85 Fishing Quotes That'll Make You Want To Cast A Rod

What's better than a day spent on the water?

By
Sierra Guardiola
Sierra Guardiola
Sierra Guardiola
Sierra is a writer and editor with many interests. She comes from a newspaper background and has over four years experience writing for magazines. She enjoys learning about new topics and providing readers with helpful tips and ideas. She has covered everything from how to make the best apple pie to transforming your outdoor space with a few key decorations. 
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Updated on April 30, 2024
fishing

Sometimes you may strike out on catching any good ones, but a true fisherman knows that it's not just coming home with lots of fish that proves your day on the water was a success. Whether fishing is second nature to you or you're just getting started, these fishing quotes will remind you why a day spent on the water is hard to beat.

fishing
100 Best Life Quotes That Will Inspire You
01 of 04

Funny Fishing Quotes

Funny Fishing Quote

Southern Living
  • "Carpe Diem" does not mean 'fish of the day.'" —Unknown
  • "The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad." —A.K. Best
  • "Do not tell fish stories where the people know you. Particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish." —Mark Twain
  • "Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn." —Chuck Clark
  • "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
  • "Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught." —Unknown
  • “A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.” —Samuel Johnson
  • “Fishing is boring unless you catch an actual fish, and then it is disgusting.” —Dave Barry
  • “There’s a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot.” —Steven Wright
  • “If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.” —Doug Larson
  • “If fishing is interfering with your business, give up your business.” —Alfred W. Miller
  • “He liked fishing and seemed to take pride in being able to like such a stupid occupation.” —Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
  • “Anyone can be a fisherman in May.” —Ernest Hemingway
  • “There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy. Those are prayer and fishing.” —Herbert Hoover
  • "Fly fishermen are born honest, but they get over it." —Ed Zern
  • "The best way to catch a fish is to let him think he's escaping." —Unknown
  • "Fishing is the sport of drowning worms." —Unknown
  • "There is no such thing as too much equipment." —Unknown
  • "A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work." —Unknown
  • "There he stands, draped in more equipment than a telephone lineman, trying to outwit an organism with a brain no bigger than a breadcrumb, and getting licked in the process." —Paul O'Neil
  • "All the romance of trout fishing exists in the mind of the angler and is in no way shared by the fish." —Harold F. Blaisdell
  • “Fishing is the art of lying convincingly about the size of the fish that got away.” —Unknown
  • “I only make movies to finance my fishing.” —Lee Marvin, American actor
02 of 04

Inspirational Fishing Quotes

Henry David Thoreau Fishing Quote

Southern Living
  • "Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after." —Henry David Thoreau
  • "Most of the world is covered by water. A fisherman's job is simple: Pick out the best parts." —Charles Waterman
  • "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." —Maimonides
  • "If I fished only to capture fish, my fishing trips would have ended long ago." —Zane Grey
  • "There are always new places to go fishing. For any fisherman, there's always a new place, always a new horizon." —Jack Nicklaus
  • "There will be days when the fishing is better than one's most optimistic forecast, others when it is far worse. Either is a gain over just staying home." —Roderick Haig-Brown
  • "Opportunity is ever worth expecting; let our hood be ever hanging ready. The fish will be in the pool where you least imagine it to be." —Ovid
  • "Those who fish get to know and understand a river in a way few others can." —W.D. Wetherell
  • "The fishing is good in troubled waters." —German Proverb
  • “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.” —Norman Maclean
  • “If you ever wondered why fishing is probably the most popular sport in this country, watch that boy beside on the water and you will learn. If you are really perceptive you will. For he already knows that fishing is only one part fish.” —Hal Borland
  • “Fishing is the chance to wash one’s soul with pure air. It brings meekness and inspiration, reduces our egoism, soothes our troubles, and shames our wickedness. It is a discipline in the equality of men–for all men are equal before fish.” —Herbert Hoover
  • “There is no use in walking five miles to fish when you can depend on being just as unsuccessful near home.” —Mark Twain
  • “I go fishing not to find myself but to lose myself.” —Joseph Monninger
  • "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." —Ted Hughes
  • "The best fisherman I know try not to make the same mistakes over and over again; instead, they strive to make new and interesting mistakes and to remember what they learned from them." —John Gierach
  • "Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in." —Henry David Thoreau
  • "Fishing is not just a hobby; it's a state of mind." —Mariano Rivera
  • "In fishing, as in life, opportunity is often a matter of being in the right place at the right time." —Larry Koller
  • "The act of fishing transports us to a special world, and a state of mind, where we are free." —Fennel Hudson
  • "Fishing is an affirmation of life's richness and our profound interconnectedness to the natural world." —Carl Safina
  • "To fish is to hope. Each cast a new beginning, each retrieve a new promise." —M.K. Soni
  • "The fisherman knows that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore." —Vincent Van Gogh
  • "A fisherman's skill is born from moments of stillness and patterns of movement." —Bryant McGill
  • "The fisherman weaves a tapestry of dreams from the memories of the waters he's known." —Derek Mills
  • "Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics that it can never be fully learned." —Izaak Walton
  • “Fishing is a way to be at peace with the world and oneself.” —Unknown
65 Inspiring Quotes About Nature
03 of 04

Quotes About The Importance Of Fishing

Jimmy Carter Quote About Fishing

Southern Living
  • "Many of the most highly publicized events of my presidency are not nearly as memorable or significant in my life as fishing with my daddy." —Jimmy Carter
  • "Some go to church and think about fishing, others go fishing and think about God." —Tony Blake
  • "I'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
  • "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
  • "Fishing is not an escape from life, but often a deeper immersion into it." —Harry Middleton
  • "Fishing is marvelous...there is the irresistible urge to tangle with the mysterious and unknown, to rely on intuition and hunches." —Katharine Weber
  • "When we fish, we are awake. We are attuned to the environment, to the world, to the reverence and wonder of life." —Dan Baughman
  • "Fishing is unquestionably a form of madness but, happily, for the once-bitten there is no cure." —Lord Home
  • “The solution to any problem—work, love, money, whatever—is to go fishing, and the worse the problem, the longer the trip should be.” —John Gierach
  • “Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.” —Herbert Hoover
  • “The man who goes fishing gets something more than the fish he catches.” —Mary Astor
  • “I used to like fishing because I thought it had some larger significance. Now I like fishing because it’s the one thing I can think of that probably doesn’t.” —John Gierach
  • “Whether I caught fish or not, just the thrill of rolling out that line and watching my fly turn over has been good enough for me. That and the hundreds of treasured memories I have of this wonderful sport.” —Curt Gowdy
  • “Everyone should believe in something. I believe I’ll go fishing.” —Henry David Thoreau
  • "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
  • "To fish is to hold a mirror to nature." —Paul Schullery
  • "Every time I cast my line, I connect with the heart of nature." —Linda Greenlaw
  • "Fishing brings out the reverence of the harmony of all things." —Ted Trueblood
  • "Angling is a way of calming the soul and setting the spirit free." —Dave Hughes
  • "The act of fishing takes us to the hidden corners of the world, revealing the beauty that lies beneath the surface." —James Prosek
  • "Fishing is not just about catching fish; it's about understanding the delicate balance of nature." —Aldo Leopold
  • “Fishing is a hard job and a good job, it’s a rich man’s job and a poor man’s job, it’s a happy job and a sad job, it’s a lot of things. But most of all it’s a rewarding job.” —Tom Brokaw
04 of 04

Fishing Quotes About Patience

Herbert Hoover

Southern Living
  • "Be patient and calm—for no one can catch fish in anger." —Herbert Hoover
  • "The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions of hope." —John Buchan
  • "He who wants to catch fish must not mind getting wet." —Spanish Proverb
  • "It doesn't matter if the rod is or isn't bent. Time spent fishing is time well spent." —Justin Morgan
  • “I have fished through fishless days that I remember happily without regret.” —Roderick Haig-Brown
  • “Angling is extremely time-consuming. That’s sort of the whole point.” —Thomas McGuane
  • “In every species of fish I’ve angled for, it is the ones that have got away that thrill me the most, the ones that keep fresh in my memory. So I say it is good to lose fish. If we didn’t, much of the thrill of angling would be gone.” —Ray Bergman
  • "Fishing is fundamentally a game of chance, and at heart we are all gamblers." —Dorothy Noyes Arms
  • “The finest gift you can give to any fisherman is to put a good fish back, and who knows if the fish that you caught isn’t someone else’s gift to you?” —Lee Wulff
  • “I think there is a connection between thinking and fishing mostly because you spend a lot of time up to your waist in water without a whole lot to keep your mind busy.” —Anthony Doerr
  • "Fishing is a discipline in patience. It's about the journey, not just the destination." —Chris Campanioni
  • "In silence and patience, the wisdom of fishing unfolds." —Julian Barnes
  • “All you need to be a fisherman is patience and a worm.” —Herb Shriner
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