Skip to main content

Loverboy Connects Anne Marie Lake and Burnt Lake and is a Brook Trout Paradise

When I was told that we were going to Loverboy to look for brook trout, I immediately had flash backs to my roller skating days in elementary school. Loverboy is not just a Canadian rock band from the 80's, but also the name for the narrows, which connect Anne Marie Lake and Burnt Lake in Labrador's Minipi watershed. Lee Wulff discovered the brook trout here while exploring the vast wilderness of this rugged land in a single-engine floatplane. Not only did he uncover the world's finest brook trout fishery, but he also sought to conserve it by promoting catch and release, a concept that was still in its infancy. Celebrated anglers, like Joan Wulff and Ed Jaworowski, have fished for and released colossal brook trout here.

On our first evening at Lake Anne Marie Lodge, Ray Best, one of the most entertaining guides that I have ever fished with and an icon around Minipi camps, arrived at the dock with a t-shirt that read "Minipi: where the brook trout are measured in pounds, not inches." This was one of those rare occasions when a t-shirt's tag line actually made me curious. As we putted the canoe across the uninhabited lake to Loverboy, the wind subsided and the green drakes began to pop. Ray stopped the canoe in the heart of the narrows next to "Loverboy rock." Legend has it that a love sick man was positioned on this celebrated stone to abandon his forlorn romance with Anne Marie and revel in the rising brookies that surrounded him.

We sculled around the rock until the fish started gobbling the juicy drakes that were emerging. Casting with my right arm, doubling hauling and swatting black flies with my left; we fished oversized flies for oversized brook trout. Eventually, the light grew dim and we could no longer make out the size 6 silhouettes of our drake imitations. I landed 5 fish that night that tipped the scale well beyond 30 pounds. These were the trophy trout that brought "Loverboy" to welcome his rock as a throne, where he ruled his kingdom as far as he could cast his fly. Now when I think of Loverboy, the lyrics to "Working for the Weekend" don't drift through my mind, but rather memories of big, beautiful brook trout that only nature could paint so magnificently.




GET THE NEWSLETTER Join the List and Never Miss a Thing.

Recommended Articles

Recent Videos

Ross Purnell and a crew of climber-anglers make a once-in-a-lifetime trip to “middle Earth” to fish for an isolated popu...
How-To/Techniques

G. Loomis's “Feel Connected” Episode 2: "Rolled Up"

Ross Purnell and a crew of climber-anglers make a once-in-a-lifetime trip to “middle Earth” to fish for an isolated popu...
Gear

How to Tie Chicone's Magnum Mantis Fly

Ross Purnell and a crew of climber-anglers make a once-in-a-lifetime trip to “middle Earth” to fish for an isolated popu...
How-To/Techniques

Small Stream Hopper Fishing

Ross Purnell and a crew of climber-anglers make a once-in-a-lifetime trip to “middle Earth” to fish for an isolated popu...
How-To/Techniques

Fly Tier's Bench: How to Tie Egan's Poacher

Ross Purnell and a crew of climber-anglers make a once-in-a-lifetime trip to “middle Earth” to fish for an isolated popu...
Destinations/Species

The Tightest Line

Ross Purnell and a crew of climber-anglers make a once-in-a-lifetime trip to “middle Earth” to fish for an isolated popu...
How-To/Techniques

How to Tie Craven's Mr. Jones Dry Fly

Ross Purnell and a crew of climber-anglers make a once-in-a-lifetime trip to “middle Earth” to fish for an isolated popu...
How-To/Techniques

How to Tie Craven's Mr. Jones Dry Fly

Ross Purnell and a crew of climber-anglers make a once-in-a-lifetime trip to “middle Earth” to fish for an isolated popu...
How-To/Techniques

How to Fight Trout Effectively and Get them in the Net Quickly

Ross Purnell and a crew of climber-anglers make a once-in-a-lifetime trip to “middle Earth” to fish for an isolated popu...
News

Patagonia Advocates for Dam Removal

Ross Purnell and a crew of climber-anglers make a once-in-a-lifetime trip to “middle Earth” to fish for an isolated popu...
Destinations/Species

Science in the Thorofare

Ross Purnell and a crew of climber-anglers make a once-in-a-lifetime trip to “middle Earth” to fish for an isolated popu...
How-To/Techniques

How to Tie the Picky Eater Perdigon

Ross Purnell and a crew of climber-anglers make a once-in-a-lifetime trip to “middle Earth” to fish for an isolated popu...

Fly Fishing the Plunge Pools of Yosemite Falls

Fly Fisherman Magazine Covers Print and Tablet Versions

GET THE MAGAZINE Subscribe & Save

Digital Now Included!

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Give a Gift   |   Subscriber Services

PREVIEW THIS MONTH'S ISSUE

Buy Digital Single Issues

Magazine App Logo

Don't miss an issue.
Buy single digital issue for your phone or tablet.

Buy Single Digital Issue on the Fly Fisherman App

Other Magazines

See All Other Magazines

Special Interest Magazines

See All Special Interest Magazines

GET THE NEWSLETTER Join the List and Never Miss a Thing.

Get the top Fly Fisherman stories delivered right to your inbox.

Phone Icon

Get Digital Access.

All Fly Fisherman subscribers now have digital access to their magazine content. This means you have the option to read your magazine on most popular phones and tablets.

To get started, click the link below to visit mymagnow.com and learn how to access your digital magazine.

Get Digital Access

Not a Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Enjoying What You're Reading?

Get a Full Year
of Guns & Ammo
& Digital Access.

Offer only for new subscribers.

Subscribe Now

Never Miss a Thing.

Get the Newsletter

Get the top Fly Fisherman stories delivered right to your inbox.

By signing up, I acknowledge that my email address is valid, and have read and accept the Terms of Use