Minipi Camps Web Log

Ed Quigley’s new book In the Company of Rivers: An Angler’s Stories & Recollections has three chapters (out of 25) on the Minipi experience: With Penelope on the Minipi, The Last Place on Earth and Minipi Memories, plus an interesting sidelight on Lee Wulff on the Minipi in the chapter titled Catch & Release.  Click on the following link to Ed’s website:  edquigley.com Click the link to amazon.com on his site to read reviews, and peek inside the book. And, hey, buy a copy—Quigley still has his student loans to pay off.

Just a note to tell everyone that my son Joseph and I have just completed the IGFA application for a new Junior World Record. On 7/9/07 Joseph landed a beatiful 7lb male brook trout at “Ten Pound Cove” on a #10 Grey Wulff. Joe shattered the existing World Record of 6lbs, 8oz.! Special thanks to guide Kelly Groves. As always, many thanks to Jack, Lorraine and Robin Cooper.

Parrie Willette Jr.

The first week of the season is now under our belt, and what a crazy week it was. Camp start-up is always hectic and last week’s unseasonablely hot weather coupled with the rash of forest fires threw a wrench into the gears of our logistics machine. As some of you may already know, a forest fire seriously threatened Minonipi Lake Lodge, but I am happy to let you know that all is well, and the fire is now fully extinguished.

Then we had nearly a whole week of bright sunshine and scorching temperatures reaching into the high 90’s. This dropped the water on average 9 inches a day and slowed the action. We had 4 anglers at Anne Marie Lake Lodge, and the insects were hatching everywhere, but few brookies were moving until yesterday when Richard Schriber booked a 5 3/4#, a 5 1/2# female, and a 5 …

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The latest issue of Fish & Fly: For The Adventure Angler, Tackle & Travel 2007, Vol. 7 Number 3, has a spectacular photo-feature on Minipi’s big brookies titled, “Here the ‘Little Trout of The Springs’ Grow SUPER SIZE.” This is in its EXOTIC WORLD ADVENTURES series. Run out and buy a copy. (We got ours at Barnes & Noble.) The photos are terrific—there’s one of a Drake sitting on the water. It’s one of the best closeups I’ve seen.

Here’s a picture of the cover...and I’ve inset part of one of the pictures from the inside of the magazine and their spectacular picture of the NEW Anne Marie.

The Minonipi Wullf is certainly one of the essiental flies for fishing the Minipi watershed. Lee Wulff designed this pattern to mimic both the Green and Brown drakes in one simple pattern. Although not a popular pattern elsewhere in the world, it is a staple in the Labrador anglers’ flybox. In a recent conversation with David Brandt from the Wulff School of Fly Fishing, he gave me the recipe to “cook” up some of your own Minonipi Wulff’s. By the way, Dave knew Lee Wulff and if you look in the Photo Gallery you’ll find a picture of Dave and Lee together. So this is from “the horse’s mouth.”

First of all, the original Mustad hook Lee used for all of his Wulff’s has been recently discontinued. The Daiichi 2421, however, is a good substitute. Most of the Wulff’s tied by Dave for my fly shop fall into …

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Dick Recchia from the UltimateFlyFishing.com staff recently wrote a short article about his experiences while fishing for Northern Pike at the Minipi Lodge. They were having a slow day, and decided to “huck” some big bugs for Pike. Check out the full story at the Ultimate Fly Fishing website.

http://www.ultimateflyfishing.com/news/dest_pike.html

Robin Cooper

Check out the article, “Trigger Flies,” by Kelly Galloup in the May 2007 issue of FLY FISHERMAN magazine. While Galloup doesn’t mention big brookies, any of the eight flies he describes would work in Minipi waters. I’d suggest you tie up a few for your next trip to Minipi. And to whet your fly-tying appetite, here are pictures of a few of Galloup’s flies. (The first is the Circus Peanut.)

If you’ve visited the Minipi Photo Gallery you’ve seen pictures of big pike. Well here’s the story behind one of them told by a skilled Oklahoma angler named Kevin B. Joyce, who caught his pike while fishing with Minipi Chief Guide Raymond Best. Together they landed that 17 pound, 38 inch pike (check it out at the Photo Gallery, “Big Pike on The Fly"), on a Sage XP 5 wt with a 4 x leader and no steel wire on the tippet. 

Here’s Kevin’s story:

“It was August 3rd, 2005, a pretty hot day on the lake [Anne Marie] and the brookie fishing was a bit slow. My brother John and I were in the boat with guide Ray Best. We pulled out of “Lover Boy Run” to see if anything was happening near “Lilly Pad.” When we got there, I cast a Porky’s Pet (red/white/black Deer …

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