Tag Archives: Brook Trout Fishing

Minipi Guides Report – July 2014

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July month, it seems, was a continuation of June month with bad weather including rain and wind keeping water levels consistently high. A couple of days saw wind speeds of 60km (37 miles) per hour making fishing a real challenge.

A huge brown drake hatch at Big Hairy on July 14 was just that, hairy! making it almost impossible for fishermen to entice trout to artificial patterns because of an abundance of available natural ones. Frustrating experiences like this often meant landings were limited to two or three fish at best. Duncan Lewis, a long-time angler at Minipi confirmed that he’s seen a hatch similar to this one several years ago at Little Minipi.

Green drakes, which for the most part is an evening hatch, popped up at Lover Boy Cove, Lily Pads, Man-a-war and West Bay. Those morsels no doubt brought brookies to the surface! According to Lee Wulff in an article written in 1969, he clearly states that those fish are conditioned to eating mayflies, giving them a football appearance. The landings during this time picked up tremendously.

This hatch acted as a somewhat silver lining as properly presented dries served as a skullduggery in fooling those squaretails to their artificial drakes, stimulators, and Wulff pattern; flies of choice which seemed to work fine for those mayflies.

Fly-outs to Little Minipi and Minipi meant a substantial increase in July landings with the river fishing at little Minipi producing 3-5 pounders with 6-7 pounders a common occurrence. Access to the Penalty Box at Minipi, after a slight drop in water levels, turned out to be a great asset.

Like last year, fishing at Halfway Outlet has been fairly good, but access to the Foam Pool has been hampered by a slow runoff – making for treacherous walking over those rocks.

With August month upon us the brookies coloration is changing to its typical crimson look, suggesting that spawning is not far away. This means only one thing: you should include bombers, muddlers, and mice in your arsenal.

Duncan Lewis recalls 25 years of fishing at Coopers’ Minipi Lodges

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Minipi has a way of catching hold of some people, the memories people make – not just from the big brookies – are enough to keep the adventurous angler coming back year after year. Case in point, Duncan Lewis. Duncan has been fishing with us for 25 years now, our web manager Mandy sat down for a Q&A session with Duncan to find out what makes Minipi so special to him.

How many years have you been coming to Coopers’ Minipi Lodges?
I’m going to say it’s been close to 25 although I did miss a couple of years because I had an injury.

How did you first hear about the lodges?
I read about it in fishing magazines. I didn’t know of anyone who had come up here but my grandfather used to collect old Field and Stream’s and Outdoor Life down in his cellar and when I’d go visit I’d always be thumbing through the magazines and there were ads prominently in all of the magazines. At some point in my teen years I must have written up here and inquired about rates or something and got on the mailing list! At that point Lorraine used to print out a paper newsletter and I have many many years of newsletters. That increased my interest, reading all of the personalities.

What do you remember about your first trip here?
I went first to Minipi and it would have been around the first of August, which I know now is a little late in the season for what I was hoping to find. Conway was in charge, and another gal as a guide, Paulette, and an a fella from Newfoundland who was an Atlantic salmon guide, Kennedy. They were all bigger than life characters. Everything was pretty exciting. I was hoping to see more risers to flies but it had been past most of the hatches but I ended up catching a great big one on a giant bass bug! Frog imitation! I caught enough fish. Everyone talked about coming a little earlier.

Is there a special spot on the Minipi Watershed that you consider your favorite? Why?
I wouldn’t say at the present time any particular favorite. I do seem to like the more remote places. That changes over time depending on what lodges are being filled, but I always liked Minonipi in the early going, that was out on the frontier if you will. But Anne Marie was always the central point, but as you grew up and got skilled enough and got far enough up the list you got to go and stay at Anne Marie. Now that I go to Anne Marie I always look forward to getting a day up to Minonipi, or lets fly over to Little Minipi! So I always have a special feeling about more remote ones. I’ve had the good fortune to discover a couple of good spots, you have to understand you go through 10 or a dozen dead ends, as long as there’s a chance of one out there somewhere it’s always worth the effort to try.

Catch a beautiful sunset!

 
Having fished for many years at the Lodges, what is it that keeps you coming back?
In the early days I guess I wanted to catch big brook trout, and at some point I guess I wanted to catch LOTS of big brook trout, I’ve had some luck in both of those areas. I’m not obsessed anymore with doing either one of those. What keeps me coming back now is it’s a lovely geographical place and I love all the characters I meet up here, both staff and the guests – it just feels good. It doesn’t hurt that it’s 115F at home either! At home there’s traffic and noise and police sirens and phones ringing, up here it’s a cry of a loon! It’s almost too quiet sometimes. My personality is more inclined to the quiet.

What about fly and tackle – is there a special fly that you find works best for either trout, pike or char?
If I could only pick one I like the visual aspect of the dry fly, I’d pick a big stimulator which is a giant caddis imitation, but it works for all sorts of other insects as well. I tie my own flies and it’s kind of fun to use them and try different things, so I’ll always have a few fun things in my kit that I can try. Over the years some of them work and some don’t, but one that seems to have produced the most pleasant surprises is a great huge frog pattern so that would be my next favorite. It makes no sense because there aren’t particularly any frogs up here.

Do you remember the biggest trout you’ve caught at Minipi? How big was it?
I have caught two that were 8.5 pounds. I’ve caught a char or two that were that size or larger. It’s kind of ironic, all the years that I’ve come up there have been so many experienced guides and other anglers that I’ve learned from but both of the two fish I mentioned were caught with one of the lesser experienced guides.

Can you recall a favorite memory of yours from your time fishing at Coopers’ Minipi Lodges?
I don’t know if I could pinpoint one particular incident, it’s just kind of the camaraderie of the whole thing. I think my fondest memories are probably from up at Minonipi when I used to be partnered up with Dan Edgerton. Dorman and Marj were the cook and manager and for many years it was like a nice little family group there, they were very fun times. Marj loved to play poker and her brother Randy would play once and a while. That whole experience I look back on very fondly.

What are your hopes for this trip?
I haven’t any goals of catching many or sizeable fish, just to enjoy the whole experience. Maybe find a new pond or two! Maybe they’ll name one after me! There’s a Duncan’s Cove up there somewhere. Let’s put that on a map!

Anything you’d like to add?
I hope there’s another 25 years!

Getting to Minipi

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The only way to get to Minipi Lodges is by float plane.  It’s usually a de Havilland Beaver or an Otter, the two iconic bush planes of North America.  You could probably walk, but it would take you all summer and then you would have to fly out anyway.

Someone actually did walk across Labrador. I bought an excellent book on CD in Goose Bay entitled “Lure of the Labrador Wild” by Dillon Wallace. It chronicles the tale of a small group of men who tried to walk across Labrador around 1903. You will just have to read it to find out what happened… but it wasn’t pretty.

So like I said, you are going to want to take a float plane. If you have never been in one, you owe it to yourself to go to Minipi and find out for yourself what it’s like. On the way you can look out the window and you will see for yourself why you wouldn’t want to walk.  Labrador floats.  There is almost as much water as land… maybe more.  And the part that looks dry probably isn’t.

Then you have the black flies and mosquitos… oh well, you get the picture.

 The land below you as you approach one of Jack and Lorraine’s lodges is an incredible sight. There is always a chance you could spot a moose… we have.  But the first thing that may occur to you is that almost all that water below you has never been fished! Oh my gosh!  Wouldn’t that be something.

I know you couldn’t land a float plane on most of those potholes and small lakes.  I suppose you MIGHT be able to land, but you probably wouldn’t take off again. Only the largest lake systems are fished at all.  But trust me, there is more than enough water and more than enough opportunities to catch big Brookies from the bodies of water you CAN access.

The flight from Goose Bay to the lodges is a fairly short one and it’s only done when the weather is good… which it is most of the time.  Pilots are forbidden to fly when visibility is bad. This is for YOUR safety as well as theirs, so don’t argue with the pilot.  I think the Beaver is my favorite aircraft.  They are rugged, fun and comfortable… at least to me.  I don’t like the idea of hiking across Labrador anyway.