Angler Talan Scott Vrablic (right), along with his father Raymond Brown, caught and released an 18.75-inch hickory shad on the way to Talan’s FishMaryland Master Angler award. Photo by Raymond Brown.
Talan Scott Vrabic of Rosedale has earned a Master Angler Milestone Award under the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ FishMaryland program. The award recognizes recreational anglers who catch ten trophy-sized fish of different species in Maryland.
Vrabic is the fifth youth angler (under age 16) and one of two eleven-year-olds to secure the award. Vrabic and his father, Raymond Brown, are an inseparable fishing team, and Vrabic has been accompanying his dad on fishing trips since he was 5 months old. Today, they fish together throughout Maryland.
His father has physical disabilities and is not able to walk, which can make fishing trips challenging for the pair. Vrabic said that surmounting those difficulties made fishing together even more special.
Vrabic’s qualifying catches, in order, were:
- Chesapeake Channa (northern snakehead) – 30 inches
- Yellow perch – 14 inches
- Chain pickerel – 26.5 inches
- Largemouth bass – 21 inches
- Crappie – 15 inches
- Blue catfish – 40 inches
- Striped bass – 46.5 inches
- Hickory shad – 18.75 inches
- Bullhead catfish – 15.5 inches
- Sand tiger shark – 116.4 inches
Vrabic likes to fish for blue catfish and Chesapeake Channa (northern snakehead), but his favorite fish to catch is hickory shad. He says it was a challenge for him and his dad to be in the right place at the right time to enjoy this catch-and-release fishery. They have traveled to the lower Susquehanna River and the Potomac River to accomplish their quest.
His advice to anglers who wish to take up fishing and perhaps strive for Master Angler status is that “you don’t need expensive fishing gear to go fishing, you just must be out fishing with the gear that you have.”
FishMaryland is Maryland’s 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 on the program’s website.
Fishing licenses can be purchased online or in person at license agent locations. License, fishing tackle, ammunition, boats, and marine fuel purchases fund DNR’s fish and wildlife conservation work.
