We have a project for you wine, fishing and literature lovers. StoneFly Vineyards needs your help and expertise in identifying the source of the following quote or one of it’s related variants.
“Many Men Go Fishing Their Entire Lives Without Knowing It Is Not Fish They Are After.”
Is this from Henry David Thoreau? Well, if you get digital and ask Dr. Google you would mostly read “yes”. It seems to be commonly accepted by novice and expert fly fishers alike that the source of this beautiful passage or a very close variant was Henry David Thoreau.
Yet we’ve never been able to find the exact page in the exact book that proves this to us. And on a recent writing project this issue became excruciatingly problematic. We wanted to use the quote as it perfectly encapsulates our perspective on fishing and fly fishing. But who were we to cite as the author?
From fishing lodges to fly fishing magazines this passage seems to be as frequent as the trusted words “Lefty Kreh” or “Orvis” or “Elk Hair Caddis”. We even found ourselves mired in a friendly argument on this subject in a Bozeman, Montana bar (Fortunately we made it out safely)!
The fact is we have never seen or read the proof that good old Henry D. Thoreau wrote or muttered these words…EVER. So can one of you who’ve read more Thoreau than us help by providing verifiable evidence?
Email nickp [at] stoneflyvineyards.com with a scanned image of the original quote in it’s original context. Or you can send us the copy of the text you own and we’ll send it back to you promptly.
Whoever is the first to prove that Henry David Thoreau was the originator of this stunningly beautful quote will soon be enjoying wine from StoneFly Vineyards.
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