Minipi And its Giant Brook Trout - My Return Brook Trout Heaven

Minipi And its Giant Brook Trout - My Return Brook Trout Heaven

Cooper's Minipi Camps - Ann Marie Lake, Labrador

By

Mike Sadar

August 27 - September 2, 2004

Introduction:

This report is essentially my daily fishing log from a trip to the Minipi River system in Labrador. While most anglers wish to travel to this destination to dry-fly fish for the giant brook trout of this system, I prefer to choose the end of the season. This is for several reasons. First, the fish are the heaviest of the season, after a summer of feeding on a rich diet of insect life. Second, is a chance to also catch land-locked char, which are most accessible in the early fall. Third, the fish are at their peak in color as the fall spawn approaches. This is the one time of the year that the brilliance of brook trout will just amaze the angler on what nature offers with these special trout. So feel free to read on and enjoy some of the best photographs of Minipi Brook trout that I have ever taken.

A short conclusion is at the end of this report. This summarizes all the amenities of the lodges, the guides and the overall experience.

August 27, 2004 - Friday

We arrived to find the river system extremely high. Hurricane Charlie, which was now a tropical depression managed to find its way to Labrador and finished off its fury by dumping its remaining moisture water on the Minipi watershed. The normally low waters suddenly were up 3-4 feet and this made many of the river's fishing holes too high to fish. One of my favorite spots, the inlet to Woody's pond was suddenly a raging torrent. We could not even attempt to fish this from the bank, which was necessary since the fish are typically so close to shore. So we tried many other reliable spots. These included Loverboy run, charr cove (no char yet) and the outlet. The only luck was two tiny pike that were caught up by charr cove. This was the first time I ever had been skunked at the Ann Marie lodge, but slow starts are sometimes not a bad thing. It puts me in the right frame of reference and effort for the rest of the week. Fish hard, very hard and never give up. I always must remember that this is the best brook trout spot on earth! Tomorrow might be tough, but it will not prevent me from trying.

August 28, 2004 - Saturday…The first day of hard fishing…

This was a 22"X15" 6-pound brook trout.

I awaken to rain at about 0630 and boy did it rain hard. It looked like it was going to be a day in the cabin, but after about 0930, it suddenly stopped. The guides did not hesitate to get us out on the water. Today, Ray was my guide and the plan was to go to a spot called patches portage. I had never been there and so it would be interesting to try a new spot. However, we would first stop at Loverboy Run on our way en route. When all things get tough, Loverboy run is a reliable spot.

At Ray's recommendation, I fished a red mouse and it was only about 20 minutes before a nice female slammed the whiskery rodent fly as it was worked from the shore back to the boat. The fish was a female of about 4.25 pounds. This was my first mouse-caught brookie from Minipi. It was also the first fish I ever caught on my 4- weight rod. I am officially off the skunk!

We continued to fish the west shore of Loverboy run and soon spotted a few fish rising at the next point north of where the first brook trout was caught. We stopped and fished that water hard. After about 3-hours of continuous casting and literally trying everything, I hooked and landed a really nice 6-pound male. He was 15" by 22" long. He had a split lower jaw, obviously from either a fight with another fish or an angler. He was caught on a black wooly bugger. This fish was an old warrior, but like all the big brook trout of Minipi, he was with his brilliant spawning colors. This is what I came for! After several photos, this big bruiser brook trout was released.

This was my second big male of the day and he weighed 6.5 pounds. The 24"X15.5" male exhibited the most beautiful colors imaginable for a brook trout.

Whenever I hook a big fish, it rejuvenates my fishing prowess and I just fish harder. I continued to fish the same spot and was rewarded for my persistence. After approximately 2-hours, while fishing the same small area of water, I hooked a bigger brook trout. After a nervous and tedious battle, in which I used all the tender loving care not to loose this big giant, I finally brought the giant to the net. He was a huge 24"X15.5" male brook trout that weighed 6.5 pounds. He was absolutely beautiful. I managed to quickly take a bunch of good photos and made some very accurate measurements of this giant. We then released him to watch him slower descent back into the tannic waters of Loverboy Run.

We continued to fish hard and long but we had no luck. By now is was late in the afternoon and so our original plan to fish Petches portage was not going to happen today. With what I had managed to catch today, how can I complain? Today made my entire trip! Instead we decided to try Charr Cove. We made the 30-minute run to the end of Burnt Lake, but did not find any char.

Later in the evening, Dave and his guide Pat, along with Ray and myself ventured back to Loverboy. I fished off trophy point to give Dave an opportunity to fish the point that had done well for me earlier today. I soon hooked into a nice brook trout on a peacock wooly bugger (with gold beadhead). However, this fish was not to be landed and he got off when I tried to hurry him to shore. Just as it got pitch black dark, Dave hooked a fish (black bugger), which was his first strike of the trip. It turned out to be a 7-pound male, 24X15" what a beautiful fish to end the day.

Tomorrow brings another day. Hopefully, if the waters will drop and we will find more fish. It will likely be tough however!

Sunday August 29, 2004 - Some Prized Fish are in Store…

The release of a nice 6-pound female back into the waters at Loverboy Run.

Today, my guide is Pat. Pat is a hard worker and has been at Minopini Lodge for 12-years. He had transferred over to the Ann Marie Lodge to help out guiding for the week. Hopefully, we will have a good day and with our plan to explore some new waters that normally would be inaccessible. However, with the high water, we should be able to pull a boat up through some otherwise impassible rapids to some rarely fished waters.

To start the day, we first stopped at Loverboy Run on juniper point. It took only a few casts before I hooked up into a very nice brook trout. The nice 6-lb female took a black wooly bugger that was nearly stripped to shore. The 22.25X14" fish was caught on the same point where I had substantial success four years ago. There is a big sand bar that runs out into Loverboy run and the fish move up onto this bar to feed on the scuds and bugs. The nice female was landed at 10:05 in the morning and promptly after she was released, we headed out to Portage Pond, which has not been fished in several weeks. Maybe luck would on our side.

Getting to Portage Pond requires us to transport the canoe up through a series of small rapids. The rapids are normally dry, but the recent deluge has made it possible to venture up into the Minopini watershed. It is exciting to know that these waters are rarely fished, and they have not been fished in the fall for several years. Would this be the place where the giant of giants lives?

Once we got to Portage Pond outlet, we started to cast in a 360-degree configuration in an effort to locate a fish. The bottom was somewhat muddy and it did not look like the right type of area that brook trout would be staging for spawning. And, the results confirmed that there were no brook trout around. I fished a deer hair mouse for several minutes and did manage to catch a small 28-inch northern pike that simply smashed this mouse. After about a half hour of fishing, we decided to try the inlet to portage pond, which is often referred to as the outlet to Little Johnny Lake.

As we approached this inlet, it looked much more promising. There was a series of steep rapids that emptied into a rocky bowl that was filled with giant boulders. It was likely the case that big brook trout would hide in the boulders and ambush prey. We would not be disappointed.

A nice 4-pound female from the inlet to Portage Pond. Note the large scar below her dorsal fin. This was a serious injury, probably from a pike, but these fish have the ability to fully recover from such injuries.

As soon as we dropped our rock anchor into the water, I had hooked into a nice 4.5 lb female brook trout. A few minutes later, I caught another female that was about 3 pounds. Soon, a third fish was hooked and it was another 3 pounder. In a total of about 30 minutes, I had caught three nice brook trout, all on the same fly. It was a big black wooly bugger. The fly was size 2 with a 4X long shank. I do not even fish buggers this big back home!

The fish were holding right up against the fast water and casting straight out and across the river and rapidly strip-retrieving the flies produced these nice brook trout. We continued to work this area, thoroughly fishing the seams and managed to catch one more brook trout of about 2.5 pounds. This little female was the smallest brook trout of the entire trip! Where else but Minipi would this be possible?

This was the prettiest male brook trout I can ever remember catching. A few extra casts made this fish possible.

On our return back to camp, we again stopped at Loverboy Run. It proved to be the right move. Pat suggested that I slowly waded onto this point and started casting. After my fifth cast, I was rewarded with a savage strike from a beast of a brook trout. The fish hit just downstream from the point and I only about 10 feet of line out. The fish made several hard runs before finally tiring. It was tense as he came to shore, knowing my tippet could break at any minute. Then, with a quick slip of the net by Pat, the big orange male brook trout was ours! My god what a beautiful fish!

The big male brook was 23.5"X15" deep male that weighed 6.75 pounds. He had the deepest orange belly and the most beautiful markings of any fish I can remember. It was a perfect ending to a perfect day of fishing. It again made my year!

As we wind down from dinner, we decide that we will try another new spot tomorrow. The place is known as Harvey's run. It has been tough there, but there are supposedly some giants. I plan to fish hard!

Keys to success:

After two days of excellent fishing for big brook trout, I like to reflect on recent success, while other anglers at the lodge have struggled to catch their first trophy brook trout. The first thing is that even though brook trout are perceived as being a surface feeding char, they by nature will hang close to the bottom where the feed is more plentiful. Knowing this, I have deliberately fished deep. There is a price to pay in that I do snag the bottom often and donate my share of flies to the rocks. However, it is a small sacrifice to make in return for more consistent fishing on the biggest brook trout in the world.

Second is my retrieve. For whatever reason, the brook trout respond eagerly to flies that are stripped very fast. There have been several instances when I have tried slow retrieves or even fishing a wooly bugger jig off a float and I have yet to have a strike. A rapid strip, with about 6-inch long strips and about a 1-2 second pause is the key to triggering the strike. This coupled with getting the fly down and in front of their face has been working well for these big fish.

Monday August 30, 2004 - A New Spot…

Today I will get to try another new spot, Harvey's Run, with my guide and friend Ralph. Ralph has been a guide at Minipi for eight years and Harvey's is his favorite spot. This famous Minipi run is downstream from Ann Marie Lake and upstream from the main Minipi Lodge. It requires tow portages and two separate boat rides. The first part of the journey is to motor to the outlet of Ann Marie Lake and then walk down to Woody's landing. From here we take another boat to cross Woody's pond and begin a second hike. From this second hike, we get to another boat where we motor downstream to a set of rapids known as Harvey's run. It takes about an hour to get there, but the combination of walks and boat rides brings me through some beautiful lush Labrador forest. At Harvey's run, fishing had been good throughout the summer. This is one of Ralph's favorite holes. Hopefully, if I fish hard, my string of at least one big book brook trout each day will continue.

Typically, Ralph will bring the boat around a small point and we will wade and cast into the main current of the Minipi River as it flows across a small rocky point. However, with the high waters, we instead decide to fish strictly from the boat. Ralph positions the boat about 15 yards down from the point where we wade. Again, the bottom is very rocky and there are big rocks and drop offs that fall into the major current of the passing river. It is not long before we spot a fish feeding in the seam between the main current and the cove behind us. It provides me the incentive and motivation to start fishing fish hard.

Ralph and I basically stay at this same spot for more than five hours and I never got a strike. I try everything that has worked on this trip and in my previous excursion. This includes the black wooly bugger, red and silver streamers, other dark streamers, and even jigs off a float. Nothing was working. My back and shoulders ached! And we kept seeing fish surfacing, so we knew they were active, but why would then not bite?

The only thing that was pleasant so far was the weather. It was beautiful, bright bluebird day with a hot afternoon sun. While troubleshooting why the fishing was so slow, I was looking in the water and the potential answer came to me with the same emphasis as if I was hit me on the head with a baseball bat. My tippet looked like a heavy-duty piano wire as it reflected the sun's rays back into the tea colored waters of the river. The line literally looked like a cable. While it is common knowledge the Minipi brook trout are not leader shy, it was quite obvious that they could easily see my 8-pound leader that was attached to the "woolyish" bugs that kept drifting past their holding areas.

I decided to try an experiment and change my tippet to a smaller size. The adjustment was the addition of 4 lb fluorocarbon tippet and the use of a smaller trailer fly behind my larger wooly bugger. My fly-fishing setup was now a big size 2 (4X) black wooly bugger for the front, and a smaller size 8, (3X) bead-head peacock and black wooly bugger for the rear fly. It was only about a dozen casts after I make this adjustment that I hooked into a nice brook trout. I gently fought the fish for more than 10 minutes before the fish made a sudden run back for the bottom and came free. He was lost! I was dejected in that all the hard work to finally hook a fish was suddenly gone. Ralph fell silent. He felt bad for we had worked so very hard and it appeared to be all for not! All we could do was continue to fish hard!

I looked at my watch and noticed it was now 3:15 PM. "We should leave in about an hour if nothing picks up" Ralph advised. "Maybe we can try the inlet to Woody's Pond."

Just as Ralph finished that suggestion, I had a very solid strike that just stopped me in the middle of a strip. It felt like a good fish and it held fast to the bottom of the run. The creature refused to move upward. I was not sure if this fish was hooked on the light tippet of the trailing fly or on the heavier portion of the tippet, but I took no chances and refused to horse this fish upward. We had worked to hard already to rush the business of this fish. It was all I could do not to over pressure the fish as I tried to inch it off the bottom. The fish circled the boat not one, not two, but three times. Within each revolution, we had to carefully maneuver around the anchor rope as the tippet rubbed against it, and each time it seemed we were going break this fish off. Still, some 10 minutes later, I had not seen this fish. Could this really be a brook trout? The fight was more similar to that of a 25-pound lake trout or a big northern pike.

Finally, we saw her and she looked gigantic! After two or three more tense minutes of tenderly working the fish to the boat, Ralph was finally able to net it. As Ralph pulled the fish on-board, and his eyes opened up big and bright! "This is a really big fish!" exclaimed Ralph. And it was! Like all brook trout that are landed in the Minipi, the fish was carefully weighed and measured. She was a big and deeply colored female brook trout. "Eight and a quarter pounds" exclaimed Ralph! "Eight and a quarter what?" I excitedly replied. Ralph slowly rotated the scale for me to see it for my self. Yes it was as big as he had stated. I could not believe it. We quickly admired, measured and photographed the fish. This beautiful brook trout was one catch I have only dreamed of.

My life fish! An eight and a quarter pound female brook trout!

She was very rich in color and was the epitome of an example of what the top of the evolutionary gene pool for a brook trout really is. From the deep peach belly to the bright red spots that were engulfed inside the blue halos to the dark black vermiculations on her black, she possessed those colors that are only exhibited by those rare few brook that accurately represent the best her species has to offer. She was indeed special! She never had a mark on her body from any other predator in this system. She even lacked the features so typical in older big brook trout. She was simply "middle aged" and healthy. She measured 24.5 inches long and 16.5 inches around. While admiring my life trophy, the thought came to me that this might just be the brook trout that has the once chance of eclipsing the legendary 10-pound mark for a brook trout, a weight that has not been met by anyone in more than two decades. I gently removed the black-and-peacock beadhead wooly bugger and spent the next fifteen minutes helping this giant expectant mother regain all of her strength. As she left my hands and headed back to the waters of the Minipi, I reflected back on all the trials and adventures that had eventually led me to these magical waters. I know that for a brief icon of time, I have touched one of those legendary brook trout that normally appear only in our dreams. This was my life fish!

Settling Down…

Over the next two and a half hours, I managed to hook into and land three more big brook trout. The fist brook trout was a 5-lb female at 3:45 PM that pounced on a yellow bomber. Then about 30 minutes later, I caught a pretty "little" 4-pound male brook trout that took the black wooly bugger. We didn't take any pictures of him, but he was very beautiful. Then, after fishing another forty minutes, I hooked into another nice male. It was a beautiful 5.5-lb male in full spawn color. The big brook also took the black wooly bugger. This fish had a tag in his dorsal fin, number 074 red.

We continued to fish until about 6:00 but we had no more strikes. Finally, we called it a day. Though I had a good day and landed several trophy brook trout, it was dwarfed by the big eight- pound brook trout of a lifetime.

Back at the lodge, we shared and exchanged stories with Marshall and Dave, the two other guests that were at Ann Marie Lodge. Marshall, who had a tough week fishing thus far, did manage to catch his first fish. This would turn out to be his only brook trout of the trip, but he did not care. It was a giant of 8 plus pounds as well. He had traveled this way for one big trophy and he got it! As far as Marshall was concerned, he came, he conquered, and he retired!

Thus, it was a magnificent day. This was the first time this year that two 8-pounders had been landed in the same week, let alone the same day, let alone 5 minutes apart, but yet from completely different areas! And lets not forget about Dave. He also turned in a great day in landing several book fish. His biggest of the day was a healthy seven pound male. It was a great day at Ann Marie Lake!

We also looked into the records to determine when the tagged fish was previously landed. The fish was tagged some 15 months earlier and weighed four and three-quarter pounds. Based on simple math, the fish are only growing at a rate of three quarters of a pound per year. Thus, a seven-pound fish is approaching 10 years old. This is likely one of the secrets to the size of the Minipi brook trout. They live to a ripe old age. Where most brook trout rarely exceed a lifespan of 5 years, the Minipi brook trout more than double this age. Old age truly correlates to size!

Tuesday August 31, 2004 - Fishing With Ray… Today my guide is Ray. Ray is the camp manager and head guide for the Minipi camps. He was born on these waters and knows every nook and cranny that a brook trout might every find itself. Not to mention his expertise on brook trout and fly fishing, Ray is also quite entertaining! He is a prankster at heart and can always bring humor to any situation. A day on the water with Ray is never forgotten.

To start the day, we decided to go back to Charr Cove. Sooner more than later, the char have got to show up and it will be fast and furious fishing for some of the hardest, fastest, and most beautiful of all landlocked salmonoids. This would be our third trip and hopefully we will hit pay dirt.

Upon arriving at the very tip of Burnt Lake, otherwise known as Charr Cove, we slowly and methodically fished every square inch of area surrounding this inlet. Like the previous two trips, this one would wind up with the same result; the Char are still not here. With the water so high, we brainstormed the idea that maybe they moved straight through the inlet and up into a small pond. We made our way up through the black fly-infested swamp fishing the promising deep holes along the way. When I was not swatting, and protecting myself from the onslaught of these bloodsucking insects, I was exploring the depths of each hole I came upon. But, no fish were found, nothing, nada! After spending only about an hours exploring, we decided to retreat back down our path and return to those holes where we have been successful for brook trout over this past week.

On our way out of Charr Cove I kept casting. I had one sudden strike that wound up slicing my tippet before ever lifted the rod tip to set the hook. It was likely a pike and it made me pay the price for fishing tandem rig, it was the thief of both my flies. Though a nuisance, the pike play a critical role in the Minipi. Though they are a predator of juvenile brook trout, they also are a predator to the other rough fish such as suckers, which inhabit these same waters. They are a piece to the puzzle to maintaining the critical balance in this ecosystem that produces such incredibly large brook trout.

Upon our return down river, we passed through the most reliable run on the Minipi…Loverboy run. Due to the high water making so many spots inaccessible, this run has been hit hard all week. Upon our arrival, Mark and Emil, two other guests at our camp had fished the spot hard for several hours. They had no luck and we utterly disappointed. They decided to give up and head for shore to have lunch. We anchored our small point where we had hooked many fish all week. I decided to try some new patterns and one was a deep red Zonker with a silver mylar body. After about 5 casts into the "spot" I promptly hooked into a nice fish. This turned out to be a nice female brook trout that weighed 5.75 pounds. Though this was the first fish of the day for me, the excitement and size of the fish once again increased the blood flow through my arms.

The water wolf! A 13-pound pike decided to eat my fly.

We then decided to try another spot that I had not fish this year. It is fondly known as lily-pad point. This was the spot that one day earlier, Dave and Marshall had great success. It was here that Marshall caught his stunning 8-pound male and Dave had landed several big fish as well. Immediately after dropping anchor, nice fish rolled off the bow of the boat. We made several casts but with no success. However, just knowing that fish are in the area maintains the intensity and the will to continue to cast and fish hard. The casting continued relentlessly when finally it happened…a savage strike. This felt like a big brook! But instead, it turned out to be a giant big pike! The fish engulfed my small bead-head black and peacock wooly bugger. Surprisingly the big Esox Lucious did not put up a long fight, but it was intense nonetheless. When we finally brought the fish to the boat and Ray went to land the big fish, he darted forward and peeled a hole right through the net. After some nifty retrieval, we managed to finally reverse-net the big fish and put him into the boat. The fish pulled Ray's Boga scale down to 13 pounds. This was my biggest pike ever on a fly! So Minipi does indeed offer a variety of species.

We continued to fish this spot hoping that the big brook trout were somewhere close and the absence of this pike would bring them back into this area. But we had no other takes. We eventually tired of casting and decided to call it a day. We returned to the lodge to have some dinner and to plan out a few hours of fishing in the evening.

It had been a tough day for everyone. With the exception of my fish, everyone else had been skunked. It was very windy but very bright and conditions made it hard to fish. However, as the sun progressed toward the western horizon, the wind finally tamed down and we decided to go out and enjoy the evening casting a few mouse patterns.

The reward for fishing hard and with persistence. This "average" brook trout inhaled a yellow bomber.

We made the short trip back to the old reliable spot…Loverboy run. We started with fishing a few streamers but had no luck. As daylight turned into darkness, I decided to try a bomber. I must have made 25 casts over a shallow bar and of a sudden…KABLAMM!!! A big brook trout decided that it had enough of this little irritating mouse swimming above him and that its world would be a little bit better if that critter was its dinner. It was the first sign of any creature all evening! After a relatively quick battle, she came to the boat and was an average size, five and a half pounds. It is amazing how a 5-pound brook trout is the norm! What a way to end the day.

Wednesday September 1, 2004 - Time to Explore…

Today will be completely dedicated to exploring new waters. By now we have accepted the fact that the high waters will not recede rapidly and while many spots are inaccessible, other spots that have never been tried will be possible. We will venture into the Minopini watershed and explore a few new waters. We may strike gold, or we might find the big stinker.

Pat is my guide. He is quite younger and this enables us to push up rapids that would normally not be possible. To begin, we journeyed back to the inlet to Portage pond. A few days ago, we landed five book fish, but today we could not buy a strike. We did observe a few fish surface, but the combination of finding the bottom a little too often and spooking the fish when we attempted to retrieve my flies likely had a negative impact on their appetites. So, after an hour, we journeyed onto another new spot. The Emily River Inlet.

The Emily River Inlet feeds Johnny Lake. We first portage the boat up the outlet from portage pond and then take about a fifteen-minute boat ride to the Emily River. The river looked very promising, with a rocky but shallow bottom and lots of drop offs. However, we found no sign of fish. We observed many channels and promising little hiding places, but we never found a fish. What I would have done for a depth finder. It could have unleashed many new secrets. It was not all lost though, for we watched a small family of otters play, which was just like my kids in the swimming pool.

We now decided to retrace our tracks back to the inlet of Portage pond. The weather is turning windy and we have a lot of water to cover. Back at portage pond, I finally hook into a small 2-pound brook trout and that was all that this spot was willing to relinquish. And, that was it for the day.

By the time we got back to Loverboy Run, the wind was raging at 30-40 MPH from the west. We fished Loverboy until dinner, but with no luck. This was it for the day. This marked the first day of this trip that I failed to land a big brookie. Maybe it was just my turn.

So, I am still tallied at 15 trophy brook trout and a few smaller ones. However, the news in camp was not all bad. Emil did have luck in catching an eight-pound female on a peacock and black wooly bugger that I tied for him this morning. Mark also hooked and landed a big fish. These two fellows had a tough trip with respect to catching fish, and this made their trip all worthwhile. I truly was happy for them to have traveled so far and finally earn a true trophy brook trout. And it was their last day of fishing, so they finished it off right!

It is now 10:00 PM and the wind continues to blow. The windows of the aging Ann Marie Lodge creek and crack, but it hold up against the blowing gale. Hopefully, it will calm down, for tomorrow is the last day of fishing.

Thursday, September 2, 2004 - One Last Day With New Friends…

Today is my last day of fishing. The week has just flown by, but what trophy brook trout have I been so fortunate to catch. Each fish was a trophy of a lifetime. Today is more of a day of celebration and relaxation before embarking on the long journey back home. I am so lucky to have the privilege to fish in such a special place.

An exceptionally healthy 6.75-pound male brook trout from Harvey's run.

Dave, Ralph and I decided to go down to Harvey's to fish. Unfortunately, my waders have sprung a small leak and I am not sure how long I will last waded in water. So, Dave offered to go to shore first. After dropping Dave off on a point, Ralph carefully motored down about 30 feet in the seam of the current. I began casting, making sure my streamers sink deep into the run. It was no more than a dozen casts before I am hooked into a strong female brook trout. Upon boating her, she is weighed in at 5.5 pounds. This is just an average fish here!

It soon begins to rain, but I hardly even notice it. I am in the fishing zone. I see a few fish surface and keep casting into that specific area. Suddenly, another strike! This fish fought hard and hung deep in the current. Finally, we get a glimpse of it. It is a nice and big male brook! This fish injected the same excitement as the first big fish of the trip! After carefully working the fish to the boat, Ralph gets his net under him and he is now ours!

The big colorful male was extremely heavy and is likely my heaviest fish of the trip, at least relative to his proportions. The giant pulled Ralph's scale down to the 6.75 pound mark. He measured 22.5 inches long and had a girth of 15.5 inches. And, it is only 10:30 AM.

Meanwhile, Dave was struggling. Though he was casting hard and with intensity, he was not getting his flies down deep enough. It was time for him to get in the boat and have a better angle and he would be able to get his flies deeper.

For Dave, his luck changed, primarily because he was resilient and he fish hard. He landed two beautiful females, both in the 5-6 pound range.

After dinner, the wind settled down and Ralph, Dave, and I decided to go to Loverboy run. Dave decided to go to shore, and I stayed in the boat. It was not too long and I was rewarded with one last strike. This was an interesting take in that I never started to strip the fly. It was more like the fish was waiting for the fly to hit the water with his mouth wide open. In any case, I was into one last trophy brook trout!

Like so many other fish that I have landed this week, this one was big. It was colorful, and it was a big male! Once he was landed, we took a couple of great pictures and released this 6-pounder to be caught again! For me, that was it for the night. I laid my fly rod down and sat back and relaxed.

My last fish of the trip. They do not get any prettier!

I encouraged Ralph to cast my rod. Boy did he give me a lesson on fly-casting, including the double haul. In my opinion, Ralph is one of the best guides I have ever fished with. He is patient, pleasant, encouraging, knowledgeable, and an excellent fly fisherman. I make a mental note to send him a gift. We talked about a great brook trout book that is by Nick Karris. He would really like this!

Well, tonight is my last night here and then it is time to fly out and head back home. It has been 9 days now and I am ready to see my family.

September 3, 2004 - Thanks!!!

I awake at 4:00AM to the sound of wind. The still calmness of the night was interrupted with a strong weather front that was a day ahead of schedule. I tried to get back to sleep, but I was too concerned the wind would prevent me from fishing. And it did. The weather got worse and worse. White-capped waves pounded the peninsula at Ann Marie Lodge. Now I need to be patient and begin to make the long journey home.

Conclusions:

Ann Marie lodge is a rustic lodge that is very cozy. The lodge has the capacity for up to 8 people, but since this was the fall, only three of us were there and were able to spread out. Two bathrooms with hot showers are available to the guests. The main room has a large wood burning stove and this makes for very comfortable evenings in which one can tie flies, fix equipment, write about the day's experience, enjoy the beautiful sunsets, or just sit back and enjoy a good book. This lodge has been around for more than 40 years and though it has a significant amount of history, a new lodge is in construction. This year the floor was constructed, and next year they will actually have the construction completed. There has been quite a debate as to whether the old lodge will come down, with many of the long-time guests hoping that it will stay. Right now, this is up in the air.

The food here is excellent. Willie has been the lodge cook for more than a dozen years and he knows his way around the kitchen. While one should not expect steak and lobster at every meal, the meals and all home cooked, hearty, and delicious. And, the desserts are something special. As for alcoholic beverages, the lodge sends out a list of wines and bears for the customer to select (at an additional cost). These are then purchased in Goose Bay and flown into the lodge prior to the guest's arrival.

Fishing in the fall is different from the summer. While the big drake and caddis hatches are gone, warm evenings will still lead to mayfly and small caddis hatches. The fall also triggers the big brooks to feed on mice patterns. It is an awesome site to see a 6 to 7 pound brook trout smash a big rodent fly in the middle of the day. However, the most success came with streamers. Dark leach patterns, such as wooly buggers in black tones were the primary ticket to success. Also, streamers that have a stripe of red in them would also trigger strikes.

If one travels to Minipi in the fall, be prepared for sudden and adverse weather changes. Night temperatures commonly dip into the 30's and highs will be in the 50-60 degree range. Typically, a few nice days will be followed by a few wet and windy days. Snow is a possibility late in the year. The changes in the weather do seem to trigger feeding frenzies for these fish.

Next year, the Cooper's camps will introduce fly out fishing. They have purchased their own plane, a completely re-conditioned beaver. They have also recruited the services of one of the best bush pilots in Labrador, who will fly guests into never fished before spots. For the adventure who dreams of fishing waters that have never been touched, this is the trip. One never knows, as the fly-out may result in a skunk, or the next world record brook trout. But one will never know unless they go out and try. I cannot wait to go back and try out some of these new spots.

This is an excellent trip that should make anyone's list of special places to visit. For me, the last week of the season at Minipi is the best! The brook trout are in full-spawn color and there is always the possibility that some land-locked arctic char will be in the area. This trip, the charr never showed up and that might well have been a function of the high water. Had I gotten a chance to go up there the last two days, luck may have been different, or would it have…

Sunset at Loverboy Run

Anytime one ventures north, unexpected weather can hit. This time, it was Hurricane Charlie. The monster storm that had devastated Florida two weeks earlier, decided to sit on the Minipi watershed and dump its remains. This caused the water to raise more than 4 feet. Luckily the water clarity remained and the biggest brook trout in the world fish held fast to their ancestral spawning tendencies.

There were many keys to making this a successful trip. The first was to be prepared to fish hard and with confidence. I knew that big dark wooly buggers were the reliable fly pattern and this proved true the entire week. Second, be patient with the use of the mouse patterns. There were days when this was the pattern to produce a big brook trout. It is one of the most exciting things to see a giant brook trout attack a mouse. They want to KILL it! Second, when fishing streamers, fish them as deep as possible. Pound those areas thoroughly. I was certain that the giant brooks see several wooly buggers pass by them before they would get angry and attack the invader. There were several instances on this trip when persistence paid off. The fish wanted the flies deep and stripped relatively fast. Some guests could not believe how fast the flies had to be stripped in order to trigger a strike!

This trip was all about big brook trout. The ever-present big pike was also something that was possible, and this year, while fishing for a big brook trout, a 13-pound pike came slammed my fly. He certainly cut the monotony of the day anyway. I fished exceptionally hard and the guides were there helping every second of every day. In the end, I cannot argue with the beauty of the 18 trophies that I landed this past week!

The standard rod for Minipi is a 7-wt rod with a tippet that is between 6 and 8 pounds in strength. This is adequate to land most any big brook trout without wearing the fish to complete exhaustion. Typically, it takes a minute per pound of trophy brook trout to bring to the net on a 7-weight rod. Have both floating and sink tip lines. A super fast sink tip is really not necessary as most of the waters fished are between 8 and 15 feet deep. Typically, the fish are not leader shy, but on unusually clear days, moving down to lighter tippets may be necessary. Also, the key to success in the fall is to fish streamers deep and with patience. Minipi is a trophy fishery and if the angler goes with the mindset to catch one or two trophy brook trout, they will likely be successful. The angler who expects a fish every other cast will become frustrated and disappointed. At Minipi, few small fish are taken and the average fish is truly above 5 pounds in weight. So when you prepare to fish, make sure the camera is ready, as these fish present the ultimate in nature's beauty.

Last, I must not forget what got me to Minipi. First and foremost was great woman I am married to. Lisa allowed me to pursue my truest passion, trophy brook trout fishing. Then there is the Cooper family. For decades, Lorraine and Jack Cooper have properly managed this great brook trout fishery and trophy brooks are caught each and every week of the season. They are special people and they alone have kept the legend of the Minipi and its behemoth brook trout as a real-day fairy tale.

These brook trout have no problem flexing a 7-weight fly rod!

Ray, the head guide, with what might be a brook/arctic char cross. This was Marshall's only trophy of the week, but it was a highlight in his fly-fishing career. The fish has features from both species.

Minipi Guide Ralph

Dave with his first Trophy, a 7-

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