Fishing is a... discipline in the equality of men - for all men are equal before fish.

Hoover frames fishing as a moral and social “discipline”: it trains humility and patience by placing every person—rich or poor, famous or obscure—under the same natural constraints. “Equal before fish” echoes the language of equality before the law, but substitutes nature for institutions, suggesting that the nonhuman world is indifferent to human hierarchies. The humor in the formulation underscores a serious point: angling exposes the limits of control and the vanity of rank. In that sense, the quote treats fishing as a small civic lesson in democratic equality and personal modesty.