The days of having your friends throw their heads back and laugh at your ‘tall tales’ about that massive brookie you caught are over. Or at least they’re over for those who fish at Coopers’ Minipi Lodges.

No longer can you say the brookie you caught at Lover Boy was “definitely over 8 pounds..” and have people doubt your sanity. No, because now we’ve got our fish records online. The proof is in the pudding.

Yes, we waited a while to get these put back up again. There was some missing information – some guides were clearly so excited about the catch that their scribbles were unreadable, and some people preferred to remain anonymous. So after care was taken and tinkering behind the scenes on the web was complete, here they are, our fish records from 1980 right up until the end of last season in 2013.

Over 30 years of fish data records which can be sorted by the type of fish, the time of day, the weight, angler, fly and so on. This was a massive undertaking made possible by years of record-keeping by our guides and staff.

“It helps to remember previous trips, valuable information on flies, and certainly gives credibility for others about the fishery,” says Jeffery Andrews, who has been fishing the Minipi watershed since 1982 and has a number of his own record-breaking brook trout registered in the Minipi logbooks.

“I think it also helps to show some fluctuations in the fishery as they go through cycles like other wildlife,” says Andrews.

So, what do you think? Up for being on the list in 2014?