50+ Best Fishing Quotes

Last Updated on May 8, 2022 by Afsar

Are you looking for the best fishing quotes of all time? As an avid angler, I have always looked for ways to go fishing all the time. There are some great quotes coming from famous anglers and people about fishing that just added fuel to the burning desire of going fishing.

1. “The act of fishing – for fish, dreams or whatever magic is available – is enough. It transports us to a special world, and a state of mind, where we are free.“ -Fennel Hudson

2. “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.”- Henry David Thoreau.

3. Sharing the fun of fishing turns strangers into friends in a few hours. – Eugenie Clark

4.“Fishing in a place is a meditation on the rhythm of a tide, a season, the arc of a year, and the seasons of life.“ – Carl Safina

5.“Fishing is much less about the fishing, and much more about the time alone with your kid, away from the hustle and bustle of the everyday.“ – Dan Pearce

6.“The true angler can welcome even a low river and a dry year, and learn of it, and be the better for it, in mind and in spirit.“ – G.M.W. Wemyss

7.“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.“ – Anne Ritchie

8.“When I go fishing I like to know that there’s nobody within five miles of me.“ -Norman MacCaig

9.“There are only two occasions when American respect privacy, especially in Presidents. Those are prayer and fishing.“ – Herbert Hoover

10.“Probably fishing is my first passion.“ – Luke Bryan

11.“Somebody behind you, while you are fishing, is as bad as someone looking over your shoulder while you write a letter to your girl.“ – Ernest Hemingway

12. “The best time to go fishing is when you can” – Ed Zern

13.“Anytime I can sneak in a moment to fish and ride horses, I’m a happy camper!“ – George Foreman

14. “One man’s obsessive-compulsive hoarding disorder is another man’s tackle box collection.” – Pat Neal, The Fisherman’s Prayer

15.“I propose that it only matters that you attempt to catch a fish. Doing so brings you close to nature.“-Fennel Hudson

16.“There are always new places to go fishing. For any fisherman, there’s always a new place, always a new horizon.“ – Jack Nicklaus

17.“If fishing is religion, fly fishing is high church.“ -Tom Brokaw

18.“Calling fishing a hobby is like calling brain surgery a job.” -Paul Schullery

19.“Fishing, with me, has always been an excuse to drink in the daytime.“ – Jimmy Cannon

20.“I love fishing. You put that line in the water and you don’t know what’s on the other end. Your imagination is under there.“ -Robert Altman

21.“Early to bed, Early to rise, Fish all day, Make up lies.” – unknown author 

22.“If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.”  – Doug Larson 

23.“Fishing is like dating; it’s all catch and release until you find a keeper.” – unknown author 

24. “If I’ve gone missing, I’ve gone fishing!” – unknown author 

25.“A man’s “one last cast” is like a woman’s “I’ll be ready in 5 minutes!”- unknown author 

26. “Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.”- unknown author 

27. “I don’t always tell people where to fish, but when I do, it’s a lie.”- unknown author 

28. “Fish: An animal that grows fastest between the time it’s caught and the time a fisherman describes it to his friends”- unknown author 

29.“Fishing in a place is a meditation on the rhythm of a tide, a season, the arc of a year, and the seasons of life.” – Carl Safina

30.“When they go fishing, it is not really fish they are after.  It is a philosophic meditation.” – E.T. Brown

31.“I love fishing.  You put that line in the water and you don’t know what’s on the other end.  Your imagination is under there. ” – Robert Altman

32.“My biggest worry is that when I’m dead and gone, my wife will sell my fishing gear for what I said I paid for it.” – Koos Brandt

33.“There are plenty of fish in the sea, if I run out of women.” – Joey Comeau

34.“I like to fish. Fishing is always a way of relaxing.” – Tom Felton

35.“May the holes in your net be no larger than the fish in it” – Irish Blessing

36.“There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind. ” – Washington Irving

37.“The gods do not deduct from man’s allotted span the hours spent in fishing.  ” – Babylonian Proverb

38.“If I fished only to capture fish, my fishing trips would have ended long ago.” – Zane Grey

39.“We’ve gone fishing thousands of times in my life, and I have never once felt unlucky or poorly paid for those hours on the water.” – William Tapply

 40.“One thing becomes clearer as one gets older and one’s fishing experience increases, and that is the paramount importance of one’s fishing companions.   ” – John Ashley-Cooper

41.“The great charm of fly-fishing is that we are always learning.” – Theodore Gordon

42.“Most fishermen swiftly learn that it’s a pretty good rule never to show a favorite spot to any fisherman you wouldn’t trust with your wife     ” – John Voelker

43.“Fishing is a delusion entirely surrounded by liars in old clothes.”  ~ Don Marquis

44.“What a tourist terms a plague of insects, the fly fisher calls a great hatch” – Patrick F. McManus

45.“Do not tell fish stories where the people know you. Particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish” – Mark Twain

46.“The years are tough and they get tougher. But at the end of the year, you take a deep breath and go fishing” – Theodore Hesburgh

47.“I have fished through fishless days that I remember happily without regret.” ~ Roderick Haig-Brown

48.“The man who goes fishing gets something more than the fish he catches.” ~ Mary Astor

49.“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” ~ Heraclitus

50.“We have seen Indians in immense numbers, and all those on this coast of the Pacific contrive to make a good subsistence on various seeds, and by fishing.” ~ Junipero Serra

51. “One thing becomes clearer as one gets older and one’s fishing experience increases and that is the paramount importance of one’s fishing companions.” – John Ashley Cooper

52.“The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of something that is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.” – John Bucha

53.“The gods do not deduct from man’s allotted span the hours spent in fishing.” – Herbert Hoover

54.“When you fish for love, bait with your heart, not your brain.” – Mark Twain

55.“Most fishermen swiftly learn that it’s a pretty good rule never to show a favorite spot to any fisherman you wouldn’t trust with your wife.” – John Voelker

56.“Fishing provides that connection with the whole living world. It gives you the opportunity of being totally immersed, turning back into yourself in a good way. A form of meditation, some form of communion with levels of yourself that are deeper than the ordinary self.” – Ted Hughes

57.“The man who coined the phrase ‘money can’t buy happiness,’ never bought himself a good fly rod.” – Reg Baird

58.“Fly fishing may be considered the most beautiful of all rural sports.” – Frank Forester

59.“Fishing seems to be the favorite form of loafing.” – F. W. Howe

60.“I go fishing not to find myself but to lose myself.” – Joseph Monniger

61.“I got 99 problems, and fishing solves all of ’em.” – Earl Dibbles Jr

62.“I love fishing and surfing, and I work out every day.” – Karl Urban

63.“I love fishing. It’s transcendental meditation with a punchline.” – Billy Connolly

64.“If your concentration is getting bad, take up bass fishing. It will really improve your ability to focus. If you aren’t ready when that fish hits, you can’t set the hook.“ – Lee Trevino

65.“Bragging may not bring happiness, but no man having caught a large fish goes home through an alley.” – Ann Landers

66.“There is only one reason in the world to go fishing: to enjoy yourself.” – Leigh Perkins

67.“The metronome of our music and poetry isn’t the ocean, it’s fish.” ― Bren Smith

68.“Teach all men to fish, but first teach all men to be fair. Take less, give more. Give more of yourself, take less from the world. Nobody owes you anything, you owe the world everything.” ― Suzy Kassem

69. “Game fish are too valuable to be caught only once.” ― Lee Wulff

70.” He liked fishing and seemed to take pride in being able to like such a stupid occupation.” ― Leo Tolstoy

71.“Having a fishing rod in your hand is merely an excuse to explore out-of-sight depths and reveal mysteries that previously only existed in dreams.“ -Fennel Hudson

72.“As no man is born an artist, so no man is born an angler.“ – Izaak Walton

73. “Some go to church and think about fishing, others go fishing and think about God.” – Tony Blake (Producer and Writer)

74. “A bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work.” – Unknown

75. “Of course I talk to myself when I’m fishing. Sometimes I need expert advice.” – Unknown