{"id":47586,"date":"2026-06-08T10:47:44","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T14:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=47586"},"modified":"2026-06-08T14:59:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T18:59:37","slug":"three-fishermen-earn-fishmaryland-master-angler-award-in-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2026\/06\/08\/three-fishermen-earn-fishmaryland-master-angler-award-in-may\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Fishermen Earn FishMaryland Master Angler Award in May"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anglers from Somerset, Frederick, and Anne Arundel counties recognized<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 460px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55322214243_34dc04d09a.jpg\" alt=\"Collage of three different men holding fish they caught\" width=\"450\" height=\"225\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left to right: Joshua Bernstein, Alex Gaillardo Perez, and George Cropper all achieved the Master Angler Milestone Award in May. DNR collage from submitted photos.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recognized George Cropper of Princess Anne, Joshua Bernstein of Frederick, and Alex Gaillardo Perez of Millersville with Master Angler Milestone Awards under the FishMaryland program in May 2026.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">These men respectively are the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd anglers to achieve the highest milestone in the FishMaryland program since its inception in 2019.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The award recognizes recreational anglers who catch 10 trophy-sized fish of different species in Maryland.<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">FishMaryland is the state\u2019s recreational fishing award program and 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<p><b>George Cropper<\/b><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 189px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55322542655_bde97fd19a.jpg\" alt=\"Man on a shore holding a fish\" width=\"179\" height=\"238\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">George Cropper<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">George Cropper started fishing at age 6 with his father and credits his passion for fishing to the freshwater fishing trips they took together. Today, his favorite places to fish are Tangier Sound and the Wicomico, Manokin, and Annemessex rivers, as they are close to his home in Somerset County.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cropper\u2019s first trophy catch on the way to becoming a Master Angler was a Chesapeake Channa (northern snakehead) he caught in a Wicomico Creek backwater using a buzzbait, his favorite lure for the species.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Offshore fishing is Cropper\u2019s favorite type of fishing, accounting for three of his 10 species awards. One of his most exciting moments was the 4.5-hour battle to land a 600-pound bluefin tuna, which measured 112 inches. He caught the giant tuna in late February on a charter boat in the Norfolk Canyon while drifting a whole Atlantic mackerel.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cropper\u2019s qualifying catches, in order, were:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chesapeake channa (northern snakehead) &#8211; 31.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spotted seatrout &#8211; 25 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Swordfish &#8211; 60 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bluefin tuna &#8211; 112 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">White perch &#8211; 13 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blue crab &#8211; 8 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gar &#8211; 36.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Red drum &#8211; 47 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blueline tilefish &#8211; 29 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Striped bass &#8211; 42 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cropper enjoys constantly learning something new through fishing. He added, \u201cthere are so many different types of fish to fish for in Maryland.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">He encourages other anglers interested in pursuing a Master Angler award to &#8220;keep going and fish as much as you can.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cYou can\u2019t catch them from the living room couch.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Joshua Bernstein <\/b><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 188px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55310521429_cdd8184347.jpg\" alt=\"Man sitting on a boat with a fish\" width=\"178\" height=\"238\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joshua Bernstein<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Joshua <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bernstein<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">considers himself a seasonal angler; he fishes for different species and uses varied methods depending on the season. He enjoys freshwater fishing, ice fishing at Deep Creek Lake in the winter, fishing the Chesapeake Bay, and offshore fishing during the summer months.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bernstein<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> grew up trout fishing with his father and now regularly fishes with friends. One of his favorite adventures is fishing offshore on charter boats out of Ocean City, trolling for a variety of pelagic fish, this is how he scored FishMaryland species awards for white marlin and wahoo. He also enjoys jigging in the extreme offshore depths for blueline and golden tilefish, two of his other award catches.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bernstein\u2019s qualifying catches, in order, were:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">White marlin &#8211; 76 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wahoo \u2013 78 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Red drum &#8211; 50 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Northern snakehead &#8211; 32.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Striped bass \u2013 42 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Crappie &#8211; 16 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yellow perch &#8211; 14.14 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blueline tilefish &#8211; 28 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smallmouth bass &#8211; 20.14 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Golden tilefish &#8211; 39 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bernstein said the most memorable catch on his way to becoming a Master Angler was a 56-pound striped bass, and one of the most impressive places he has fished in is the upper Savage River for brook trout. His advice to others pursuing this award is to \u201ckeep fishing no matter what, the big fish will come.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Alex Gaillardo Perez<\/b><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 193px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55310524984_f1778754e9.jpg\" alt=\"Man standing on a dock holding a fish\" width=\"183\" height=\"244\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alex Gaillardo Perez<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alex Gaillardo Perez\u2019s love of fishing has directed him to his career as a fishing manager at an Annapolis fishing tackle store, and he jokes that sometimes he thinks he might be working for free, since he is always purchasing new fishing tackle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Perez grew up fishing with his dad and remembers catching his first fish at 5 years old. It was a bluegill sunfish at Lake Waterford.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the age of 12, Perez\u2019s father gave him a simple fly rod that sparked his interest in that style of fishing, which he continues to pursue to this day. Fly fishing with a small popper at a southern Dorchester backwater and catching small largemouth bass led to one of his most surprising, award-winning catches when a 30-inch Chesapeake channa (northern snakehead) crashed the small popper, and the fight was on.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Perez\u2019s qualifying catches, in order, were:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Northern snakehead &#8211; 32 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Red drum &#8211; 43.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chain pickerel &#8211; 24 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Striped bass &#8211; 44.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Largemouth bass &#8211; 21.25 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smallmouth bass &#8211; 20.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hickory shad &#8211; 18.25 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">White catfish &#8211; 20.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yellow perch &#8211; 14 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sand tiger shark &#8211; 78 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Perez enjoys practising various types of fishing and learning new skills.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cI\u2019m always pushing myself to do something different, a challenge,\u201d said Perez. \u201cI love trying to figure things out and putting the pieces of the puzzle together as a self-taught angler. I have enjoyed learning how to fish successfully for several fish species that have caught my interest.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anglers from Somerset, Frederick, and Anne Arundel counties recognized The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recognized George Cropper of Princess Anne, Joshua Bernstein of Frederick, and Alex Gaillardo Perez of Millersville with Master Angler Milestone Awards under the FishMaryland program in May 2026. These men respectively are the 31st, 32nd, and 33rd anglers to<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2026\/06\/08\/three-fishermen-earn-fishmaryland-master-angler-award-in-may\/\">&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":[2971,5429,2918,5430,2933,4314],"class_list":["post-47586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries","tag-anne-arundel-county","tag-fishmaryland","tag-frederick-county","tag-master-angler","tag-somerset-county","tag-sportfishing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47586","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=47586"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47599,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47586\/revisions\/47599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}