Are you superstitious?
My column on Sunday of my favorite fishing lines brought a suggestion from one reader that I should do a story on fishing superstitions.
The reader knew one superstitious angler who would immediately quit fishing after hooking a turtle because he believed he would never catch a fish after that. I know people who think catching a fish on the first cast is bad luck.
Anyway, the reader’s suggestion sounded like a good idea to me and I’ve already started compiling some. So if anyone has or knows of a fishing superstition, please share it with me on this blog or email egodfrey@opubco.com.
The best fishing lines
Speaking of my column Sunday, here is the list from Outdoors Magazine of the staff’s best fishing quotes that inspired me to do my own Okie version of best fishing lines.
29. “There are two types of fisherman – those who fish for sport and those who fish for fish.”
-Author Unknown
28. “[T]his planet is covered with sordid men who demand that he who spends time fishing shall show returns in fish.”
-Leonidas Hubbard, Jr.
27. “The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad.” -A.K. Best
26. “The gods do not deduct from man’s allotted span the hours spent in fishing.”
-Babylonian Proverb
25. “It has always been my private conviction that any man who pits his intelligence against a fish and loses has it coming.” -John Steinbeck
24. “Bragging may not bring happiness, but no man having caught a large fish goes home through an alley.” -Author Unknown
23. “And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.” -Mark 1:17
22. “Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” -Henry David Thoreau
21. “If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.” -Doug Larson
20. “I love fishing. You put that line in the water and you don’t know what’s on the other end. Your imagination is under there.” -Robert Altman
19. “Calling fishing a hobby is like calling brain surgery a job.” -Paul Schullery
18. “I am not against golf, since I cannot but suspect it keeps armies of the unworthy from discovering trout…” -Paul O’Neil
17. “There is no greater fan of fly fishing than the worm.”
-Patrick F. McManus, Never Sniff a Gift Fish, 1979
16. “The man who coined the phrase “Money can’t buy happiness” never bought himself a good fly rod!” – Reg Baird, from his video Labrador Trout
15. “He told us about Christ’s disciples being fisherman, and we were left to assume…that all great fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fisherman and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.” -Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It
14. “Wherever the trout are, it’s beautiful.” – Thomas Masaryck
13. “Fish come and go, but it is the memory of afternoons on the stream that endure.” – E. Donnall Thomas
12. “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 regeneration that impregnate the mind and character of the fisherman.” – Herbert Hoover
11. “The fish is not so much your quarry as your partner.”
- Arnold Gingrich
10. “The only thing bad about winning the pennant is that you have to manage the All-Star Game the next year. I’d rather go fishing for three years.” – Whitey Herzog
9. “Most of the world is covered by water. A fisherman’s job is simple: Pick out the best parts.” – Charles Waterman
8. “To me heaven would be a big bull ring with me holding two barrera seats and a trout stream outside that no one else was allowed to fish in and two lovely houses in the town; one where I would have my wife and children and be monogamous and love them truly and well and the other where I would have my nine beautiful mistresses on nine different floors.” -Ernest Hemingway
7. “I now believe that fishing is far more important than the fish.” – Arnold Gingrich
6. “Reading about baseball is a lot more interesting than reading about chess, but you have to wonder: Don’t any of these guys ever go fishing?” -Dave Shiflett, quoted in Houston Chronicle
5. “Fishing is a… discipline in the equality of men – for all men are equal before fish.” -Herbert Hoover
4. “Three-fourths of the Earth’s surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn.” -Chuck Clark
3. “Some go to church and think about fishing, others go fishing and think about God.” – Tony Blake
2. “The trout do not rise in the cemetery, so you better do your fishing while you are still able.” – Sparse Grey Hackle
1. “I am haunted by water.” – Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It
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Thanks for sharing, Ed. Pretty good lines. When I was a kid we thought it was good luck if a dragonfly landed on our rods while we fished for bluegill and catfish in our farm pond.
Jack Carson