John D. Voelker
John D. Voelker
John D. Voelker, better known by his pen name Robert Traver, was a noted lawyer, author and fly fisherman from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He grew up in his hometown of Ishpeming and later attended the University of Michigan Law School. His early professional career was as an attorney and county prosecutor in Marquette County. Voelker was also appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court by Governor G. Mennen Williams in 1957. He is best known as the author of...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth19 June 1903
CountryUnited States of America
Most fishermen swiftly learn that it's a pretty good rule never to show a favorite spot to any fisherman you wouldn't trust with your wife.
I fish because I love to . . . because I love the environs where trout are found . . . because I suspect that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don’t want to waste the trip . . . and, finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant––and not nearly so much fun.
The truth is that trout fishermen scheme and lie and toss in their sleep. They dream of great dripping trout, shapely and elusive as mermaids, and arise cranky and haggard from their fantasies. They are moody and neglectful and all of them a little daft. Moreover they are inclined to drink too much.
The true fisherman approaches the first day of fishing season with all the sense of wonder and awe of a child approaching Christmas.
Most fisherman, including this one, cling to their pet stupidities as they would to a battered briar or an old jacket; and their dogged persistence in wrong methods and general wrong-headedness finally wins the a sort of grudging admiration, if not many fish.
Fly-fishing is a magic way to recapture the rapture of solitude without the pangs of loneliness.
Fishing is such great fun, I have often felt, that it really ought to be done in bed
The best time to go fishing is when you can get away.