Need an appropriate proverb!!

The standard in English is:

You never miss your water till your well runs dry.

Welcome to A2K. Home of unexplained censorship.

I also came across this (what hingehead posted). I was wondering what your mother's tongue is. Sometimes that helps with translation.

so great!! I love all of u Thx thx a lot
@ tryingtohelp: I'm from Vietnam.
@ hingahead: I haven't caught ur joke(if it is). Anyway, that's what I need at the moment.

Even though I do not work here welcome to A2K There are some wonderful people here.

Joni Mitchell (a singer) said "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." I think that says it.

There's an expression in English that also refers to fishing: "It's always the big one that got away."

The meaning is different from the one you give for your expression. This means that people are likely to miss (and often exaggerate) what they almost had but couldn't hang onto. For example, someone goes fishing and catches a fish that's two feet long. He comes home and shows it to his wife. She's impressed. Then he says, "You should have seen the one that got away." Implying that he came close to having a much bigger fish, but he couldn't hold onto it. The expression has expanded to include anything that you almost had but couldn't get and suggests exaggeration. When you talk about it, other people will say, "It's always the big one that got away."

This concept is so well known that one can just say "the one that got away" and be understood.

Dorothy Parker wrote a mock epitaph called "The Fisherwoman":

The man she had was kind and clean,
And well enough for every day.
But oh, dear friends, you should have seen
The one that got away!