I look at trees, hunt mushrooms, and watch animals. Fishing is what gets me out into the woods so I can notice these things.

The true fisherman approaches the first day of fishing season with all the sense of wonder and awe of a child approaching Christmas.

Spinning yarns is a protection against the nuttiness... the greed, the hate all around us.

Fly-fishing is a magic way to recapture the rapture of solitude without the pangs of loneliness.

Fly-fishing for wild trout on quiet waters must be one of the toughest and craziest ways to catch fish ever invented by man, as well as among the most frustrating and humiliating.

There is no subsititue for fishing sense, and if a man doesn't have it, verily, he may cast like an angel and still use his creel largely to transport sandwiches and beer

The truth is that trout fishermen scheme and lie and toss in their sleep. They dream of great dripping trout, shapely and elusive as mermaids, and arise cranky and haggard from their fantasies. They are moody and neglectful and all of them a little daft. Moreover they are inclined to drink too much.