{"id":48565,"date":"2026-09-29T08:00:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=48565"},"modified":"2026-09-28T16:54:02","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T20:54:02","slug":"maryland-department-of-natural-resources-awards-35th-fishmaryland-master-angler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2026\/09\/29\/maryland-department-of-natural-resources-awards-35th-fishmaryland-master-angler\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Department of Natural Resources Awards 35th FishMaryland Master Angler"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_48566\" style=\"width: 499px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/Koontz-snakehead-scaled.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-48566\" class=\" wp-image-48566\" src=\"http:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/Koontz-snakehead-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"Man holding a large fish while standing next to a kayak in a marshy area\" width=\"489\" height=\"652\" srcset=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/Koontz-snakehead-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/Koontz-snakehead-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/Koontz-snakehead-1152x1536.jpeg 1152w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/Koontz-snakehead-1536x2048.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/09\/Koontz-snakehead-scaled.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 489px) 100vw, 489px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-48566\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jason Koontz holds a 31-inch Chesapeake Channa (northern snakehead), one of 10 species he caught to earn a Master Angler Milestone Award under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u2019 FishMaryland program. Photo courtesy of Jason Koontz.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jason Koontz of Frederick has earned a Master Angler Milestone Award under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u2019 FishMaryland program. The award recognizes recreational anglers who catch 10 trophy-sized fish of different species in Maryland.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Koontz is the 35th angler to secure the award. His qualifying catches, in order, are:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chesapeake Channa (northern snakehead) &#8211; 31 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blue shark &#8211; 60 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Spanish mackerel &#8211; 22.75 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">White perch &#8211; 13.75 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Blue crab &#8211; 8.125 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Striped bass &#8211; 38.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sea bass &#8211; 20.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hickory shad &#8211; 18.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Summer flounder &#8211; 24.25 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Smallmouth bass &#8211; 20.5 inches<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Koontz got his start fishing with his family, who docked a boat in Annapolis and Ocean City and spent a lot of time fishing together. Since participating in the FishMaryland milestone award program, Koontz said he has tried new types of fishing and visited<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/maryland.maps.arcgis.com\/apps\/webappviewer\/index.html?id=b5fae27a1a91411eba3b65538770ece6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">new locations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of his most memorable and challenging catches was the trophy smallmouth bass he caught in the Monocacy River. The river is close to where Koontz lives, but he had never fished it or targeted smallmouth bass. Wading in the river was one of his favorite aspects of the experience. Catching a trophy-sized fish of a new species in an unfamiliar location was a unique achievement, but also Koontz remarked that he had never realized how beautiful the river was. Now, he intends to fish there more often.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the most difficult species awards for Koontz to obtain was the white perch. He caught dozens and dozens of smaller white perch before finally catching a large white perch that qualified for an award.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Koontz encourages anglers to participate in the Master Angler Program because he found it to be a great incentive to try different types of fishing in Maryland. He is looking forward to taking his young daughter fishing at some of the community ponds and the Youth Trout Fishing Area in Frederick.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">FishMaryland is Maryland\u2019s recreational fishing award program. It 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. Licenses, fishing tackle, ammunition, boats, and marine fuel purchases fund DNR\u2019s fish and wildlife conservation work.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jason Koontz of Frederick has earned a Master Angler Milestone Award under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources\u2019 FishMaryland program. The award recognizes recreational anglers who catch 10 trophy-sized fish of different species in Maryland.\u00a0<\/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,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,11],"tags":[5429,2918,5430,4314],"class_list":["post-48565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-fisheries","tag-fishmaryland","tag-frederick-county","tag-master-angler","tag-sportfishing"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48565","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=48565"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48569,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48565\/revisions\/48569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}