Girl, age 12, wins top fishing prize of 'Master Angler Milestone': 'She does it all'
She may be only 12 years old, but that hasn't stopped a Maryland girl from becoming the state's "Master Angler."
Lucy Moore of Perryville, Maryland, is impressing fishermen decades older by winning the highly competitive "FishMaryland Master Angler Award."
The seventh grader has been proudly fishing since she was only two years old, Moore told Fox News Digital in an interview.
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Her dad, Nick Perez, was the first one to take her out and her love of fishing has continued to grow, he said to Fox News Digital.
There are certain requirements that an angler must meet in order to be awarded the title of "Master Angler" — requirements that not even her dad has met yet, he said.
There are three levels of the FishMaryland Milestone Awards, with Master Angler the highest achievement.
"Milestone awards recognize those skillful anglers who catch trophy-sized catches of different species caught after Jan. 1, 2019," according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources website.
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"Each milestone is marked with a certificate and a limited edition FishMaryland Milestone sticker."
Anglers in Maryland have the opportunity to win the Angler Award, Expert Angler Award and the top Master Angler Award.
A year ago, Moore unintentionally checked off the Angler Award after she caught three different species, all meeting the minimum length requirement, she said.
"Then I kind of got obsessed with getting citations until I got to the second stage, so I asked [my dad], ‘How many stages are there?’"
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After realizing she'd accidentally reached the Expert Angler Award by catching five different species, Moore decided to keep chasing the top prize — 10 different species.
Moore would go out with her dad almost every weekend, no matter the weather, to try and catch the 10 different species.
A rainstorm or even heavy snow didn't stop them from heading out to the water.
"That's the funny joke I make. People are like, 'Oh, you can fish in the rain. Doesn't that affect the fish?' But they live underwater. What do they know?" Perez joked.
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After months of going fishing and hoping to hit all the additional species and length requirements needed to reach Master Angler, Moore caught her final fish — and immediately knew she'd won the coveted prize.
"Finally, we got the fish and at first I was like so shocked, like, ‘Did I actually do this?’ and then I was just so overcome with joy," Moore said.
The Maryland DNR reported Moore's 10 species:
The seventh grader was officially named Master Angler in May, but her ceremony did not take place until July at Bass Pro Shop.
She caught eight of her 10 species in winter weather, with Perez noting that the fish are "the largest and most abundant [in Maryland] in the winter time."
Perez was by Moore's side the entire time and is proud of his daughter's accomplishment, he said, even if that means she's the better angler.
When asked who is the better fisherman, Perez and Moore both agreed: It's the 12-year-old.
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Moore even joked about her dad not yet receiving the Master Angler Award.
"I'm working on mine, but I don't have mine yet … I only have four," Perez said.
The Maryland dad said he encourages other dads to take their daughters out fishing and give it a try, because they may fall in love with it.
"I've told people before, if you really want to get your kid into it, go without a rod. Don't take your own," Perez stated.
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"So just go with them with a tackle box there … and focus on them. You can get them to kind of fall in love with the sport by not focusing on yourself."
For Moore, it's as simple as that.
"I just always loved it," she said.
Her favorite part of the fishing experience is "either the fight or the fish or [even] places that we go for it."
Moore told the Maryland DNR, "I think this award is such an amazing accomplishment for me – [I] have been fishing for 10 years and did something so incredible … Being able to catch so many cool kinds of fish and to have people excited to see me getting closer to this goal is what kept me trying to get this award – this was really a lot of fun."
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At age 12, Moore believes she's caught well over 10,000 different fish, but the number may be even higher.
"Lucy has been an avid angler for as long as she was able to hold a fishing rod," Perez shared with the Maryland DNR.
"Her love for the sport is almost unmatched, and her preferred method of fishing is actually on the fly," he said.
At a very young age, "she's caught fish a lot of people have only dreamed of, from exotic clown knifefish to wrangling the ‘fish of 10,000 casts,’ the muskellunge – she does it all."
Her love for all things outside and in the water has inspired her to one day be a marine biologist in hopes of making all sorts of new discoveries.
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While that may be in the distant future, Moore already has exciting plans for the next fishing season.
She is setting a new goal for herself — which is to go after a Maryland state record.