Gone Fishing
Published on
June 8th, 2021
With fine weather forecast for some areas of the UK, put yourself in the waders of the characters shown within this selection of fine historic black and white photos around the theme of fishing. Step away from the current busy times and take a nostalgic glimpse back at life over the past 100 years. We hope you enjoy this selection of vintage photographs on the theme of fishing and angling from The Francis Frith Collection – cast a line and pull one in!
A bad day of fishing is better than a good day of work.
Anonymous
An angler is a man who spends his rainy days sitting around on the muddy banks of rivers doing nothing because his wife won’t let him do it at home.
The Irish News
The formal term for a collection of fishermen is an exaggeration of anglers.
Henry Beard, ‘An Angler’s Dictionary’, 1983
Fishermen and hypochondriacs have one thing in common – they don’t have to catch anything to be happy.
Robert Orben, born 1927, American magician and comedy writer
No life is so happy and so pleasant as the life of the well-govern’d angler.
Izaak Walton (1593-1683), author of ‘The Compleat Angler’ (1653)
A trout is a fish mainly known by hearsay. It lives on anything not included in a fisherman’s equipment.
H I Phillips, c1925
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, ‘Fisherman’s Spring’, 1951
Lots of people committed crimes during the year who would not have done so if they had been fishing. The increase of crime is among those deprived of the regenerations that impregnate the mind and character of the fisherman.
Herbert Hoover (1864-1964), 31st President of the United States of America
Fly fishing may be a very pleasant amusement: but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
Attributed to Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) in ‘Instructions to Young Sportsmen’ (1859)
Fishing teaches concentration, patience, assiduity, keenness of observation, skill and physical endurance.
Walter M Gallichan, author of ‘The Happy Fisherman’, 1926
There is certainly something in angling that tends to produce a serenity of the mind.
Washington Irving (1783-1859), American author and historian
It was good fishing, a little too good. In angling, as in reading, suspense is a quality worth having.
John Graves, ‘Goodbye to a River’, 1960
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