There is help though. Canada One Travel in Winnipeg, MB, Canada have great fares to Goose Bay. For Example $601 USD Harrisburg PA return, $692 USD Atlanta GA return, $807 Los Angeles CA return, and $807 from Portland OR return. They also don’t charge the Canadian Goods and Services Tax for US citizens.

These guys have the best deal. Hands down. You can check them out on the web at http://www.canada-one.com , or by phone toll-free at (866)401-9900.

See you this summer.

Robin Cooper

Parrie Willette Jr.

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 1/4# male in Portage Pond. His fishing buddy, Chad Leland caught a 5# male and a 4# female in the Beaver Pond plus a 2 1/2# male in Portage pond. Great work guys! Dr. Marc Lavoie and his beautiful wife Helen are still fishing, so I will include their information in the next week’s blog entry.

Mr. Schriber told us that water temperatures in Beaver Pond were reaching 70 degrees Fahrenheit but a recent rain has helped lower the water temp and improved the fishing quite a bit.

NEW COMMUNICATIONS CAPABILITIES:  Minipi Lake Lodge will be joining Anne Marie Lake Lodge in the wireless high-speed internet club! Like Anne Marie, Minipi now has a new state-of-the-art dedicated high-speed internet satellite, iMac computer, wireless system, and internet-based phone system. This will give our Minipi guests greater flexibility in staying in touch with their loved ones, checking up on that business deal, or to just plain brag about all the BIG BROOKIES they are catching!

Check out Richard and Chad’s brookies in the photo gallery.

Robin Cooper

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.

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 two sizes, 6s and 8s. Occasionally we see a size 10. The wing is a light-brown-dyed calf-tail. A true Wulff pattern will have an “un-stacked” wing. Remember Lee used to tie his flies in his hands… no vice! The tail is woodchuck. The body is dark olive brown beaver. Finally the hackle is a medium or natural dun.

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

Robin Cooper

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 Hair Popper) and was working it back when this huge pike came at it like a crocodile after a duck. And when it hit, it made a few tarpon-like jumps before heading off on the first of several long runs. Now I have fished all over the world, and I have caught pike this big or bigger on flies in other Canadian provinces, but this was my first trip into the backing.  After awhile I got the line back on the reel and finally managed to get her up to the gunwale and lined her head up with the net.

Ray reached out with the net and slipped her in head first, jaws wide open. But when Ray raised the net, it was empty. The fish was gone! It’s razor-sharp teeth had sliced right through the webbing and she was off again on another run. My line was feeding out right through that hole the pike made in the net, so Ray had to hold the net up in front of me and move it around to keep the line from fouling as I played the fish.  Finally, after a ten-minute tussle, we got her back to the boat and with some niffty maneuvering with that bottomless net, Ray got the monster over the gunwale and into the boat.  The best thing about this was that my brother happened to be playing with his camcorder at the time and we got the whole struggle on film.  Actually I was surprised at how short the fight really was. I ‘d swear it lasted 30 miniutes but the timer on his camcorder showed a bit less than that.

Landing this big fish on my 5 wt. Sage was quite a miracle, especially since I was really fishing for brookies and had no bite guard or wire of any kind on the end of my 4 x leader. But I give a lot of credit to Ray Best, who did an outstanding job chasing her down, maneuvering the boat, and finally getting her into the boat with that bottomless net.  It was quite an experience, one that I will never forget.”

His review of our Lodges can be found on the American Angling Gear Guide website.
Read it for yourself at:
http://www.americananglinggearguide.com/coopersminipicamps.html

http://www.petitiononline.com/vrp1/

Robin Cooper

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 cm long. The colour of the collared lemming varies seasonally. During the summer its coat is gray tinged with buff or reddish brown and with dark stripes on the face and back. In the winter they molt into a white coat and develop forked digging claws. Other species are gray, sandy yellow, various tints and tones of brown, or slate gray and black.”

“lemming.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite . Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007.

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 trout of a lifetime!

The largest trout in the system live in still waters. This can be the lakes themselves or large ponds in the river systems. The trout feed on the abundant insect life in these still waters. They cruise the water picking the hatches off the surface.  When a hatch comes off , the guide will watch for rise forms and position the boat to make it easier for the angler to put his fly on an intercept path with the cruising trout. What you’ll see is a rise and then another a short distance from the first. You then cast ahead of the second rise the same distance you observed between the first and second rises.

The trout are cruising and will rise in a predictable pattern. Your task is to make fast, accurate casts to where you anticipate the next rise will be.  It is very similar to bonefishing with the exception that this is surface fishing. Bonefish cruise the flats chasing bottom forage. Minipi trout cruise the same but are , during a hatch, after bugs on the surface. While long casts are nice; short, accurate casts, I feel, are more important. And your guide will position you according to your ability.

Practice quick accurate casts out to sixty feet. If you feel comfortable with that, stretch it out according to your ability. Practice before you come.  That being said, the guides are experts at correcting casting faults. But you have to ask; they will not point out a casting fault because that might be thought of as a negative reflection of the guest’s casting ability.

Typical nymphing techniques work as well in the flows that run in the narrow areas between the lakes.

There are times when a deer hair mouse works very well and is thought to imitate the lemmings that are abundant around the lakes and rivers.

Blind casting or trolling streamers works well when there is no hatch.

There’s plenty of opportunity to wade streams at Minipi Lodge, for example at the outlet that runs about a quarter mile to the “Gorge”. This rapid water is a pleasure to fish but the fish are smaller. The largest I have caught is 3.5 lbs but there are plenty of eager 1-2 lb fish. This is a great place to spend an evening when you want to stay close to the Lodge.

I hear that the new camp at Little Minipi has good stream fishing with larger fish but I have not been there myself. I hope to explore this resource in the future. You could get there before me and you can let me know what’s up down there.

It is important to talk to your guide, to tell him what kind of fishing you enjoy and want to do during your stay. The focus here is, has been, and will be on catching really big trout. But it is far more than that.

There is excellent northern pike fishing and when the trout fishing slows down as it will, a session of pike fishing is exciting and action packed. The pike can run to 12-14 lbs but most will be in the 6-8 lb class and they will attack poppers with a vengeance. Top water fishing for big pike will make your heart skip a beat! You will need a wire leader and you can bring them or get them at the Minipi Outfitters shop. I have found at times pike can be leader shy and so we recommend you use the thin leaders that are tyeable. I also have used fluorocarbon mono 15 lb test with success.

There are also big Landlocked Artic Char in the system and they come out the during the hatches.  They can be a bit frustrating because they cruise in a straight line with their rises far apart, so you can get involved in a long, exciting chase to get ahead of them. On the other hand, speckled trout tend to cruise in a circle so interception is easier. You can troll the deeper parts of the lakes for char using streamers. The char are usually in deeper water during the summer months and you should give them a try as they are strong fighters and a beauty to see.

This is more than I intended to say and I hope to see you on the water at Coopers Camps...soon.  Perry