{"id":44709,"date":"2025-05-27T11:28:37","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T15:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=44709"},"modified":"2025-06-23T10:24:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T14:24:00","slug":"baltimore-county-angler-named-19th-fishmaryland-master-angler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2025\/05\/27\/baltimore-county-angler-named-19th-fishmaryland-master-angler\/","title":{"rendered":"Baltimore County Angler Named 19th FishMaryland Master Angler"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 385px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53595346258_2481ba70bd.jpg\" alt=\"Man holding a large fish on the grass\" width=\"375\" height=\"500\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Angler Jeffrey Spicer caught this 32.25-inch Chesapeake Channa near Aberdeen on Mar 16, 2024, on his way to achieving a Master Angler Milestone Award under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u2019 FishMaryland program. Photo courtesy of Jeffrey Spicer.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jeffrey Spicer of Parkville has earned a Master Angler Milestone Award under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u2019 FishMaryland program. The award recognizes recreational anglers who catch ten trophy-sized fish of different species in Maryland.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spicer is the 19th angler to achieve the highest milestone in the FishMaryland program. He learned about the Master Angler achievement through two of his fishing buddies who are also master anglers, Tim Campbell and David McCollum. Spicer enjoys fishing\u00a0 with his friends close to home in tidal and nontidal waters, including the lower Susquehanna River, the Bush and Gunpowder rivers, and Loch Raven Reservoir. Spicer fished only with artificial lures to catch all his master angler fish.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;You can consider me a self-taught angler; as a kid, I loved spending my time fooling around in the waters of the Gunpowder, and this is where I first learned to fish,\u201d said Spicer. \u201cI&#8217;m fortunate to be able to fish with older and knowledgeable anglers who are my close friends, and I never tire of the challenge of deciding what lures to use and when is the best time to fish.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spicer\u2019s qualifying catches, in order, were:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hickory shad <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a018.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Crappie <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 16.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Striped bass <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">40 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chesapeake Channa (northern snakehead) <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">32.25 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Largemouth bass <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">21 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smallmouth bass <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">20.25 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Channel catfish <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">30 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Redbreast sunfish <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">8.25 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chain pickerel <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">24.25 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">White catfish <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2013 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">20.25 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spicer described the largemouth bass as one of the hardest to achieve, since he caught and released several that were just shy of the 21-inch requirement for that species to qualify for an award. His most surprising catch was the award-winning channel catfish he caught by accident while fishing for walleye at the Conowingo Dam pool. One fish he was impressed with was the 24.25-inch chain pickerel he caught in Loch Raven Reservoir.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spicer has a favorite fishing hole on the Gunpowder where he caught his award-sized Chesapeake Channa (northern snakehead). Jeffrey has caught more than 15 different species of fish at this location and always finds it entertaining to fish there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cMaryland is a wonderful place to fish and enjoy the outdoors, and it has been very good to me,&#8221; said Spider.\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. Information on the Master Angler Milestone Award, and the FishMaryland program, including the more than 60 award-eligible species, 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<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fishing licenses can be <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/compass.dnr.maryland.gov\/dnrcompassportal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">purchased online<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or in person at license agent locations. License, fishing tackle, ammunition, boats, and marine fuel purchases fund DNR\u2019s fish and wildlife conservation work.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jeffrey Spicer of Parkville has earned a Master Angler Milestone Award under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u2019 FishMaryland program. The award recognizes recreational anglers who catch ten trophy-sized fish of different species in Maryland.\u00a0 Spicer is the 19th angler to achieve the highest milestone in the FishMaryland program. He learned about the Master Angler<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2025\/05\/27\/baltimore-county-angler-named-19th-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":[5429,5430,4314],"class_list":["post-44709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries","tag-fishmaryland","tag-master-angler","tag-sportfishing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44709","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=44709"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44920,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44709\/revisions\/44920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}