Fly Lines for Minipi

Much of the fishing at Minipi calls for using large, bushy dries, bombers, deer hair bugs, and weighted muddler minnows. Wind can also add to your casting problems. I avoid long, delicately or gradually tapered lines. They often have names that belie their design.

Standard weight forwards work fine, but one line I rely on heavily is a bug taper, or bass taper line, usually associated with bass fishing. Such a line has a shorter front taper, with heavier, shorter head. This keeps more weight well forward to help defeat wind and turn over large flies effectively. Check the profile of any line you consider using. This will be shown on the box or instruction sheet, or you can check it out online at the manufacturer’s website.

Another useful line is one with a 5’or 10’ sinking tip. This can be valuable when fish are not interested in surface offerings and you want to get a muddler minnow down in the water column.

For more tips and suggestions on what to put in your tackle box for a trip to Minipi, click here.

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Minipi Virgins No More

For as long as I can remember my husband Dave has always wanted to go to Minipi. With wide eyes and excitement, he described how he’s always wanted to catch a trophy brook trout! In fact, the brookie was our first trout species we caught on a fly rod!

We were lucky to book the last week of the season this year. It was time for brookie nookie (spawning) so fishing was a bit tougher. Challenge accepted!

With my first cast on Little Minipi, I caught and landed the biggest brookie of my life! I was in awe over all 7 1/2 pounds of its masculine spawning colors! Feelings of excitement, amazement, disbelief and pure exhilaration consumed me! He was a beautiful specimen, I was honored to catch & release him.

The rest of the week was whipped cream with cherries on top (catching even more brookies). You couldn’t slap the big smile off my face! Anne Marie Lodge is beautiful, comfortable and inviting. Even better were all the amazing guides and lodge staff that made our experience memorable. The guides are amazing! They’re all fishing veterans and are full of knowledge and great tips to land that fish! They’re patient, offer guidance when needed, and all have a great sense of humor – I laughed all week!

Well, after a week at Minipi, we caught brookie fever/Minipi mania! We’re already planning our return for dry fly action and are soooo excited to return!

For now, we leave the trout to procreate to keep our fishing dreams alive.

“Minipi: where the brook trout are measured in pounds, not inches”

Here’s a few photos from our trip! Click to view full size.

Hex vs. Drake

When Bear Andrews first asked me to go with him to Labrador, he enticed me with descriptions of the big “Hex” fly hatches and spectacular rises by monster Brookies. It worked. I couldn’t wait to see that. Brook Trout have always been my favorite trout and a chance to catch a true leviathan was too much… I HAD to go.

Well, the hatches materialized and so did the Brookies. Bear wasn’t pulling my leg. Labrador turned out to be everything he said it was. At one point, I was crouched down in the boat with my camera lens focused on a big Hex just a couple of feet away. Fish were rising all around us, but I wanted a photo to commemorate the occasion. I was waiting for a big Brookie to come along and snatch up that fly right in front of my camera. I don’t remember how long I waited but it was several minutes.

Meanwhile, those trout were still rising and I was getting antsy. Finally I couldn’t take it any more. As soon as I stood up a huge Brook Trout rose right in front of me and that Hex I was watching disappeared. 

The “Hex” fly of Labrador is a fly they call the Green Drake. It’s actually a close relative of Hexagenia limbata, or what fishermen in Michigan call the “Michigan Mayfly”. It’s considered the to be the filet mignon of trout flies by most trout. Fishing the Hex hatch in Michigan is one of the major highlights of our fishing season. This is when the big boys come out of the woodwork to play… especially at dark.

The photo accompanying this story is a Green Drake or Hex fly. I like the photo because my wedding ring had turned upside down and the image of a mayfly matching the one on my hand can be seen. No… I didn’t plan it that way. Just a happy accident. One of my best friends made our wedding rings for my wife and I, and since I’m a fanatic fly fisherman, and so is my friend, I naturally asked for a Hex fly on it. My wife chose a Dragonfly for hers. At the end of our wedding ceremony my wife and I walked beneath a row of crossed fly rods held by my fly fishing buddies. It’s my favorite photo from our wedding. Our minister understood, he’s a fisherman too.

Oh by the way… the crossed fly rods was my wife’s idea! She’s a keeper.