"The grace of the cast, the calm before the strike, then suddenly, a bite; the fish is hooked, and the fisherman begins the delicate game of pump and play as he carefully retrieves his catch."

-- Herbert Schaffner, The Fishing Tackle Catalog (1989)

"If you have the soul of an artist and can see and feel the rustic charm of old wooden structures that have log withstood the lash of time and tide, you will at once recognize something of the hypnotic spell that compels addicts of pier fishing to return again and again, day after day, to the same old spot.

Fish or no fish, rain or shine, you will see them, happy, cheerful, and contented, ensnared in the mesh of a magnetic net of their own mental creation."

-- Raymond Cannon, How to Fish the Pacific Coast (1953)