Zara Spook

Adriano Monocchia, Quiet Time of the Morning, oil on panel, n.d.

“Only an extraordinary person would purposely risk being outsmarted by a creature often less than twelve inches long, over and over again.”

Janna Bialek, (source not given)

“Every last cast is actually a first cast. The first cast and first chance to catch the next fish. The next time you anguish about whether to make that last cast, forget it—the anguish that is—and cast away. The next fish caught on a last cast will not be the first.”

Tony Bishop, Fishing Smarter for Trout (Halycon Press, 1998)

Craig Bertram Smith, Rainbow Trout, oil on canvas (2009)

” … neither time nor repetition has destroyed the illusion that the rise of a trout to a dry fly is properly regarded in the light of a miracle.”

Harold Blaisdell, The Philosophical Fisherman (1969)

“The take instantly validates our efforts, conferring a measure of definitiveness and closure to an enterprise otherwise riddled with uncertainty and inconclusiveness.  Few things in life, I think, have this to offer.”

Ted Leeson, on the subject of fishing, The Habit of Rivers (1994)

"Nothing sexier than a hook dressed in feathers and furs…"

A Fellow Fly Fisherman (via navsanfly)

"Do superstitions work for Fly Fishing? For those of you who are not believers, I must say one thing: If a superstition builds confidence, it is one of the most important fishing tools in your box."

—George Douglas, 2010 Fish Like A Guide (paperback)
http://steelheadsalmontroutfishing.com/ (via anadromousdrift)

Randy McGovern, Not On My Watch - Redfish, original art medium not listed.

“There are as many reasons why and ways to fish as there are people who do it.”

Russell Chatham, Dark Waters (1988)

“There don’t have to be a thousand fish in a river; let me locate a good one and I’ll get a thousand dreams out of him before I catch him—and, if I catch him, I’ll turn him loose.”

Jim Deren, Proprietor
Angler’s Roost

On the method of dry fishing:

“After a day spent casting hookless flies into mirage creeks among the arid dunes, one begins to sense an order of things imperceptible to those whose minds are unaffected by extreme heat and dehydration. You see, … fish live in water. If one understands water one understands fish.  And it is by craving water that one comes to understand it. Hence. to learn to fish, go to the desert and stay there. When the seizures and hallucinations start, you’ll be amazed at what you”ll learn.”

Gus Orviston, protagonist in The River Why by David James Duncan (Bantam, 1984)

Alexandra Orton, A Fish Out of Water, art medium not listed.

” … not everything about fishing is noble and reasonable and sane … Fishing is not an escape from life, but often a deeper immersion into it, all of it, the good and the awful, the joyous and the miserable, the comic, the embarrassing, the tragic, and the sorrowful.”

Harry Middleton, Rivers of Memory (1993)

Mark Susinno, On the Run-Steelhead, original art medium not listed.