Meet Author Steve Woit
Steve Woit has been fly fishing for over forty years and has been an avid collector of antique fly fishing tackle for over thirty years. His current passion includes the collection of antique gut-eyed salmon flies.
He began his collection after a chance encounter with the late Ben Maurice-Jones, who maintained a stall for many years in the famed Portobello Antiques Market in London.
During his regular visits with Ben, Steve started to learn about the finer points of collecting antique tackle. He then continued to meet fellow collectors, dealers and traders at the regular Northeast Antique Angler’s Shows in New England run by Ben Clark and at the Lang’s auctions.
When the live in-person auctions transitioned online and the Northeast Antique Angler’s shows closed, he began wondering how to stay in touch with the community of collectors he had met. He observed that while many members of the antique tackle collecting community knew a few of the leading figures in the trade, they actually knew very little about them. So, the idea for writing Fly Fishing Treasures was formed.
After early encouragement from Hoagy Carmichael, Roger Still, John Drewett and others, Steve then spent over seven years meeting and interviewing leading collectors, experts, authors, museum and club curators, craftsmen and auctioneers.
Many of them provided him with invaluable access to private collections that have rarely been seen by others. Their stories were well worth listening to and learning from.
Steve has written a number of articles related to antique fly tackle collecting for magazines and journals such as Classic Angling and the Yale Anglers’ Journal. Steve has also written a regular Cast From The Past column for Moldy Chum, as well as articles for Hatch, MidCurrent, Dun Magazine, AntiqueWeek and others.
He completed his undergraduate studies at Yale with a degree in Combined Literature in English and French Literature and served as President of the Yale Fishing Club and Captain of the Yale Fishing Team.
He is a member of the Flyfishers’ Club in London.
