Sadie, Lucy, and their dad Dave Spatafore were wade-fishing northern Minnesota’s Stewart River for rainbow trout on May 10 — Mother’s Day. The trio of anglers had traveled from their home in Maple Grove, Minnesota, to the river on Lake Superior’s North Shore to fly fish for spawning lake-run rainbows.
“They’re steelhead that run out of Lake Superior’s north shore to spawn in the river,” Dave told Wired2Fish. “They’re protected by law, so it’s all catch-and-release. But we love fishing for them.”
Just last August, Lucy fished the Stewart River with her dad and sister. That was when she caught-and-released a 10-pound class Minnesota state record rainbow measuring 28.5-inches long. The girls and their dad had returned this past May to see if big spawning rainbow trout were back in the lake-feeding rivers.
A Family of Fishers
Sadie said that watching Lucy catch her record rainbow was so exciting that it inspired her to catch an even bigger fish to break her sister’s record.
“We fished the North Shore rivers several times this spring,” explained Sadie, a sixth grader and dedicated water-sports enthusiast. “The first couple trips, I only caught a few small fish. Our next fishing trip was supposed to be to the Boundary Waters. But when we got there, the lakes still had ice. We decided to spend the weekend fishing the North Shore rivers again.”
Sadie has fished far and wide for trout with her family, and has waded Minnesota’s Lake Superior-feeding rivers since she was a little kid.
“You never know if the conditions will be right or if the fish will even be in the rivers,” she said. “The wading can be difficult, too. Sometimes we hike miles of streams and don’t catch anything. But the scenery is beautiful — and if you do hook a fish, they fight like crazy.”
Record-Setting Sisters
She says that Mother’s Day Sunday had been a long fishing day. The family of anglers had finally made their last river stop before heading back home.
“It was getting toward sunset when I hooked a big one on an egg fly,” Sadie explained. “It fought hard but didn’t jump. Finally, I was able to land it. We measured it and saw that it was 30 inches long [with a 12.5-inch girth], breaking Lucy’s record.
“It was such a beautiful fish. We took a few pictures and carefully released it back into the river.”
Lucy made a video of her sister posing with her huge rainbow trout and then releasing it back into the Stewart River. They submitted photos, video, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources-required information to the state fisheries folks.
Since then, Sadie’s giant 30-inch rainbow has officially been declared the Minnesota record catch-and-release rainbow trout.
“There is nothing that makes me more proud than having my 12-year-old sister be the person to break my state record,” Lucy said about Sadie’s fish. “It was very special that we were all fishing together again when she broke it.”
