fish in troubled waters

Idioms  

1. Try to take advantage of a confused situation. For example, He often buys up stock in companies declaring bankruptcy; fishing in troubled waters generally pays off. This term, first recorded in 1568, expresses the even older notion that fish bite more readily when seas are rough.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

fish in troubled waters

The Soviets, Weinberger said on Face the Nation, "have a huge presence in Syria, and they love to fish in troubled waters."

From Time Magazine Archive

Meanwhile, I was becoming convinced that the Soviets were seeking to fish in troubled waters.

From Time Magazine Archive

I keep myself very passive in the matter, and don't fish in troubled waters.

From Letters of Franz Liszt -- Volume 1 from Paris to Rome: Years of Travel as a Virtuoso by Constance Bache

Matters were not improved by the antagonism between the Roman Catholic and Presbyterian missions and the traders; each worked against the others, offering the natives the best of opportunities to fish in troubled waters.

From Two Years with the Natives in the Western Pacific by Felix Speiser

In the degree to which institutions fail to function, the unscrupulous journalist can fish in troubled waters, and the conscientious one must gamble with uncertainties.

From Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann

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