss of a treasured friendship at the same time. Many anglers, to be good fellows, loan their fly-fishing equipment to someone else. When this friend returns it after two or three weeks of use, the owner finds the rod just does not feel the same. So the friend is blamed for giving the rod improper use and thereby ruining it. He is generally right, too! However, both owner and friend are equally to blame. No man should ask the loan of another's fishing tackle, and no owner should grant the use of his equipment to anyone, no matter how close he may be as a friend. Why? Here we come back to "balance" again! Because of the difference in physical characteristics between individuals each and every angler exerts the pressure needed in casting in a different way. And this difference in leverage means that the rod action, or strain on the rod, whichever you call it, occurs in a different place on a rod. Therefore, when some man other than the owner uses it for a length of time he forces a "stress" at a different place on the rod and a change in action through the weakening of the bamboo cells at a new place."
from "With Fly, Plug and Bait" by Ray Bergman

"Lest the reader become too discouraged let me say that one can fish beautifully with a rod that is not perfection, but at the expense of undue physical exertion. For years I fished with what I now realize were very poor rods, but I found that I could place a fly as accurately as the next man, and execute the curve cast and other necesssities of fly fishing. Only when I acquired the unusually excellent rod I speak of, was I aware of the greater ease with which these things could be done."
from "Any Luck?" by Eugene Connett

"The joy of owning fine tackle is so great that it is often difficult to distinguish between basic needs and the urge to possess that which delights the sensitivities."
"I have preached against indulgence, but in truth I am a sentimental moron when it comes to fishing tackle."
"How can one find adequate words to describe the sweet feel of a rod that makes casting an esthetic delight, yet which adds little to one's ability to catch fish?"
from "The Philosophical Fisherman" by Harold Blaisdell

"A good fly-rod is worth every cent you pay for it -- and more; also it should be said that good tackle of any sort is not only its own reward but is absolutely essential if you would have the best of the sport. Shoddy tackle conduces to careless work on the stream and consequently to poor success. On the other hand, good tackle tends to interest one in its proper handling, both in casting and also fishing the flies, and as a result the angler finds his interest and success increasing rather than otherwise."
from :The Fine Art of Fishing" by Samuel G. Camp

"Again, let me remind you that rod action is an elusive and variable thing, refusing to be encompassed by exact definition. The mathematics involved are complex in the extreme, even in the theoretical stage, and its permutations make admissible only the loosest of generalities."
from "Field Book of Fresh-Water Angling" by John Alden Knight

"...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."
from Anatomy of a Fisherman by Robert Traver

Creeps and idiots cannot conceal themselves for long on a fishing trip.

~ John Gierach

Fly-fishing may well be considered the most beautiful of all rural sports.

~ Frank Forester

"The true sportsman needs neither game laws nor bag limits, nor does the securing of a license make a sportsman. He must be moderate in his kill, find part of the pleasure in being afield, and in observing the lives of the denizens of the streams and wood. Many of our best days are those in which a large catch was not made."
-- "Uncle" Lloyd Taylor

"As with a faint star in the night's sky, one can better understand fishing's allure by looking around it, off to the side, not right at it."
-- Holly Morris

Of course, now I am too old to be much of a fisherman, and now of course I usually fish the big waters alone, although some friends think I shouldn't. Like many fly fishermen in western Montana where the summer days are almost Arctic in length, I often do not start fishing until the cool of the evening. Then in the Arctic half-light of the canyon, all existence fades to a being with my soul and memories and the sounds of the Big Blackfoot River and a four-count rhythm and the hope that a fish will rise.

Norman McLean – A River Runs Through It

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

Tom Brokaw

Of all the world's enjoyments That ever valued were, There's none of our employments With fishing can compare.

Thomas Durfee (or D'Urfey)

"Fly fishermen are born honest, but they get over it."

Ed Zern

"I am struck, as I move deeply into my sixties, by how much I still love to fly fish and to write about fly fishing, how grateful I am for the simple fun and happy intensity this passion has given me since that day, many years ago, when I saw a trout rise and had some brand of apocalyptic vision on Michigan's Au Sable river."

Nick Lyons  "A Fly Fishers World"

My five piece fly rod is kind of like my American Express card .. "I never leave home without it" ... Every stream, pond or puddle is inspected on my travels, and I can thus while away spare (or stolen) moments discovering their potential.
Bob Voelker

"Some act and talk as though casting were the entire art of Fly-fishing, and grade an angler solely by the distance he can cover with his flies. This is a great mistake and pernicious in it's influence. Casting is but a method of placing a fly before the trout without alarming it, and within its reach. It is merely placing food before a guest. The selection of such food as will suit, and so serving it as to please a fastidious and fickle taste, still remain indispensably necessary to induce its acceptance."
- Henry P. Wells, "Fly-Rods and Fly-Tackle", 1882

"If we do not use or tie to create with some of our newfound supplies, the edge may wear a little  in our endeavor of only collecting.

Eric Leiser  "Fly Tying Materials"

"Ours is the grandest sport.  It is an intriguing battle of wits between the angler and the trout; and in addition to appreciating the tradition and grace of the game, we play it in the magnificient out-of-doors."
Ernest G. Schwiebert, Jr. "Matching The Hatch" – 1955

"I know that I cannot escape this feeling on the pools away from the highway, (Beaverkill), when the twilight falls and I am alone with the river.  One almost expects to round a bend and find the Ghost of Richard Robbins, and to be hailed by the old man to tie on a fly for him in the failing light of age and evening."
Ernest G. Schwiebert, JR. - [1955]

Don Roberts, “Against the Current” in Flyfishing the West October 1981

The first thing I do not want is to excel as a fisherman, to catch many fish or fish of record size, for instance, or to be perpetually on trial as an “expert.” I want to catch fish, of course, and I like to fish with the chance of finding big fish, even record fish, but I am not concerned with records—only with fish that will set problems worth my solving. I want to be a good enough fisherman to have a chance of solving the problems such fish present, and I want to be good enough to be comfortable, to be thoroughly interested, to know all the time, or almost all the time, what I am about.

Roderick Haig-Brown in Fisherman’s Spring

"They say you forget your troubles on a trout stream, but that's not quite it.  What happens is that you begin to see where your troubles fit into the grand scheme of things, and suddenly they're just not such a big deal anymore."

John Gierach  "Fly Fishing  the High Country"

"The fisherman sets the highest value on those fish which have made the highest demand on his personal prowess, his knowledge of nature, his watercraft and his skill."

 Arthur Ransome  "Rod and Line"  in Micropatterns

"It is not a fish until it is on the bank."
Irish Proverb

"While all the anglers, all the rivers, and all the patterns that I have shared with you have become part of the solution, there is never a total solution for the curious fly fisher."

 Darrel Martin  "Micropatterns"

The fixation we have on anatomically correct fly patterns is an interesting phenomenon. “What are they biting on?” is the common questions one angler asks of another. The assumption is that if we have the right fly we’ll catch fish. The fact is that in most situations it’s the placement and presentation of the fly that gets the job done. Using a non-descript or gaudy wet fly changes the angler’s emphasis to the proper fishing techniques rather than the “name that bug” routine. If you’re not concerned with copying anything in particular you feel more free to fish up, down or across stream. Maybe those guys with their 12-foot, green-heart rods weren’t so old fashioned after all.

John Gierach, “Classic Story Retold” in Flyfishing the West October 1980

Contemporary flies tend to be constructed to imitate insects and crustaceans, only a few of which might be considered to be “beautiful.” Most of those primary-colored flies from yesteryear, with names like Knight Templar and Parmacheene Belle, have long since surrendered their spring clips to unpretentious Wooly Worms, Zug Bugs and a plethora of uniformly achromatic concoctions. Obviously the latter category must work better than their gaudy ancestors or they wouldn’t be there. But it’s kind of sad to see the ornate, colorful creations of Prime, Cheney and Wells follow horse-drawn milk wagons and nickel beers into the mists of history.

George Wentzel, “Back to the Parmacheene” in Flyfishing March-April 1984

There are cases where stocking has hurt populations of wild trout but there are also cases where stockers have acted as a bugger between anglers and wild fish. It’s hard to make general statements because each situation is unique. But for the most part, intelligent and appropriate stocking programs tend to remove pressure from wild trout waters, if for no other reason than that stocking increases the amount of fishable water.

John Gierach, The People’s Trout in Flyfishing March-April 1984

"If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're doing something wrong."
John Gierach

Robert Traver had an exclusive love of bright, wild brookies in nearby water that he knew and loved. Not for him excursions to far-flung corners of the world for one-week stands. Not for him the itch of newness. He liked the simple quality of what he knew well and lived with—consistently. He likes the solitude and the texture, the expectation of returning to his familiar “Frencman’s,” the gentle variations, the constants, the tin cup and the bourbon, morels in the woods, intriguing rock formations back among the trees, the smell of Upper Michigan cedar, days that brush the heart with their intimacy. … Sentimental? Perhaps. But a life mostly filled with sentiment, feeling, rather than mere exploit.

Nick Lyons, “Bad Pool” in Fly Fisherman April 1980

As so often happens [when we have tied a hundred flies in a day and are bored and tired of tying], our somewhat neurotic breed (we call ourselves fly tiers) will break the boredom by tying some ungodly creation, or grabbing some material unrelated to fly-tying and incorporating it into a fly.

Francis Betters, “The Phillips Usual” in Fly Fisherman April 1980

I’ve noticed a new tendency in myself, not to size up a river in regards to where the fish live, but appraising it with an eye toward where I would like to live, were I a trout.

W.D. Wetherell, “Home Waters” in Trout August 2003

Now for the Art of catching fish, that is to say, How to make a man that was none to be an Angler by a book, he that undertakes it shall undertake a harder task than Mr. Hales, a most valiant and excellent fencer, who in a printed book called A Private School of Defense undertook to teach that art or science, and was laughed at for his labour. Not but that many useful things might be learned by that book, but he was laughed at because that art was not to be taught by words, but practice: and so must Angling … in this Discourse … I undertake to acquaint the Reader with many things that are not usually know to every Angler ….

Izaak Walton

Show me a fly fisherman who’s still out there flailing away—after all, a few faint-hearted ones occasionally do go back to golf—and I’ll show you one of the biggest gamblers outside Las Vegas. And one just as heedless of the odds against him. For who but a real gone compulsive gambler could continue to stand for hours, often up to his whizzle-string in ice water, pelting out a series of bent pins adorned with bits of fluff and tinsel, all in the wistful hope that some hungry fish might finally mistake one of them for something good to eat?

Robert Traver, “Gambling at Frenchman’s” in January 1981 Fly Fisherman

Arnold Gingrich once wrote that in fly fishing “you will meet, if not a better class of people, a better class of fish.” You and I, as did Gingrich when he removed his tongue from his cheek, see such quality at both ends of the rod-and-line. Let us continue to see it and honor it.

Don Zahner, “Casting for Q in a Non-Q World” in January 1981 Fly Fisherman

But fisherman, like other humans, have not established as one of their strong characteristics the ability to be rational. It’s one of those things we talk a lot about but find hard to practice.

Dave McCracken, “I’m a Royal Coachman, Royal Coachman, Royal Coachman …” in Spring 1985 The Flyfisher

Can you remember the first fly you tied? Can you remember the first fish you caught on a fly? Can you remember the stream? The time of year? Who taught you to fly fish? To tie a fly? Most of us can answer these questions immediately. The mind has a special place for fly fishing things, where recall is immediate and memory perfect. We never forget. … If you remember, so will others. Go out and teach someone to tie their first fly. Teach a youngster, or a not so youngster, how to work a fly rod. Introduce him or her to the basics of the sport you care so much about. Become a permanent part of their memories.

Dennis G. Bitton, “Take a Break” in The Flyfisher Summer 1984

The uncertainty that most of us find in trout fishing is one of its most obvious charms. It draws us back to running water every April that the gods allot us and keeps us waving old age away with a rod and a looping line. Angling is like one of those everlasting puzzles that we solve again and again, each time we solve them forgetting the solutions or finding that they will not work a second time. To send those feathers fluttering down the air, to see them settle gently as the eyelashes of a child that is falling asleep, to watch them come slowly back, surveyed from below by rapacious eyes, and all the while to be alert in body and mind and quiet at heart—this, to a good many men whose intelligence none of us would care to gainsay, is one of the more absorbing occupations that life affords.

Odell Shephard, Thy Rod and Thy Creel

The fun comes, I think, as it does with just about any other act of skill, when you are properly challenged, when you are fascinated by what’s difficult. I guess I fish not because it’s easy but because it’s not; I guess I fish because there’s really no end to what you can learn, no reason to think that you’ll exhaust the complexity of the sport in a lifetime.

Nick Lyons, “A Sweet Complexity” in Fly Fisherman September 1986

 
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