{"id":41106,"date":"2024-03-18T12:22:58","date_gmt":"2024-03-18T16:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=41106"},"modified":"2024-03-18T12:22:58","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T16:22:58","slug":"seventh-angler-earns-fishmaryland-master-angler-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2024\/03\/18\/seventh-angler-earns-fishmaryland-master-angler-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Seventh Angler Earns FishMaryland Master Angler Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Zeljko Koretic of Baltimore County recognized as a Master Angler<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 381px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53131188687_55fe61e825.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of man on a boat holding a fish\" width=\"371\" height=\"495\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Zeljko &#8220;Zee&#8221; Koretic holds up a summer flounder he caught in August 2023, one of the ten species that count toward his Master Angler status. Photo courtesy of Zeljko Koretic.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Zeljko Koretic of Middle River, Baltimore County, has earned a Master Angler Milestone Award under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u2019 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/fisheries\/Pages\/FishMaryland\/index.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">FishMaryland program<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The award recognizes recreational anglers who catch ten different species of fish in Maryland at trophy-size length. Koretic is the seventh Master Angler since the program began in 2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The FishMaryland program covers dozens of species from both salt and freshwater. All ten catches that earned Koretc the Master Angler award are listed below and on individual certificates sent to the angler. DNR will present the Master Angler award certificate and a gift card prize at Bass Pro Shops in Arundel Mills. Koretic caught his tenth FishMaryland eligible fish, a 15.5-inch crappie, while on a carp fishing trip on the Gunpowder River on March 8, 2024.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI was playing with an ultralight rod and a jig under a float off the side of the boat,\u201d said Koretic. \u201cI got a few bites including one channel catfish and five crappie ranging from 12 to 15.5 inches, and I also got about a dozen carp between 24-28 inches\u2014 a fun solo adventure!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Koretic\u2019s qualifying catches were:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Red drum, 43 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Northern snakehead, 34.5 inches\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Striped bass, 49 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cobia, 48 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Channel catfish, 30.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Summer flounder, 24 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Largemouth bass, 21.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yellow perch, 14.25 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blue catfish. 41.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Black crappie, 15.5\u00a0 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Koretic, also known as \u201cZee,\u201d has been passionate about fishing since he was a child. He started fishing in the Washington, D.C. area in 1998 and around Baltimore, including Loch Raven, in more recent years. He fishes for many different species and enjoys everything from fly fishing in freshwater to deep sea fishing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">FishMaryland is Maryland\u2019s recreational fishing award program and is a fun way to explore year-round recreational fishing and enjoy affordable, accessible, diverse, and high-quality fishing opportunities. More information on the Master Angler Milestone Award and the FishMaryland program is available on the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/fisheries\/Pages\/FishMaryland\/index.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">DNR website<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zeljko Koretic of Baltimore County recognized as a Master Angler Zeljko Koretic of Middle River, Baltimore County, has earned a Master Angler Milestone Award under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u2019 FishMaryland program.\u00a0 The award recognizes recreational anglers who catch ten different species of fish in Maryland at trophy-size length. Koretic is the seventh Master<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2024\/03\/18\/seventh-angler-earns-fishmaryland-master-angler-award\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,11],"tags":[2911,5429,5430,4314],"class_list":["post-41106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries","tag-baltimore-county","tag-fishmaryland","tag-master-angler","tag-sportfishing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41106"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41109,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41106\/revisions\/41109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}