A 12-year-old Minnesota angler has officially one-upped her older sister by catching a bigger rainbow trout and taking her place in the record book.
Minnesota wildlife officials announced Thursday that Sadie Spatafore had set a new steelhead record, and they congratulated the young angler for replacing the catch-and-release record that her older sister Lucy had set last summer, in August. Sadie’s fish measured 30 inches long — just 1.5 inches longer than Lucy’s standing record rainbow. Both catch-and-release records fall short of the certified weight record, a 33-inch, 16-pound rainbow trout caught in 1980.
“There is nothing that makes me more proud than having my 12-year-old sister be the person to break my state record,” Lucy told officials with Minnesota Fish & Wildlife. “It was very special that we were all fishing together again when she broke it.”
The sisters both caught their state-record trout from the Stewart River in Lake County, according to the Minnesota DNR. And while the agency refers to these fish as rainbow trout in social media posts and in the state record book, many local anglers would call these fish lake-run steelhead.
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One of several streams flowing into the North Shore of Lake Superior, the Stewart supports a self-sustaining wild population of migratory rainbow trout, also known as Great Lakes steelhead. These fish are the descendants of the anadromous (sea-run) West Coast steelhead that were first transplanted into the Great Lakes during the late 19th century.
“Lake Superior steelhead on the other hand are potadromous,” reads an explainer article by Minnesota Steelheader. “They are born in upstream freshwater, then migrate downstream to Lake Superior as juveniles to grow into adults before migrating back upstream to spawn.”
Because of this important distinction — sea-run vs. lake-run — many anglers (especially on the West Coast) wouldn’t consider Stewart River rainbows to be “steelhead” in the true sense of the word. These big, hard-charging trout do, however, have a lot in common with their ocean-going relatives, and they’ve inspired a dedicated following of hardcore fishermen in the Great Lakes region.
According to Minnesota Steelheader, the Stewart’s highly-awaited steelhead run occurs every spring, with fish starting to enter the river system in April most years. This timing differs from other Great Lakes tributaries, where fish typically run upriver during the late fall months and remain through the winter.
Looking back at the Minnesota DNR’s fishing reports, local anglers were catching steelhead in the Stewart by April 2, and catch rates increased by the end of the month. By May 14, steelhead were actively spawning and some fish were already headed back downstream toward Lake Superior.
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