Perhaps fishing is, for me, only an excuse to be near rivers.

I still don't know why I fish or why other men fish, except that we like it and it makes us think and feel.

... To this day I would rather see a fish, creep up to him and watch his rise to my fly than catch half a dozen fish unseen until they take.

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

Anglers...exaggerate grossly and make gentle and inoffensive creatures sound like wounded buffalo and man-eating tigers.

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.

Perhaps fishing is, for me, only an excuse to be near rivers.