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As many anglers know, success in fishing is often about being patient and persistent, traits most teens and preteens these days don’t seem to have. But young sisters Lucy and Sadie Spatafore embrace those qualities. They were taught to them by their father, Dave Spatafore, who has been taking the girls fishing ever since they could hold a fishing rod.

“There are many variables to fishing, and so it's quite challenging, and oftentimes you'll catch no fish on a trip,” Dave Spatafore told MPR News. “So my biggest tip to them and everybody else is that (fly fishing is) a form of fishing where you just have to be very persistent and put the time in.”

It’s a lesson that’s paid off for both girls in a big way.

Last August, Lucy, then 14, and Sadie, then 11, were fly fishing with their dad in various trout streams along the north shore of Lake Superior.

The family from the Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove was having bad luck. They had yet to catch a single fish over an entire weekend of trying.

“That trip, actually, we didn't catch any other fish … and it was on a Sunday, like, I don't know, noon-ish. We were gonna go home, (because) we just, we hadn't had much luck at all,” said Lucy.

But they kept at it and decided to try one more river, leaning into their patience and persistence. And that’s when Lucy finally landed not just any old fish, but a record rainbow trout, nearly 29 inches long.

“It was remarkable! It was so big, and we weren't sure, ‘Oh, is this record,’ you know? And so we submitted it, and sure enough, it was! It was crazy,” Lucy said. “It was super cool, because at the time that I caught the record, I was the youngest female to ever break a Minnesota state record.”

Sadie Spatafore was thrilled for her older sister but also became determined to outdo her and catch an even bigger trout.

“We kind of had this, like, mini little rivalry of who's gonna catch the biggest one,” said Sadie. “And if I would, like, break hers, how big it would be.”

And it didn’t take long for her to do just that.

In May, the father-daughter trio set out for a trip up north over the fishing opener weekend toward the Boundary Waters, but they were met with frozen lakes not suitable for fishing.

“They were still all or like partially frozen over with ice, so then we ended up fishing a bunch of rivers that weekend,” said Sadie.

They tried several different rivers in which many rainbow trout were swimming upstream from Lake Superior to spawn.

Just like last August, they didn’t have much luck at first and only caught a few tiny fish.

“We were almost even going to skip it, because we were like, ‘Oh, this is getting kind of late, and we need to get home,’” said Sadie.

But their persistence won out. They gave it one last try in the same river Lucy had caught her record fish nine months earlier. They strapped on their waders, walked into the stream and started casting. 

That’s when Sadie hooked her huge trout.

“We could tell that it was a really big one,” Sadie told MPR News. “They fight really hard, so you can see them just jump out of the water and everything, and we could tell that it was a really big one.”

It measured 30 inches, a little over an inch longer than Lucy’s, setting a new Minnesota record for catch and release trout. 

“Sadie caught that one, so it was really exciting to finish out the trip like that. And, you know, she fought the fish really well,” said proud father Dave Spatafore.

Despite losing the record so soon after she had earned it, Lucy says she couldn't be happier for her younger sister.

“I'm really proud (of her),” said Lucy. “And it was so special that we were all together, — my dad, my sister and I — because we were together fishing when I caught my record. And then we got to be together when Sadie caught her record.”

While catching record-size fish is exciting, the Spatafore sisters agree that even when they catch nothing, their fishing trips are special.

“It's a really fun sport, and it's a great way to get outdoors and also spend time together as a family, going on these trips together,” said Sadie.

That said, both girls say they would be more than happy to break another record soon, as the Spatafore family heads back to the lakes and streams up north this summer.

“It might be cool if Dad could break the record, because he's been with us,” said Lucy. “But I don't know. I'd be super happy to catch an even bigger one, because that's a huge fish. We could break a different record too, you know.”

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Noah Bloch

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A teenage girl from Maple Grove caught a 28.5” rainbow trout in a North Shore stream last summer, setting a new catch and release state record. Not to be outdone, her younger sister caught an even bigger trout this year, breaking that record.

A 12-year-old Minnesota girl caught a 30’’ trout, breaking her older sister's state record

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