Sir Edward Grey
'FLYFISHING'.

In reallity this is not anything new - but perhaps some of my readers have at the moment never read one of the best books about our mutual hobby  - Sir Edward Grey "FLY FISHING", first published in 1899. It's a book I place highest on my list of absolute favoririts. And why? In his text he says a lot of things that went deep into my heart, and I shall in the following make some quotes, which I can read again and again. (for some help I give the  pages(s) in the first issue):
I have over 40 years written my diary - and agree with Grey when he writes (pages 6-7):
"There remains yet another difficulty, that of expressing pleasure at all. It may be that laguage lends itself more easily to forms of arguments and thoughts than of feeling. An argument is something which can be caught and held down and strapped into sentences, but after reading an account of a day's fishing it is continually borne in upon one, when all has been said, the half has not been told; it is not because there is really nothing  to tell, as some cynical and unsympathetic mind may suppose; rather,  I think it is because of the nature of joy. Feelings of delight come unsought and without effort - when they are present they are everywhere about and in us like an atmosphere; when they are past it is almost as impossible to give an account of them as it is of "the last year's clouds", and the attempt  to analyse and reconstruct the  sense of joy that has been and may be again seems to result in rows of dead words".

Then he writes  (page 13) something very true:
"I am ready now to yield the palm for skill to whoever choses to claim it; but I do cherish a belief that I am entitled to rank high amongst those whose reputation as anglers is measured, not by skill, but by their devotion to angling, and by the delight they have in it".

After that follows in his Introductery an analyse of the many stages we as anglers can go through - and  also here he has something fundamental to tell the readers.
I can only recommend to those of you who have not already read his book to do it - his prosa is so delicious and one sits back with a feling of a much better understanding of why we have chosen flyfishing as our main hobby.