Author: Don Paglia

Tip # 25: “May the holes in your net be no larger than the fish in it.”                                                                                   Irish Blessing Stephen found his 41-year-old life bottoming out. His wife of ten years was leaving him, and she was also fighting for sole custody of their two children. At the same time his business was in […]

Tip # 24: “Fishing is the sport of drowning worms.”                                                             Author Unknown We can easily forget how we got to whatever level of success we may have achieved in our lives. We deceive ourselves into thinking we did it entirely on our own. This is a failure to recognize all the various help and […]

Tip # 23: “He fishes well who uses a golden hook.” Latin Proverb When one fishes – or does anything – having a specific intention makes the project unfold accordingly. One’s “golden hook” could be that there is a focused outcome that then gets carried throughout the project. The opposite of this is the old […]

Tip # 22:  “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”  Chinese Proverb (although others claim this quote, as well). Perhaps, this is the most common of all fishing quotes, it also is one often ignored. We are more […]

Tip #21:  “In my family, there was no clear division between religion and fly fishing.”                                         Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It, 1976 Many a song and too much silliness that passes for love – such as how one’s “hearts going pitter-patter,” or how one’s “heads is spinning,” or any such notions- have nothing […]

Tip #20: “I am not against golf, since I cannot but suspect it keeps armies of the unworthy from discovering trout.”  Paul O’Neil We often act as though we’re the central characters from the movie, Bob and Ted’s Adventure, screaming their infamous line, “I’m not worthy! I’m not worthy!” It doesn’t need to be spoken […]

Tip # 19: “Angling may be said to be so like the mathematics, that it can never be fully learnt.”  Izaak Walton, 1653 I know it seems a bit off from fishing metaphors, but bear with me when I say I love the Wizard of Oz story, and why. It turns out the brilliant Wizard […]

Tip #18: “The two best times to fish is when it’s rainin’ and when it ain’t.”      Patrick F. MacManus There is the now old, but famous, Samuel Beckett play called: Waiting for Godot. It is about waiting for God. The opening time for the play passes as the audience gets more and more restless. […]

Tip #17: “Some go to church and think about fishing, others go fishing and think about God.” Tony Blake Perhaps churches are for those who have little or no imagination. It isn’t that one cannot find God there; it’s that God is also everywhere. The Divine flourishes in each and every crack, crevice, within and […]

Tip #16: “The difference between fly fishers and worm dunkers is the quality of their excuses.”  Anonymous In life you wind up with one of two things: either getting the results you were seeking, or having the reason(s) why you didn’t get those results. Results don’t have to be explained. They just are. People who […]