John Gierach Quotes

Quotes about:

• They say you forget your troubles on a trout stream, but that's not quite it. What happens is that you begin to see where your troubles fit into the grand scheme of things, and suddenly they're just not such a big deal anymore.

  John Gierach

  Fishing, Trout, Forget You

  131 Copy quote

• 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, Trout, Problem

  130 Copy quote

• I think I fish, in part, because it's an anti-social, bohemian business that, when gone about properly, puts you forever outside the mainstream culture without actually landing you in an institution.

  John Gierach

  Thinking, Fishing, Mainstream Culture

  John Gierach (2001). “Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders: A John Gierach Fly-Fishing Treasury”, p.303, Simon and Schuster

  96 Copy quote

• Fly-fishing is solitary, contemplative, misanthropic, scientific in some hands, poetic in others, and laced with conflicting aesthetic considerations. It's not even clear if catching fish is actually the point.

  John Gierach

  Hands, Fishing, Poetic

  John Gierach (2010). “Dances With Trout”, p.210, Simon and Schuster

  89 Copy quote

• Maybe your stature as a fly fisherman isn't determined by how big a trout you can catch, but by how small a trout you can catch without being disappointed.

  John Gierach

  Lakes, Sea, Fishing

  John Gierach (1989). “Fly Fishing Small Streams”, p.31, Stackpole Books

  81 Copy quote

• If people don't occasionally walk away from you shaking their heads, you're doing something wrong.

  John Gierach

  Fishing, People, Away From You

  John Gierach (2001). “Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders: A John Gierach Fly-Fishing Treasury”, p.405, Simon and Schuster

  66 Copy quote

• 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

  Thinking, Lakes, Sea

  John Gierach (2010). “At the Grave of the Unknown Fisherman”, p.147, Simon and Schuster

  68 Copy quote

• Cell phones have changed us from a nation of self-reliant pioneer types into a bunch of men standing alone in supermarkets saying, ‘Okay, I’m in the tampon aisle, but I don’t see it.'

  John Gierach

  Men, Phones, Self

  John Gierach (2008). “Fool's Paradise”, p.5, Simon and Schuster

  72 Copy quote

• 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

  Mistake, Lakes, Sea

  "Fly-fishing the High Country". Book by John Gierach, 1984.

  65 Copy quote

• Something to think about: If you fish the wrong fly long and hard enough, it will sooner or later become the right fly.

  John Gierach

  Thinking, Fishing, Long

  40 Copy quote

• Creeps and idiots cannot conceal themselves for long on a fishing trip.

  John Gierach

  Fishing, Long, Trout

  John Gierach (2001). “Death, Taxes, and Leaky Waders: A John Gierach Fly-Fishing Treasury”, p.85, Simon and Schuster

  53 Copy quote

• It's an odd fact of life that whichever side of the stream you're on, two-thirds of the best water is out of reach on the other side.

  John Gierach

  Rivers, Lakes, Sea

  John Gierach (2011). “No Shortage of Good Days”, p.166, Simon and Schuster

  53 Copy quote

• I still enjoy the company of most dogs more than that of most people, because dogs are capable of uncomplicated enthusiasm.

  John Gierach

  Dog, People, Enthusiasm

  55 Copy quote

• Really, the only thing a psychiatrist can do that a good (fishing) guide can't is write prescriptions.

  John Gierach

  Writing, Fishing, Guides

  40 Copy quote

• If we carry purism to it's logical conclusion, to do it right {fishing} you'd have to live naked in a cave, hit your trout on the head with rocks, and eat them raw. But, so as not to violate another essential element of the fly-fishing tradition, the rocks would have to be quarried in England and cost $300 each.

  John Gierach

  Rocks, Fishing, Trout

  54 Copy quote

• I know I'm a long way from greatness, but I am beginning to come at it in my own way. I can go through the basic motions pretty well, don't rely quite as religiously on specific fly patterns as I once did, have worked out ways of compensating for some of my most egregious weaknesses and have come to count heavily on timing because it's a hell of a lot easier to catch fish when the fish are biting.

  John Gierach

  Greatness, Long, Patterns

  John Gierach (2010). “Standing in a River Waving a Stick”, p.20, Simon and Schuster

  44 Copy quote

• Accurately recalling an entire day of fishing is like trying to push smoke back down a chimney, so you settle on these specific moments.

  John Gierach

  Lakes, Sea, Fishing

  29 Copy quote

• Lawyers are like nuclear weapons. By all rights they shouldn't exist, but if some people have them, then you'd better have one, too, just in case.

  John Gierach

  Rights, People, Weapons

  John Gierach (1990). “Sex, death, and fly-fishing”, Fireside

  36 Copy quote

• From my own experience I can say that a bad back makes you hike slower, stove-up knees keep you from wading confidently, tendinitis of the elbows buggers your casting, and a dose of giardia can send you dashing to the bushes fifteen times in an afternoon, but although none of this is fun, it's discernibly better than not fishing.

  John Gierach

  Fun, Lakes, Sea

  John Gierach (2012). “No Shortage of Good Days”, p.48, Simon and Schuster

  29 Copy quote

• Fish sense, applied in the field, is what the old Zen masters would call enlightenment: simply the ability to see what's right there in front of you without having to sift through a lot of thoughts and theories and, yes, expensive fishing tackle.

  John Gierach

  Lakes, Sea, Fishing

  John Gierach (2013). “Trout Bum”, p.24, Graphic Arts Books

  39 Copy quote

• I necessarily fear change except that it's so seldom for the better. It's just that I can live with any number of things going straight to hell as long as these streams continue to hold up. If this amounts to living in a fool's paradise, don't waste your time trying to explain that to the fool.

  John Gierach

  Numbers, Long, Trying

  John Gierach (2008). “Fool's Paradise”, p.56, Simon and Schuster

  39 Copy quote

• The things fishermen know about trout aren't facts but articles of faith.

  John Gierach

  Lakes, Sea, Fishing

  John Gierach (2013). “Trout Bum”, p.13, Graphic Arts Books

  8 Copy quote

• Fishing in rainy conditions may make fisherman seem crazy to the great mass of unimaginative people, but then few fishermen care what they think

  John Gierach

  Crazy, Thinking, Sea

  43 Copy quote

• Flyfishing does have its social aspects - on some of our crowded trout streams it can get too social - but esentially it's a solitary, contemplative sport. People are left alone with themselves in beautiful surroundings to try to accomplish something that seems to have genuine value.

  John Gierach

  Beautiful, Sports, Sea

  35 Copy quote

• Trout aren't naturally as selective as they've become in crowded tailwaters - they've been trained to be like that by too much fishing pressure. I've seen tailwater fish that are so hysterical they'll refuse naturals. You wonder how they get enough to eat.

  John Gierach

  Lakes, Sea, Fishing

  26 Copy quote

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