When if or chance or hunger's powerful sway
Directs the roving trout this fatal way,
He greedily read more

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!

A stick and a string with a fly at one end and a fool at the
other.

A stick and a string with a fly at one end and a fool at the
other.

There is only one theory about angling in which I have perfect
confidence, and this is that the two read more

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."

Modesty is the only sure bait when you are fishing for praise.

Modesty is the only sure bait when you are fishing for praise.

The end of fishing is not angling, but catching.

The end of fishing is not angling, but catching.

Still he fishes that catches one.

Still he fishes that catches one.

Fishing, with me, has always been an excuse to drink in the daytime

Fishing, with me, has always been an excuse to drink in the daytime

A rod twelve feet long and a ring of wire,
A winder and barrel, will help thy desire
read more

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.

The biggest fish he ever caught were those that got away.

The biggest fish he ever caught were those that got away.