From finding himself face to face with a bull elephant while fishing for jacks in West Africa, to ruffling the feathers of legendary tweed-clad salmon guide Bob Brownless by digging up worms to catch an eel, it’s same to say that Steve Wozniak has experienced more in the world of fishing in the last few years than most will in a lifetime of angling. He’s currently only eight species shy of cracking the 1000 species mark – around 300 more than the next angler working towards the same goal.

Steve highlights the most adrenaline-pumping catches as either a mahseer in the Cauvery River in India, or a 200lb+ grouper in the middle of the night in Weipa, northern Australia. Of all species, he cites the tench as his most difficult, having spent 7 years chasing one before finally adding it to the list during the summer of 2009 in England.

I sent Steve an email to find out where he’s at on the list right now;

“I’m in Europe right now fishing through a few interesting spots trying to get those last few fish. The count looks to be 992 at the monent, subject to some verifications, and I am heading up to Norway for three days starting tomorrow, so there should be good progress there. Adding new ones gets pretty difficult at this stage, as I have caught all the easy ones I think. (Including squillions of wrasses in Botany Bay!”

Check out Steve’s blog, The Countdown to 1000, which he has set up to document the final 50 captures before he cracks the 1000 species mark. Each capture has a great story to go with it, highlighting heaps of weird and wonderful species most people wouldn’t have even heard of, let alone thought about targeting…