New species have been added to the program including black crappie, white crappie, saugeye, fallfish, bluegill, redear sunfish, and other sunfish in addition to a Master Angler Level VI! These species are open for trophy submission starting January 1, 2020. All trophy submissions for these species have to be caught on or after January 1, 2020. The Angler Recognition Program will not accept applications for these new species caught before January 1, 2020. Please see the trophy fish size chart for details on minimum lengths and weights for these new species.
Expert and Master Angler Details for Black and White Crappie
- Expert angler status will be an aggregate of all black and white crappie that an angler has caught. Any trophy combination of black and white crappie that sums to 10 will allow an angler to achieve expert angler in crappie.
- If crappie currently counts towards an anglers’ master angler status, he or she will need to catch both black crappie and white crappie to achieve an extra point towards future master angler levels. This will involve an angler to re-catch one or both of the crappie species.
Expert and Master Angler Details for Bluegill, Redear Sunfish, and Other Sunfish
- Expert angler status will be an aggregate of all bluegill, redear sunfish, and other sunfish that an angler has caught. Any trophy combination of bluegill, redear sunfish, and other sunfish that sums to 10 will allow an angler to achieve expert angler in sunfish.
- If sunfish currently counts towards an anglers’ master angler status, he or she will need to catch both bluegill and redear sunfish to achieve an extra point towards future master angler levels. To get two extra points towards future master angler levels he or she will need to catch bluegill, redear sunfish, and other sunfish. This will involve an angler to re-catch one or all of the sunfish species.
- Species that anglers can catch that would count towards Other sunfish include pumpkinseed, green sunfish, flier, and warmouth.