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<p>So a blog I have been keeping up with for a couple years now is <a href="http://1000fish.wordpress.com/">Steve Wozniaks quest for 1000 fish</a>. The guy pretty much travels around and fishes as far as I can tell. He has gone over 1000 a good while ago and is currently going for 2000. The blog is pretty much just a giant collection of expeditions similar to the ones on this site. I would highly recommend checking it out and reading through some of the posts. He is also, alongside some of the people around here, one of the few people who would become incredibly excited about catching a one inch long stickleback just so he can add it to his lifelist. Just posting this because it seems like something that the people around here would be interested in. If posting something like this is unwelcome here (any post to a blog of any type on some sites is known as "blogspam" and can be bannable) just say.</p>
Wozniak's achievements are impressive. It must be nice to have the money to go to all those cool fishing places. I think he's a lawyer with a few extra bucks to spend on fishing trips. But yeah, he is a Lifelist head like many of us.
My beef with him is simply that he spends all this money on guides, rather than getting out by himself to find the fish, but still, it's pretty impressive that a man can catch 1000+ species in a lifetime... That's one in every 30 global fish species, that he's caught! (I just don't see that we need to make fishing an expensive, elitist pursuit when trout anglers have already done that!)
Let there be fire!
I'm not diminishing or putting down his accomplishments. Heck, I'd love to have the financial resources to get out and do what he does. I especially like seeing him really putting the lifelist idea out there, unlike Sebile, who doesn't really play up the fact that he's caught over 700 species last I heard. Wozniak just comes across as elitist and stuck up to me. Maybe I'm wrong in that perception, and I hope I am, but that's my observation from reading his blog a few times.
Let there be fire!
I will not speak to Steve Wozniak the man, I do not know him and I'm sure the majority of members here don't either. I will speak to Steve Wozniak the blog. I've read about 10 of his posts and I can see where some people may take issue, he is extrodinarily privelaged and well off, you can see how that would be off putting to someone for example sitting at home with kids with no money.
Is he a bad guy? Probably not. I would probably love a day of fishing with Steve Wozniak, I'm sure the dude has a whole slew of information of the world I could never imagine to attain and I'm sure hes more than willing to speak/help out people interested in the same thing. I do enjoy his reports, although I wish they were more fish focused, but then i'd miss those funny run ins with the cops/locals. However the lengthy-ness cuts out ability to read em'.
Yep, that pretty much sums up what I was trying to say, better than I coulda said it.
Let there be fire!
Like I said in another thread, I love fishing with anybody who knows stuff I don't and is willing to share. I'd give him a chance, and I imagine I'd have a pretty good time fishing with him. I just don't enjoy his blog.
Let there be fire!
Like this, if you’re reading this in 2019
Geez, the guy has skimmed every easy-to-catch species that any rich man could buy and some idiots worship him. Sorry, tots, but if money can buy something then it's not worth striving for. I'm sure Woz is a great guy and everything but I've caught thirty species that he hasn't caught IN HIS OWN HOME AREA. So, this guy is too dumb to catch the species in his own home waters, but he's spent hundreds of millions of dollars to go elsewhere and catch many dumber species of fish. Sorry, but he has never even caught a sucker. He was born and raised in the middle of North America but hasn't ever caught a sucker? I'm sprry, but that means you're beyond ignorant. You're ignorant if you spend a year in the middle of prime sucker territory and fail to catch one. But if you were BORN in the middle of sucker-land and spend your whole life without ever catching one, then, well, you're a gigantic dumbass. If catching a sucker is too difficult for you, even after spending your whole life trying, then travelling to some exotic destination to catch some exotic fish is not going to impress me. You're still a dumbass who can't catch a sucker.
But Woz is from North America and obviously has ignored or been unable to catch the vast majority of suckers, not to mention the vast majority of our native species..
I'd rather not argue about this, but the whole reason for this website to exist is to get people to recognize and appreciate the value of these "roughfish", not ignore them and either treat them like dirt or pretend they don't exist. The Great and Powerful Woz's brag list just makes me wonder if people really are somehow impressed by that; I would wonder what species list any average-joe angler would have if they had spent the same amount of money as he did. I'd like to think that any decent roughfisher would have done better.
Ive never caught a species of sucker what does that make me? and besides what does those 30 species matter and how do you know for fact he hasn't caught them? I talk to him reguarly and he infact wants to branch out and go after as many sucker and redhorse as possible cuz he is a true diehard roughfisher except he plans most fishing around business and never gets busines in sucker country? and I hate the Ive caught this and you haven't crap.it's turned me off to so many species fishing/roughfishing websites. I didn't join roughfish for this I joined b/c it's a great knowledgeable bunch of anglers and I wanted to expand my fishing horizons from just stripers.
That is the best thing about this site. As for Steve the guy - I don't know him, can't comment. As for his accomplishments, even if they are all easy species the whole accomplishment isn't easy per se. I still suspect the best anglers out there are not posting to this website or writing blogs. But there are certainly some good ones who are.
That’s a cool blog, I enjoy reading about the different species and exotic locales. I like the way he tells a story as well. To be honest a lot of angling around here isn’t especially exciting, hook a worm, cast into hole, reel in fish. What’s cool is the places you go, the things you see, and the people you meet. It’s obvious he gets to travel a lot, but you know what, it’s pretty hardcore of him to take advantage of it and fish the way he does. I know I wouldn’t be especially up for fishing in some urban hole after a 16 hour flight, good for him.
I really don’t get all the hostility, who cares if he hasn’t caught XYZ sucker? That doesn’t mean he is putting down suckers or your type of fishing. The reverse elitism on this site is really befuddling to me. It’s like if you don’t do it exactly the way I do your not doing it right. There’s like a fraction of a fraction of people who are into this type of fishing and it seems silly to spend any effort putting them down. I think we should try and be as inclusive as possible.
As for guides, who cares? His money, his fishing, more power to whoever wants to use a guide. It’s really not much different than a buddy hooking you up with a new spot, species, personal best…
It’s only fishing people, remember a hobby, it’s supposed to be fun, not a pissing contest.
Certainly is shades of grey there. I've definately had buddies hook me up with fish where it was awful close to free guiding. Really then have somebody give you a boat load tips is just a few shades lighter, or give you a fantastic spot or whatever. Only a handful of species ever in my life have I caught 100% on my own - no bait shop advice, buddy spots or anything like that. I will say that catching a species with no real advise is really exciting though.
Agree 100%
It takes money to target any new lifer for me. The gas prices alone and time off of work costs something and that limits me to a certain number of species. It is true that those with money do have more opportunities than the rest of us. It's just a fact. As far as guides go, I have had those guides that suck, but on the other hand, some can really help break down the learning curve of a species/region/habitat/etc. And being a student of fishing, I love learning about fishing even if that costs me something. If that puts an asterisk by my name, then so be it. That said, I believe this website has been really helpful in my ongoing species pursuit and I appreciate its value. I have made many friends here and information sharing has been a win-win for many of us. I hope we don't become judgemental because of our status, for we are the pioneers of roughfishing and and all other things that have morphed out of it (i.e. Micro-fishing, etc., etc.).
I’m just now reading this and coincidently, he mentions some comments made in this post in his most recent blog post “The Goodied, the bad, and the Arely”.
Yeah, I saw that.
I'm a fan of Wozniak's blog. I don't really see the elitism, but maybe that's because I read some fly fishing books, which is where you'll find some of the most obnoxious snot nosedness anywhere, and have built up a high tolerance to folks who comes across as snobbish.
SomewhereDownstream