The Common Angler

The Common Angler taps into the passion that simmers in the souls of anglers and celebrates the primordial connection of people to fish and fishing. Author Jack Wollitz set out to explain the “why” behind the fact that so many people are passionate about fishing and along the way discovered a book’s worth of experiences and stories. Early chapters cover the foundation of Jack’s own passion for fishing and explore the connection we have with water and the creatures that depend on it for life. Also included is a whimsical piece that personifies two common waterside fixtures. A key chapter draws parallels between the legendary River Lea in Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler, written in the mid-seventeenth century, and Northeast Ohio’s Mahoning River and the mighty Ohio River. The Common Angler also provides an insider’s perspective about what makes certain people great anglers, featuring Ernest Hemingway, and baseball stars Ted Williams and Wade Boggs.

"With 33 years of outdoor writing to draw upon, Jack Wollitz uses his personal experiences and observations of other anglers to capture the essence of the sport and stir the passions of novice and veteran anglers alike. or The Common Angler is aimed at readers with an uncommonly strong passion for fishing. Like Izaak Walton’s The Compleat Angler, which inspired the title, it is a celebration of the spirit of sportfishing and those who live for it." —Dave Precht, Editor emeritus of Bassmaster Magazine

Writer Jack Wollitz has been a passionate angler ever since he went on his first fishing trip at the age of five. He grew to love writing about fishing as much as actually fishing and has published more than two hundred magazine feature stories along with nearly 1,700 weekly columns in the Youngstown Vindicator and Warren Tribune Chronicle. After graduating with a bachelor of arts in English from Youngstown State University, he worked as a newspaper reporter for The Salem News in Ohio and then joined the editorial staff of the Warren Tribune Chronicle.