Parker VH and Maine grouse/woodcock, a great combination!!

[Dean Romig]

John D. Voelker, aka "Robert Traver", first penned those lines in reference to the brook trout, grayling and steelhead in Michigan's rivers and the beautiful places where they lived.


Oops... John Dallas nailed it. I first read that when I was about 16 and had just started tying my own flies around then.

(I see that it was published in '64. I was 16 on Jan 18, 1964)







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[Mike of the Mountain]

That paragraph was used in the PF magazine this month. The author of the article was writing about grouse hunting with his father and quoted this exchanging grouse for trout.

Originally Posted by John Dallas

There is a famous paragraph written by John Voelker called "Testament of a Fisherman"

I fish because I love to;

Because I love the environs where trout are found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly;

Because of all the television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I thus escape;

Because, in a world where most men seem to spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of delight and an act of small rebellion;

Because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience;

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; because mercifully there are no telephones on trout waters;

Because only in the woods can I find solitude without loneliness;

Because bourbon out of an old tin cup always tastes better out there;

Because maybe one day I will catch a mermaid;

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.

[Dean Romig]

But did he give credit to Voelker?..... That is the question.






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[Mike of the Mountain]

Yes, he used the Voelker name first, then referred to the author by his Traver name. He said his father was a man of few words and carried that in his wallet. His father read it to him in the field when he was in the midst of making a major life decision.