BALTIMORE, MD—A Caroline County man has become the 14th person to earn a Master Angler Milestone Award since the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) FishMaryland program began in 2019.

Jeremy Elmore, 36, of Preston, caught ten trophy-sized fish of different species in Maryland waters to qualify for the award.

Elmore said he started fishing at a young age with his father, and that fishing “runs through my mind constantly and is literally my personality.”

His first qualifying catch was a Spanish mackerel that he caught while casting to breaking striped bass near the mouth of the Choptank River.

“It was the largest I had seen in person, so I pulled my phone out and started researching trophy-size fish in Maryland,” Elmore said.

He saw that the Spanish mackerel met the minimum size for a FishMaryland certificate, submitted his catch, and then set his sights on achieving the Master Angler Award.

“It became almost an obsession and I would not stop until I got it,” Elmore said.

His largest fish was a 48-inch striped bass, and his final qualifying fish was a largemouth bass that he caught in a pond from his wife’s grandfather’s tiny aluminum boat.

That catch held deep meaning for Elmore’s wife, as her grandfather had passionately fished from that boat before his passing.

Elmore found the fish he never caught to be the most challenging. He’s caught hundreds of crappie, but a 15-inch trophy-sized fish has eluded him.

Even though he’s achieved the Master Angler milestone, Elmore said he doesn’t plan on stopping fishing for trophy-sized fish.

Elmore’s qualifying catches, in order, were:

• Spanish mackerel – 27 inches
• Chesapeake channa (northern snakehead) – 30 inches
• Sheepshead – 24 inches
• Striped bass – 48 inches
• Yellow perch -14 inches
• Carp – 31 inches
• Chain pickerel – 24.5 inches
• Cobia – 46 inches
• Red drum- 41.5 inches
• Largemouth bass – 21 inches

“I don’t plan on stopping at ten. There are many more species I plan to catch. I want to rack up as many as I can and see how far I can get,” he said. “It has become a game to me and I’m thankful that the FishMaryland program was created.”

This article was written with the assistance of AI and reviewed by a human editor.</em

Photo: Master Angler Jeremy Elmore. Photo courtesy of Jeremy Elmore, via Maryland DNR.