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A stick and a string with a fly at one end and a fool at the
other.
Author:
Source: None
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The man that weds for greedy wealth,
He goes a fishing fair,
But often times he gets a frog,
Or very little share.
Author: Unattributed Author
Source: Pepysian Garland (318)
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A rod twelve feet long and a ring of wire,
A winder and barrel, will help thy desire
In killing a Pike; but the forked stick,
With a slit and a bladder,--and that other fine trick,
Which our artists call snap, with a goose or a duck,--
Will kill two for one, if you have any luck;
The gentry of Shropshire do merrily smile,
To see a goose and a belt the fish to beguile;
When a Pike suns himselfe and a-frogging doth go,
The two-inched hook is better, I know,
Than the ord'nary snaring: but still I must cry,
When the Pike is at home, minde the cookery.
Author: Thomas Barker
Source: The Art of Angling
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The first men that our Saviour dear
Did choose to wait upon Him here,
Blest fishers were; and fish the last
Food was, that He on earth did taste:
I therefore strive to follow those,
Whom He to follow Him hath chose.
Author: William Basse (Bas)
Source: The Angler's Song, also found in Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler
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Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a
cord which thou lettest down?
Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through
with a thorn?
Author: Bible
Source: Job (ch. XLI, v. 1-2)
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Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him,
We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship
immediately; and that night they caught nothing.
Author: Bible
Source: John (ch. XXI, v. 3)
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For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught
of the fishes that they had taken:
And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were
partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from
henceforth, thou shalt catch men.
Author: Bible
Source: Luke (ch. V, v. 9-10)
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And angling too, that solitary vice,
What Izaak Walton sings or says:
The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet
Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it.
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: Don Juan (canto XIII, st. 106)
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Modesty is the only sure bait when you are fishing for praise.
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: Don Juan (canto XIII, st. 106)
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As the lone Angler, patient man,
At Mewry-Water, or the Banne,
Leaves off, against his placid wish,
Impaling worms to torture fish.
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: Don Juan (canto XIII, st. 106)
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Old Peter Grimes made fishing his employ;
His wife he cabined with him and his boy,
And seemed that life laborious to enjoy.
Author: George Crabbe
Source: Peter Grimes
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For angling-rod he took a sturdy oak;
For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke;
His hook was such as heads the end of pole
To pluck down house ere fire consumes it whole;
This hook was bated with a dragon's tail,--
And then on rock he stood to bob for whale.
Author: Sir William Davenant
Source: Brittania Triumphans (p. 15)
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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),
Author: Thomas Durfee (or D'Urfey)
Source: Pills to Purge Melancholy--Massaniello--Fisherman's Song
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The biggest fish he ever caught were those that got away.
Author: Eugene Field
Source: Our Biggest Fish
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The end of fishing is not angling, but catching.
Author: Thomas Fuller
Source: Gnomolia (no. 4497)
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It is a silly fish that is caught twice with the same bait.
Author: Thomas Fuller
Source: Gnomologia
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Still he fishes that catches one.
Author: Thomas Fuller
Source: Gnomologia (no. 4262)
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When if or chance or hunger's powerful sway
Directs the roving trout this fatal way,
He greedily sucks in the twining bait,
And tugs and nibbles the fallacious meat.
Now, happy fisherman; now twitch the line!
How thy rod bends! behold, the prize is thine!
Author: John Gay
Source: Rural Sports (canto I, l. 150)
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They may the better fish in the water when it is troubled.
Author: Richard Grafton
Source: Chronicles (I, 283)
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There is only one theory about angling in which I have perfect
confidence, and this is that the two words, least appropriate to
any statement, about it, are the words "always" and "never."
Author: Lord Edward Grey (Grey of Fallodon)
Source: Fly-Fishing
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La ligne, avec sa canne, est un long instrument,
Dont le plus mince bout tient un petit reptile,
Et dont l'autre est tenu par un grand imbecile.
Author: Jeanne Guyet
Source: French version of lines attributed to Samuel Johnson
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The line with its rod is a long instrument whose lesser end holds
a small reptile, while the other is held by a great fool.
[Fr., La ligne avec sa canne est un long instrument,
Dont le plus mince bout tient un petit reptile,
Et dont Pautre est tenu pau un grand imbecile.]
Author: Jeanne Guyet
Source: French version of lines attributed to Samuel Johnson
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I still don't know why I fish or why other men fish, except we
like it and it makes us think and feel.
Author: Roderick L. Haig-Brown
Source: A River Never Sleeps
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Best fishing in troubled waters.
Author: Sir John Harrington
Source: Orlando Furioso (bk. XII)
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To fish in troubled waters.
Author: Matthew (Mathew) Henry
Source: Commentaries (Psalm LX)
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