Angler breaks ultimate fishing record by catching 1,000 different species

An angler has broken the ultimate fishing record by becoming the first person in the world to catch 1,000 different species of fish.

Steve with a Yellow-Eyed Rock fish caught in Alaska.

Californian Steve Wozniak, 47, has spent 10 years pursuing the astonishing quest that has seen him fish in 63 different countries.

He has spent 20,000 hours on riverbanks, piers, beaches and boats waiting for a nibble from fish ranging from a tiny minnow to a 900lb shark.

Steve has forked out more than £50,000 and racked up over one million air miles criss-crossing the globe with his rod and tackle over the last decade.

The record rodman has fished on every continent bar Antarctica, including places as far flung as Cambodia and the exotic Isle of Wight.

He has snared virtually every freshwater fish native to Britain and spent two years and 4,000 pounds alone trying to capture an Atlantic salmon in Scotland.

Steve has also broken 12 International Game Fishing Association records along the way and has another five pending.

His mammoth efforts finally paid off when he snared a 2lb coalfish in a Norwegian fjord to net the record, that is being dubbed the Cast of a Thousand.

Steve now intends to temporarily hang up his rod to write a book about his angling adventures.

He said: 'It is very humbling to be the only person in the world to catch 1,000 different species of fish.'

'It has been an almighty challenge and one where there have been many highs and many lows, like trying to catch a tench fish which seemed to elude me for seven years.'

'When I caught the coalfish I think I expected it to be this big fanfare event but I was sat in a boat in a peaceful fjord an hour below the Arctic circle.'

'I just sort of sat there with a glow of accomplishment.'

Steve caught his first fish at the age of five and by the time he was in his mid-30s he reckoned he had netted nearly 150 different species.'

He said: 'The 1,000 record started as a testosterone-driven competition between myself and a friend over who had caught the most fish species.

'That started me thinking of the idea that getting 1,000 would be a fantastic and worthy goal to achieve.'

Steve, a manager at a software company but not to be confused with the Apple co-founder, frequently travels around the world for his job and broke off from business to go both sea and coarse angling whenever he could.

In 2006 he took a year off work to concentrate on fishing and netted 180 species in that year alone, taking his total up to 676.