1,285 Species and Counting
Luke Ovgard Is Fishing For Fishes — Not Just Fish.
Today, southern Oregon native Luke Ovgard is ranked as the number five “Species Fisherman”, worldwide.
Thus far, he has reeled in 1,285 different species of fish. Naturally, he has his sights set upon the number one spot — someday.
With well over 30,000 different species of fish remaining to catch, he has some room for improvement in his standing — and he’s loving every minute of his quest to do just that.
The actual number of fish species remains up for debate, as science and species hunters, like Luke, continue to make new discoveries every day.
“As of right now, 35,000 is a pretty reasonable guess. Many species that looked similar were grouped together in the 19th and 20th centuries, but DNA evidence is showing us that there are a lot more species — especially in freshwater — than previously thought,” he explained.
In his 33 years of traversing this earth, Ovgard has carefully crafted a means to enable him to make a living, travel extensively, and to fish. Everything a man could dream for — for now.
The Journey
A lot of people can go their whole lives drifting along, never fully realizing their true life’s passion. Sometimes, they’re living it without fully realizing it.
When conversing with Luke, you sense that he still remains in the early stages of his quest for fulfillment in life. Despite displaying ample evidence of a man who has seemingly lived several lifetime’s-worth of lives already, as he approaches the ripe old age of 34, he still yearns for something more.
Throughout his journey, he has accomplished an impressive array of feats: earning several college degrees, contributing as a syndicated travel and outdoors columnist for several Pacific Northwest newspapers (under his unique and cleverly designed “CaughtOvgard” branding), teaching high school business classes for a decade, serving in the Oregon Air National Guard and U.S. Air Force, authoring a book, and achieving over a dozen All Tackle World Records as a proud member of the International Game Fish Association (IGFA).
That resume could fill several people’s lives quite comfortably. Nevertheless, Ovgard isn’t satisfied.
A New Beginning
For the majority of his life, Ovgard was confined to his hometown of Klamath Falls, in southern Oregon. His youth was spent growing up and attending schools in a relatively small lumber town with strong agricultural roots. The area is situated within a fertile basin surrounded by lush green mountains and ample streams and lakes. It offered Luke and his family abundant opportunities for outdoor activities during his upbringing, and it was here where his fancy for fishing first developed.
Ovgard never moved very far from his home, except to attend several Oregon colleges. Later, when he finished his teaching degree, he returned to his hometown to teach high school business courses.
But, despite his close ties with friends and family all around, he yearned in later years to get out and explore the world more purposefully.
Most recently, he left his long-time teaching position to fill an open military position in Stuttgart, Germany for one year. More goals to pursue, more dreams to conquer (and more fish to catch). At the center of his life, after all, is what he dubs his “species quest”.
“Faith, family, and fishing are the nonnegotiables in my life. Though I am one who gives his best at work, I’ve never had a job that comes anywhere close to the level of passion and purpose I get from fishing and writing about fishing.” — Luke Ovgard
When asked why he left his successful teaching job in his hometown to venture halfway around the world to Germany, he answered matter-of-factly.
“I really enjoyed teaching. I did. For me, heading to Germany was more about a chance to live somewhere new and experience something different than anything else,” he said. “Though I’d traveled a lot with my time off and spent some time away from Klamath Falls in military training and while activated at various times, I never spent more than four continuous months in a single location away from home.”
“Klamath is great, and whether I live there or not, it will always be home, but you can do everything Klamath has to offer in a year,” he continued. “So after 30-plus years, it felt stale.”
Last year, he was grading papers as a high school business teacher. Now, he’s reviewing military exercise briefs as a joint exercise planner for the U.S. Air Force at U.S. European Command, a major geographic combatant commander located in Stuttgart, Germany. He is known for his meticulous attention to detail and professionalism in his presentations and briefings — traits he honed for years in his teaching profession.
Some of his work even travels all the way up the chain for the President’s eventual signature.
“Germany is the toughest place on earth to get a fishing license.” — Luke Ovgard
But, as impressive as that is, Ovgard’s ultimate purposes are always with traveling and fishing squarely in mind — the two go hand-in-hand. He just recently completed the final requirements to be able to fish in Germany.
“Germany is the toughest place on earth to get a fishing license,” Ovgard relayed, dejectedly. “I had to wait three months to get into a class. The class took a week to complete and included a paper test and physical demonstration of being able to catch a fish. Once you pass the course, you have to go in and physically get a paper license at the local courthouse and then an individual license for every water you want to fish.”
“In short, after four months here, I was able to fish in Germany for the first time last week. I knew it was tough when I got here, but it has proven to be far, far tougher than expected.”
It likely won’t take him long to add fish species #1,286 to the list — finally.
The Count
Like his seek-and-destroy penchant for finding and rectifying all erroneous information placed before him during his day job, Ovgard has an eye for detail and a hunger for accumulating countless data points in his off-time pursuits. He keeps track off all the fish he catches. Every detail.
With this information, he develops what he affectionately labels as his “Finfographics”, to keep track of the fish he’s caught —including the what, when, where and how. A true journalist.
A fisherman with a dash of fashion flair, Ovgard’s lanky yet athletic build intrigues the casual observer upon first sight, inviting them to examine him a bit more closely.
He religiously takes pictures of every catch, but not so much for the photo opportunity for himself. Rather, his aim is to highlight the fish. The fish is the star — especially the lesser known species he manages to catch.
In Nick Mitchell’s short film, “Caught Ovgard — a Fishing Film”, Ovgard says, “one of the best aspects of species hunting is you’re going after fish that otherwise get neglected.”
He is a restless, yet gentle spirit. You can sense it the intent gaze of his brown eyes, the rapid raise of his eyebrows as he describes his life’s work. The humorous insights he offers as he seizes upon a thought and immediately expresses it in clever fashion.
Everything Luke does, he does well. It seems to be a family trait. Most of his family was athletically-inclined, playing at the Division I level in several college sports. Luke, the oldest of three Ovgard boys, was right there in the mix, but his true interests always revolved around fishing, first and foremost.
The Small Group Gets Smaller
Now, Ovgard counts a small group of species hunter aficionados as his close friends. He knows everybody in “the top five” quite well.
“I’m friends with all of the top specieshunters. Steve Wozniak (not Apple Steve Wozniak) is currently first with 2,249 species. He’s a tech executive in the Bay Area,” says Ovgard, reverently. “Second is a very private person who has 1,656. He’s a dentist in Texas.” Ovgard pauses, and then continues. “Third was Dominick Porcelli of Florida, who just passed away suddenly this last week at 60. Good friend and very tough. He was upper management at a plumbing wholesaler. He had 1,373.”
The news of Dominick Porcelli’s unexpected passing casts a particularly heartbreaking shadow over the top 5 rundown. Ovgard was just planning a fishing trip to Ireland with his dear friend, affectionately known as “Dom.”
Before he offers further details, he completes the list, “Fourth is George Brinkman, a retired Canadian professor in his 80s. I’m fifth with 1,285.”
You can feel the sense of loss in Luke’s thoughts on his close friend and mentor, Dom, as he describes what transpired, “Despite being super healthy, running and lifting weights three or four times a week and being in great shape, he came back from a run and had an aneurysm in the shower.”
Ovgard continued, “He was only 60. The night before he collapsed, we had just begun to plan a fishing trip to Galway, Ireland in May.”
He sits back and contemplatively proceeds on, openly reflecting as he describes the bonds that unite these fishermen, “While most of the folks in this weird little cult of anglers who go out and try to catch as many species as possible, ‘Species Hunters,’ are single, lifelong bachelors, married without children, or late-in-life converts with older children, Dom bucked that trend. He’d been doing this his whole life and somehow managed to become the angler with the third-highest species total in history (1,373 at the time of his death) while raising kids, holding down a job, and building a beautiful, well-balanced life.”
For Luke, this is painful — on many levels. Family is a paramount priorty in his life. Perhaps Dom’s passing is a stark reminder of his own mortality. A reminder of the things he still yearns to experience, even with everything he has accomplished to date.
“Though Dom was only in my life for about five years, his influence was extremely impactful,” Ovgard said. “Since I’m about 30 years younger, I figured I’d catch him eventually, but not for 15 or 20 years. I feel cheated that with his premature death, it will come sooner.”
As Ovgard laments, you can sense the narrowing focus of his thoughts as he discusses this loss— the determination to take this pain and turn it into action.
“I lost a great friend, and it showed me to balance the relationships in my life with my passion for fishing. I hope I can do that. I plan to carry out our Galway trip in May as a nod to him, but I might invite a few more friends along, which is something Dom would’ve done.”
Ovgard’s Other Quest
The sobering loss shows just how much Luke Ovgard cares about family. He adores kids, and would love the opportunity to share the fishing experience with a few of his own, someday. Similar to his father’s approach, who introduced him to his first catch at the age of three.
“I love kids, and I know I would be a good dad, but I think it’ll depend on how old I am when I finally get married and whether or not my wife (A) wants kids and (B) is still young enough to have kids.”
Alas, the one species that continues to elude Ovgard is not a fish. Though he’s been on the lookout for that special someone over the years, perhaps he has simply not fished in the right waters thus far, and maybe that underlying desire is what pushes him to explore more of our world.
He casts and he casts. Yet, the bites are tough to come by. So, he fishes on. New waters await his arrival.
“I was ready to get married 10 years ago; it just hasn’t happened for me yet. Not sure if I want kids now that I’m approaching middle age,” he claims.
What? Is 33 the new 40… or 50? But his obvious compassion and desire to someday share his life with a wife, and children, betrays him — he’s on a quest to have it all.
“Before I met Dom, I always kind of figured I would eventually get married and let my passion take a backseat, or, strive to catch the most species. Dom showed me that it was possible to have both. To live life to the fullest,” Ovgard shared. “I think this perspective was important for me.”
With that, it’s settled. He’s earmarked to have children.
Gazing intently, with focus. Anticipation. Many thoughts fleet his mind as he retracts his line and readies it for casting the next offering. Will this be the one?
Fishing again now, for the fish’s sake. Harboring an intense desire to coax the fish up from the depths — or perhaps from just below a shallow surface — to briefly provide the unique creature a momentary world stage with a quick “selfie” before a gentle release. It’s not the size that matters — it’s the uniqueness of the experience, and the road traveled to get there.
As for his personal quest, who knows when that moment will occur. Perhaps he will finally be… CaughtOvgard.
Interview Outtakes
The following are a few bonus outtakes, detailing more interesting aspects of Luke Ovgard’s #SpeciesQuest pursuit:
How do you plan your fishing expeditions to ensure you’re able to target different species across the globe?
“I write a lot about this in the beginning of my book, Fishing Across America, and it is a complicated answer. My first goal was to catch a fish in every U.S. state,” he said. “I completed this goal in the Summer of 2023, with South Dakota as my final state.”
“Now, I’d like to catch a fish in every country on earth. Though North Korea’s fishing tourism scene is famously inviting, I probably won’t get there in my lifetime. As of last weekend’s trip to Türkiye, I’ve caught fish in 24 countries — only 170 remaining.”
What skills from teaching or the military do you find most useful in your fishing expeditions?
“Much of my fishing involves researching ahead of time. I pull from a variety of sources to find fishing spots that might hold new species of fish,” says Ovgard. “In a roundabout way, I learned how to research from my own education. The organization required for building curriculum and managing your role in the military have enabled me to keep the highly-detailed records needed in order to travel all over the world to find Obscure Fish A in Obscure Ditch C in the middle of nowhere.”
Have you faced any unexpected challenges while pursuing your goal of catching one of each species of fish?
“Logistical concerns and access to water in Europe is very archaic, based largely on the idea of the ‘King’s Forest’ being closed off to all but the elite few. This persists today and makes fishing here both a logistical nightmare and prohibitively expensive to the average person,” Ovgard states.
“My German fishing license cost about $120, which is comparable to some out-of-state fishing licenses, but on top of that, you need to pay for the training course ($60) and membership to a local fishing organization ($99). You also have to buy licenses for every stretch of river or lake you want to fish. For a permit to fish a roughly 10-mile stretch of the local Neckar River here in Stuttgart, Germany, it cost $110 for the year. For one stretch of river!”
How do you stay motivated during long periods between fishing trips or when facing difficult conditions?
“Weather is a huge factor. If the weather is nice, and I can get sun and wade a lot, even with otherwise poor fishing, I do all right,” says Ovgard. “Staying motivated can be tough, so on the long trips (30-plus days), I make sure to keep a regular workout schedule, try to get a massage or two to relax, meet up with friends whenever possible, maybe see a movie, go to a museum or gallery or tourist trap, or even take half a day at a coffee shop and do some writing.”
“I also communicate regularly with family and friends to keep from getting too locked into isolation.”
What advice would you give to someone looking to embark on a similar quest?
“Start by reading my book, Fishing Across America. Sure, I’m selling you a book, but it was written to help people plan their own trips. Essentially, the key is to plan as much as you can on the front end and then expect about half of your plans to fail,” says Ovgard.
Ovgard offers more, “Know where you want to go and the rough departure and arrival days, but I would advise against booking hotels in advance for long road trips. You can book fishing boats in advance as long as you have a few days’ cushion between stops because you will pull into a city to find it flooded sometimes, and the three days you planned there suddenly become a few hours. I drove into Gainesville, Florida during a hurricane once. The easternmost road had six inches of water, and I was able to skirt the city and move further south. Had I booked a hotel in advance, I would’ve been trapped in a place I couldn’t effectively fish.”
“Plan your fishing stops, the sights and restaurants and sporting events or whatever else you have to see and then build a route and rough itinerary around that,” advises, Ovgard. “For places you plan to fly for a weekend or week, make things more concrete but still leave a little flexibility. Rain leads to high waters and can quickly ruin a freshwater fishing trip, so have a backup plan.”
