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Lake
trout
 Champdoré is a most unique lake
trout fishery. Normally considered a deep-water fish, at Champdoré
large numbers of lake trout are concentrated in shallow, fast
flowing water for most of the season, where they offer fly-fishermen
and light tackle enthusiasts the unusual opportunity to tangle
regularly with 15 to 25 lb lunkers.
What is truly astonishing
is the sheer number of large fish. We believe that Champdoré
offers the best shallow-water fishing for lake trout in North
America.
 Whale River lake trout routinely
take mouse flies, and catching 10 to 20 lb lakers on a floating
mouse is commonplace. The fact that lakers will take a mouse
pattern is not so surprising when one realizes that the area
around Champdoré supports a prolific mouse (lemming)
population. These 5 inch-long dark gray rodents with their short
dark tails and white bellies can be seen most days scampering
around camp looking for food. When dead-drifting a mouse fly,
lakers will frequently jump completely out of the water to grab
it. At other times they simply "roll" over the mouse, and at
still other times they explode violently on the mouse, often
snapping tippets while doing so. Every year a few monsters are
hooked and then proceed to spool hapless fishermen. During our
spectacular caddis hatch (which reaches blizzard proportions
and usually lasts a full week), 15 to 20 lb lakers can be taken
on dry flies (# 10 Elk hair caddis). Similarly, our amazing
Hexagenia hatch produces some amazing dry fly fishing for lakers.
This fishing has to be experienced to be believed. A few years
ago we shattered two I.G.F.A. lake trout records during the
same week, and this was the only time we attempted to register
fly-fishing world records for these fish. It is no exaggeration
to say that we have "unofficially" broken every fly-fishing
world record for lake trout several times over the years. When
it comes to fly-fishing and lake trout, Champdoré is
in a class by itself.
 Peak time for shallow-water lake trout
is usually the first 3 to 4 weeks of the season, but frequently
(as in 2001) shallow-water laker fishing remains consistent
throughout our entire season. It takes a drought or a few consecutive
weeks of unusually warm weather to force these fish down into
deep water, and for most years this does not occur. We also
have a tremendous but largely unexplored lake fishing opportunity
for these fish, along with the potential for all-tackle world
records. We encourage any and all inquiries to this end, as
we are anxious to learn more about and develop the lake fishing.
An afternoon spent trolling for lakers in Lac Champdoré
would be a good way for fly-fisherman to rest a weary or sore
shoulder.
Brook
Trout
Brookies are undoubtedly the most beautiful
of all freshwater fish, and at Champdoré we have them
in great abundance. Our new outpost camps give us safe access
to both trophies and  numbers of brookies. Guests who
have visited world-renowned camps for brook trout have told us that
they thought our brook trout fishing was the best they have
ever seen. During peak time (the end of July and throughout
August) you have as good a shot at 6 to 9 lb brook trout here
as anywhere else. It is, however, the consistency of the 3 to
5 lb fish in our trophy areas that is most impressive. Though
outstanding fishing can be had for both brookies and lakers
during the same week, the worse conditions are for shallow-water
lakers, the better our brookie fishing gets. Mouse patterns,
sculpin patterns, large streamers, stonefly nymphs, and large
dry flies are our most consistent producers.
Ouananiche
 One of the least
known, and rarest of fish species, Ouananiche are a landlocked
version of the increasingly rare Atlantic Salmon - the "prince" of
all game fish. There are very few great Ouananiche fisheries in the
world. Champdoré is one of them, and a visit to our camp is
well worth the price just to experience these magnificent
fish.
The numbers of landlocked
salmon in this system are astonishing, with catches of 20 to 30
landlocks between 2 to 5 lbs per person not being unusual at peak
time. These fish are lightning fast swimmers and acrobatic jumpers
that more often than not manage to throw the hook during a fight.
While vast numbers of small Ouananiche thrive in the rapids, the
larger ones are found in the calm-water flats well beyond the
rapids. To date, our largest recorded Ouananiche is 12 lbs,
although larger fish have been hooked. Dry flies and nymphs produce
well during hatches, but streamer flies trolled on floating lines
behind the boat produce the most consistent action for big fish.
Trolling with a flyrod is not only a great way to catch Ouananiche,
it is also a welcomed relief for a shoulder weary from repeated
casting and landing of fish. Peak time is hard to predict for these
fish.
Northern
Pike
 We don't claim to have the best Northern
Pike fishing in Canada. We do, however, have many outstanding
pike locations, and fly-fishing for them is a blast. We have
discovered some amazing early season locations where large pike
can be caught in less than 12 inches of water. Most of the time
we don't target these fish, but we would be happy to do so for
those guests who are interested in catching them. We frequently
catch some nice pike by "accident" while fishing for lakers,
and big pike (15 to 20 lbs) are frequently taken in our special
pike areas of the river.
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