About Me

Welcome to my domain!

“Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” –Lao Tzu, Chinese Philosopher

Lao Tzu was wise, sure, but he clearly wasn’t a fisherman. If he was, he would’ve said: “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, hook him for a lifetime.”

In 2018, I finally broke the 30-inch mark for trout in flowing water with this 30 1/8″ beast of a Bull Trout (Species #4 in my #SpeciesQuest) that tipped the scales at 10 pounds, 9 ounces. It was released unharmed

This blog exists so I can share my two passions in life — fishing and writing — with those willing to read it. So next time the fish aren’t hitting your bait, lean back and read about fishing until the fish do bite. You may or may not get hooked, but I encourage you take a moment and get CaughtOvgard. If you enjoy the content, please be sure to subscribe to my weekly column for just $1 per month at www.patreon.com/CaughtOvgard.

If you don’t want to subscribe, that’s fine. Come here to follow #SpeciesQuest as I look for that next new species, look at my Gear Up! section to see what gear I recommend that is not sold through my site, or learn the essential skills of fishing with my How To… section.

***

My Statistics

Fish Caught: 26,188
Species Caught: 1285
All-Tackle World Records: 14 Official
IGFA Trout Grand Slams: 5 Official
IGFA Trout Super Grand Slams: 1 Official

States Fished: 50 (Plus D.C.)
I’ve caught fish in all 50 United States, plus its capital. There are only eight states remaining where I haven’t caught a new species, indicated in yellow below: Delaware, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, Rhode Island, West Virginia.

Countries Fished: 24
Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Czechia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Portugal, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Thailand, Türkiye, United States

CaughtOvgard, my syndicated fishing column has been offered weekly in papers all over the Pacific Northwest offered for the better part of a decade, but I lost almost all of my contracts due to the COVID-19 crisis. Though I still write for half a dozen papers, I do it primarily for free, so please consider supporting me via Patreon or consider looking up my past work in one of these papers: