Hugh Huntley, our Program Director, is an avid fan of fishing quotes. He has amassed a very impressive collection of famously spoken words, and shares one with us each month in the Hackle Bender. Here is a small collection of some of Hugh's quotes that have appeared in previous issues of the newsletter.


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

"The joys of fishing are not confined to the hours near the water."
— Herbert Hoover

"Oh, the brave fisher's life—it is the best of any—'tis full of pleasure,
void of strife, and 'tis beloved by many!"
— Isaak Walton

"Prepare your tackle! When you hook a big fish,
it is impossible to retie or change a leader"
— Jim Chapralis

"Fish come and go, but it is the memory of afternoons on the stream that endures."
— E. Donnell Thomas

"Most anglers spend their lives making rules for trout,
and trout spend their lives breaking them!”
— George Ashton

“In fishing, as in life, the size of the catch
depends on the size of one’s hopes.”
— Criswell Freeman

“Anglers have a way of romantizing their battles with fish.”
— Ernest Hemingway

“I’ve spent most of my life fishing. The rest I have just wasted!”
—Anonymous

"He who is content to not catch fish will have his time and attention free for the accumulation of a thousand experiences."
— Sparse Grey Hackle

“I pray that I may life to fish, until my dying day. And when it comes to my last cast, I then mostly humbly pray: when in the lord’s great landing net and peacefully asleep, that in His mercy I be judged big enough to keep.”
— Fisherman’s Prayer

"Love of nature is a common language that
can transcend political and social boundaries."
— Jimmy Carter

"Every day spent fishing should be a day of Thanksgiving."
— Criswell Freeman