Minipi/Minonipi
In 1947 Lee Wulff brought the first private plane—a float-equipped Piper Cub—to Labrador and began exploring what would become known as the finest brook trout fishing in North America. During the 1950s, Wulff’s job was to provide recreational fishing for U.S. airmen stationed in Goose Bay—a Strategic Air Command base during the Cold War.
Wulff concentrated on Atlantic-salmon rivers, but he also fished the Minipi, Eagle, and Adlatok drainages for brook trout. In 1967 he started a fishing camp with Ray Cooper on White Lake—named after fly fisher General Thomas D. White. Cooper eventually took over the operation and renamed the lake after his daughter Anne Marie. Ray Cooper sold his camps in the Minipi/Minonipi system to Jack and Lorraine Cooper (no relation) in 1979. (See Bush Pilot Angler by Lee Wulff.)
This Wulff/Cooper/Cooper lineage is important because the lodge owners in the Minipi system have been consistently conservation-minded, and the trout with the best genetics have not been decimated as they were on many other Labrador rivers. Today anglers are allowed to harvest one trout over 3 pounds per week, but few guests keep a fish.
Also part of this continuity is the annual logbook kept by each of Coopers’ lodges. All brook trout over 3 pounds are weighed, and their weight, the date, and the fly or lure are recorded in a book. The average weight of “book” fish has remained constant at a little over 5 pounds at all of Coopers’ camps. The International Gamefish Association (IGFA) record book is also evidence of the fertility of the water and the superior genetics of Minipi/Minonipi brook trout. Most of the fly-rod records—fish between 8 and 10 pounds—are from Coopers’ camps.
The logbook data going back to 1984 is online at minipicamps.com and is a treasure trove of information.
It shows that the best time for brook trout on dry flies is July, with Humpys, White Wulffs, Minonipi Wulffs, Hex Spinners, and Brown and Green Drake imitations (#8-14) showing up frequently. Other important flies are various mouse and lemming imitations and large streamers. The Coopers recommend all of Kelly Galloup’s trigger flies, especially the Circus Peanut, Zoo Cougar, and Woolly Sculpin. [See “Trigger Flies” in the May 2007 issue. The Editor.]
The best dry-fly fishing at these camps occurs in the last hour of daylight, especially in July when the massive Hexagenia hatches occur. On overcast days these hatches can last for hours, with heads, tails, and dorsals appearing everywhere. On normally calm evenings large brookies leave gulping trails across the mirrored lake surfaces, and the guide positions the boat so your fly can be intercepted by the moving fish. Eaters create large toiletlike flushes and the deep splashes echo in the wilderness hush. The knowledge that each rise you see hides an average 5-pound brookie makes your arms tingle.
Much of the daytime fishing focuses on the flowages between lakes. Getting three or four book fish is a good day of fishing. Jack Cooper says the “best day ever” at any of his camps was when two clients recorded 54 book fish. (The same clients were there the year before and their group of six anglers had a total of 11 book fish for an entire week.)
Coopers’ Minipi Camps is the only licensed outfitter and operates four lodges on the Minipi/Minonipi system: Minipi Lodge, Anne Marie Lodge, Minonipi Lodge, and Little Minipi Lake Lodge. The log cabin known as Anne Marie Lodge was replaced in 2007 with a modern lodge with private rooms and baths. A one-week stay at the lodges is $3,600 including airfare from Goose Bay. Flights are in fixed-wing planes or by helicopter, depending on the specific lodge. Phone: (877) 266-7377.
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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