Minipi Camps Web Log

I just put a “mouse/lemming” fly in the Photo Gallery and thought it might be interesting to include this note on the lemming.

Mouse flies work because there are plenty of little lemmings in the Minipi watershed.

Lemming

“Any of 20 species of small rodents, some of which undertake large, swarming migrations. Lemmings are found only in the Northern Hemisphere. They have short, stocky bodies with short legs and stumpy tails, a bluntly rounded muzzle, small eyes, and small ears that are nearly hidden in their long, dense, soft fur. The wood lemming (Myopus schisticolor) and steppe lemming (Lagurus lagurus) are the smallest, measuring 8 to 12 cm (3.1 to 4.7 inches) in body length and weighing 20 to 30 grams (0.7 to 1.0 ounce). The other species are larger, weighing 30 to 112 grams, with bodies 10 to 22 …

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As I browse thru the new web site I see lots of information on equipment and personal effects to bring when you make the decision to come to Cooper’s Camps on the Minipi watershed. The fly selections are based on years of careful record keeping in the log books and you can check the Lodge logs where you will be staying and the dates of your trip and see what flies were catching trout during that period over years. Fly patterns and size recommendations do not come better than that!

I was asked to offer some advice for new anglers to the Minipi system that would give them a better chance for success and make their trip go smoothly and be more enjoyable.

The first thing I would offer is an understanding of the methods employed by the guides to get you on to the trophy …

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Steve Grant, one of the guides, upon viewing the fly section of the web site, made this comment:

I noticed some of the flies that my anglers have great success with are not listed.  They include the Orange Wooly Bugger, the Black Wulff, the Minonipi Wulff, the Brown Drake and the Double Bunny.  These flies are used extensively at the lodges and should definitely be recommended along with those listed.  I had especially good success with them at Minonipi.

For a picture of the Minonipi Wulff, go to Photo Gallery and click the Hatches category.

James West Davidson, and John Rugge.  Great Heart: The History of a Labrador Adventure, 1988.

“In July 1903 Leonidas Hubbard, Jr. set out to traverse by canoe and portage one of the last blank spots on the map of North America – 550 miles of the subarctic barrens of Labrador in northern Canada.” Hubbard died. His expedition failed. “…Wallace [Hubbard’s partner] resolved, in 1905, to return to Labrador at the head of his own exploring party to try again.” At the very same time, Mina Hubbard, Hubbard’s widow, to redeem her husband’s honor, had also begun an expedition. And the race was on. This is the story of both the 1903 and 1905 expeditions, the latter being “a race unique in the annals of wilderness exploration.”

Dillon Wallace, The Lure of The Labrador Wild. First Edition, 1905.  1990 paperback Ed.

“It was Dillon …

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This is taken From an article appearing on the Field and Stream website, no date given, titled “Quest for The Mother Lode…the lost world of monster brook trout, “ by T. Edward Nickens.

Clutched between Ungava Bay and the North Atlantic Sea, Labrador offers perhaps the largest chunk of terra incognita remaining in North America: a half million square miles of taiga, spruce and tamarack woods, and soaring stone ridges that taper into iceberg- laden seas, three quarters of the province is entirely roadless.”

“When Lee Wulff [who discovered the Minipi in the 1950s] guided Curt Gowdy into the Minipi River basin to film a segment of The American Sportsman, trout anglers in the lower 48 almost swallowed their teeth at the sight of kype-jawed brookies the size of an overnight bag.”

Labrador is a wilderness “more remote than most of Alaska” where “every …

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This first part of this commentary is taken from of an article written by Al Raychard for a series called Our Man in Canada Archives. It appears in full on flyanglersonline.com.

Little Minipi Lake is “part of a complex system of shallow tea-colored lakes and connecting thoroughfares, riffles and rapids that drain 250 square miles of pristine wilderness 60 miles south of Goose Bay Labrador. … Of a handful of major drainages were giant brook trout are found, the Broadback, the Eastmain and Rupert in Quebec, the Ashuanipi and Eagle in Labrador and God’s in Manitoba among others, the Minipi is unique. While large Brook trout are caught elsewhere, Minipi specimens average… four to 5 pounds…. No place on the planet has produced more record Brook trout.”

“First explored by the late Lee Wulff who pronounced it, ‘the finest book trout fishing in the world,’ “the Minipi …

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Minipi Lake, formed and fed by many springs, brooks, streams and small rivers, is, in geological terms, a “river lake,” which means it has spread out extending its banks across a smooth, sand-bottomed taiga (a sub-arctic forest of firs and spruce). 

It is, therefore, a rather shallow body of water (for the most part no deeper than 12 feet) and wade-able in many places. The river’s current flows east to west for 35 miles from Black Fly on its extreme eastern end to the Outlet and the Gorge, with its rapids and picturesque water falls, on its western end just behind Minipi Lake Lodge.

A map of Minipi created in 2003, shows the relative location of each of the lake’s named points. It comes in handy when you and your guide are planning your day’s trip to the lake’s many hot …

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Labrador lies at the center of the brook trout’s original habitat and Jack Cooper has built three lodges on three lakes – a fourth was added, Little Minipi Lake Lodge, in 2007, and each lies within the Minipi watershed—still absolutely perfect Brook trout habitat. 

Why is this such a perfect breeding ground for Brook trout?

First, it’s filled with their favorite food—mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies—which thrive in the lake’s shallow flats, riffles, narrows and rapids. That’s where the big boys are. All their favorite hangouts are right here on this map.

Second, in natural habitats where a prolific species is not heavily preyed upon, you’ll find mostly mature individuals, and until these big guys weaken or die, smaller ones do not venture into their favorite feeding areas. And if they do, they get eaten.

Third, this water’s cold. Brookies are …

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