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

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

Of all the world's enjoyments
That ever valued were,
There's none of our employments
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Of all the world's enjoyments
That ever valued were,
There's none of our employments
With fishing can compare.
- Thomas Durfee (or D'Urfey),

To fish in troubled waters.

To fish in troubled waters.

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

And angling too, that solitary vice,
What Izaak Walton sings or says:
The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, read more

And angling too, that solitary vice,
What Izaak Walton sings or says:
The quaint, old, cruel coxcomb, in his gullet
Should have a hook, and a small trout to pull it.

The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of that which is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series read more

The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of that which is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope

Fishing is a delusion entirely surrounded by liars in old clothes.

Fishing is a delusion entirely surrounded by liars in old clothes.

It is a silly fish that is caught twice with the same bait.

It is a silly fish that is caught twice with the same bait.

Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a
cord which thou lettest down?
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Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a
cord which thou lettest down?
Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through
with a thorn?