So there it is, a pretty magic mark as far as I am concerned – 1001 fishing quotes and sayings for your viewing pleasure.
The 6 new quotes are numbers 996 – 1001, and if there is a theme it is how to make flies come ‘alive’, and become more attractive to trout.
My two picks:
“It is a truth that certain flies do, with much more probability, deceive trout, and they are the ones that incorporate basic factors. They can be expressed in a word – life. The natural fly is a creature of delicate perfection, quick with life. It is translucent, framed with light. As experience soon shows, our vision is only a partial guide to how far our flies suggest these things. A fly very neat, very treasured pretty, most neatly tightly beautiful is less likely to persuade than one that is a little shaggy; a fly that has already caught and been chewed by a trout is better for that. Some straggliness, some whispiness in the water, suggest the movement of life. Some materials, particularly some furs, rough looking, inert to us, to fish have life and have translucency. That is why, should I be confined to one fly it would be the Gold-Ribbed Hares Ear.” – Bernard Venables – ‘Mr Crabtree Goes Fishing’ 1948
“Confidence in what you have to offer goes a long way to success, but, even more, you need to have confidence in you ability to make your artificial look and behave like a natural.” – Frank Sawyer 1952
So what now?
I think it is time for a break from digging around for quotes. So I will, for a while, look at categorising and tagging the quotes and try and use what little skills I have in programming to make the quotes database fully searchable, by a variety of criteria. My aim is to make the database a good resource for those interested in some of the best writing used to describe and comment on this wonderful sport of ours.