From my own experience I can say that a bad back makes you hike slower, stove-up knees keep you from wading confidently, tendinitis of the elbows buggers your casting, and a dose of giardia can send you dashing to the bushes fifteen times in an afternoon, but although none of this is fun, it's discernibly better than not fishing.

I think I fish, in part, because it's an anti-social, bohemian business that, when gone about properly, puts you forever outside the mainstream culture without actually landing you in an institution.

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

Something to think about: If you fish the wrong fly long and hard enough, it will sooner or later become the right fly.

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

Luckily, though, there are still a few guys around who will look you straight in the eye and say, eloquently and to the point, ‘It’s been too goddamned hot for too long and the river has gone off.’

Successful trout fishing isn't a matter of brute force or even persistence, but something more like infiltration.