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

Old Peter Grimes made fishing his employ;
His wife he cabined with him and his boy,
And read more

Old Peter Grimes made fishing his employ;
His wife he cabined with him and his boy,
And seemed that life laborious to enjoy.

For angling-rod he took a sturdy oak;
For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke;
His read more

For angling-rod he took a sturdy oak;
For line, a cable that in storm ne'er broke;
His hook was such as heads the end of pole
To pluck down house ere fire consumes it whole;
This hook was bated with a dragon's tail,--
And then on rock he stood to bob for whale.

As the lone Angler, patient man,
At Mewry-Water, or the Banne,
Leaves off, against his placid wish,
read more

As the lone Angler, patient man,
At Mewry-Water, or the Banne,
Leaves off, against his placid wish,
Impaling worms to torture fish.

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.

Of all the world's enjoyments
That ever valued were,
There's none of our employments
read more

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),

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

The line with its rod is a long instrument whose lesser end holds
a small reptile, while the other read more

The line with its rod is a long instrument whose lesser end holds
a small reptile, while the other is held by a great fool.
[Fr., La ligne avec sa canne est un long instrument,
Dont le plus mince bout tient un petit reptile,
Et dont Pautre est tenu pau un grand imbecile.]

A fishing pole is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool on the other

A fishing pole is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool on the other