{"id":43602,"date":"2024-12-04T10:11:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T15:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=43602"},"modified":"2024-12-04T12:06:30","modified_gmt":"2024-12-04T17:06:30","slug":"harford-county-youth-named-16th-fishmaryland-master-angler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2024\/12\/04\/harford-county-youth-named-16th-fishmaryland-master-angler\/","title":{"rendered":"Harford County Youth Named 16th FishMaryland Master Angler"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Luca Tucciarella is the third youth angler to reach the milestone award<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54147324162_31c5e496c0_b.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of young man in a river holding a fish\" width=\"1024\" height=\"577\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Angler Luca Tucciarella caught a 38.25-inch northern pike in Loch Raven Reservoir on Nov 17, 2024, on his way to earning a Master Angler Milestone Award under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u2019 FishMaryland program. Photo by Vincent Tucciarella, used with permission by Maryland DNR.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Luca Tucciarella, of Forest Hill, has earned a Master Angler Milestone Award under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u2019 FishMaryland program.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fifteen-year-old Tucciarella is the 16th Master Angler and the third youth angler to reach the milestone award since the program began in 2019. The award recognizes recreational anglers who catch ten trophy-sized fish of different species in Maryland.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tucciarella started fishing with his father at a local neighborhood pond when he was 3 or 4 years old.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cAfter the first time he took me fishing, I realized it was something that I would enjoy for a very long time,\u201d Tucciarella said. &#8220;My dad told me about the Master Angler program in early spring of 2024, and I thought it would be a cool challenge to pursue. I wanted to pursue it because it&#8217;s an award that recognizes a passion that I&#8217;ve had my whole life.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tucciarella\u2019s qualifying catches, in order, were:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Carp &#8211; 36 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Brook trout &#8211; 12 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Flathead catfish &#8211; 34.5 inches\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sand tiger shark &#8211; 79 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bullhead catfish &#8211; 15.25 inches\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rock bass &#8211; 11 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blue catfish &#8211; 44 inches\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Largemouth bass &#8211; 22 inches\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Northern pike &#8211; 38.25 inches\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chain pickerel &#8211; 25.75 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">He has a particular interest in fishing for the invasive Chesapeake Channa (northern snakehead).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cSnakehead fishing has always interested me because of where they live, the different techniques used to catch them, and how hard you have to set the hook,\u201d said Tucciarella. \u201cMy most recent snakehead was 29.5 inches long, and I hope to catch one that is 30 inches or larger for my next FishMaryland species award.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The second largest fish out of the newest Master Angler\u2019s ten qualifying catches was an invasive blue catfish that was 44 inches in length. The exact weight of the fish was unknown because Tucciarella\u2019s scale maxed out at 50 pounds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIt was an awesome fight that lasted over 10 minutes and I caught it on 20-pound test braided line,&#8221; Tucciarella said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">His final qualifying fish was a 25.75-inch chain pickerel. &#8220;The coolest thing about my last fish is that I actually caught two trophy pickerel over 24 inches that same day,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tucciarella noted that the hardest fish to catch was the northern pike, \u201cMy dad said he didn&#8217;t think I would catch a pike, let alone one that was over 38 inches long. I&#8217;ve been trying to catch a pike for the last four years.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI would like to thank everyone at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources for providing this program,\u201d Tucciarella said.\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 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/fisheries\/Pages\/FishMaryland\/index.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">on the program\u2019s website<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Luca Tucciarella is the third youth angler to reach the milestone award Luca Tucciarella, of Forest Hill, has earned a Master Angler Milestone Award under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u2019 FishMaryland program.\u00a0 Fifteen-year-old Tucciarella is the 16th Master Angler and the third youth angler to reach the milestone award since the program began in<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2024\/12\/04\/harford-county-youth-named-16th-fishmaryland-master-angler\/\">&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":[5429,2935,5430,5457],"class_list":["post-43602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries","tag-fishmaryland","tag-harford-county","tag-master-angler","tag-youth-fishing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43602","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=43602"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43615,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43602\/revisions\/43615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}