What to Bring

Although we have showers and indoor toilets in the main camp, we have no laundry facilities. Therefore, it is important that you bring your own towel(s) and sleeping bag. We do, however, provide beds, mattresses, and pillows at the main and outpost camps. The sleeping bag and towel are used in both main camp and at the outpost camps. Of course you should bring waders and wading boots. You will probably spend 8 to 10 hours per day wearing your waders and they will likely experience some wear and tear. Therefore, you should bring materials to repair small punctures. We suggest that you bring lightweight chest waders and boots with felt soles. Neoprene tends to be too hot for hiking around the various rapids and metal studs in the soles do not work well when moving about metal boats.

Other things to bring:

• Wading staff (optional)
• Special snacks
• Head nets
• Toilet kits
• Long underwear (Capelene works well)
• Socks, long woolen
• Shirts, long-sleeved , cotton and woolen
• Shirts, short-sleeved
• Rain jacket or wading jacket
• Heavy sweater and/or pullover
• Warm jacket
• Gloves (fingerless)
• Hats (fishing and stocking)
• Sun glasses (polarized)
• Sun block
• Camera and film
• Insect repellent
• Lightweight chest waders
• Small backpack
• Fishing vest
• Prescription drugs

Fishing Tackle

All lures and flies must have only single barbless hooks. If some of your spinning or baitcasting lures have treble hooks, these hooks must either be modified to become a single hook, or the treble hook must be replaced with a single hook. All barbs must be pinched off the hooks.

The following is a detailed description of some of the tackle we recommend. First we discuss tackle for lake trout, followed by brook trout and ouananiche (landlocked salmon), and finally northern pike. Our description for lake trout is quite lengthy, and it essentially covers much of what you will need for brookies, ouananiche, and pike.

Lake trout: We recommend bringing at least two 8 to 10-weight flyrods for lakers. Overall, 8-weights are a great all-around rod size for Champdoré. Seven-weight rods are just a little light for fish over 20 lbs, and definitely much too light on anything over 30 lbs. Many fishermen prefer to bring three flyrods for lakers. They set up one rod with a floating line (weight forward) and one with a sinking line (300-350 grain line) and the third rod serves as a spare. Remember that it is common to break rods in the North Country, particularly when you're catching a lot of fish and you are fishing for a whole week. We find that using these two rods with a variety of floating and weighted flies allows us to handle comfortably just about any fishing situation.

All streamers (sizes 4 to 02) work well for lakers, i.e., flash flies, saltwater flies, deceivers, clousers, zonkers, wooly-buggers, and weighted bunny strips with a bit of flash. One of the very best streamer patterns to use for all species of fish at Champdoré is a weighted olive hare sculpin (size #4). Sculpin patterns larger than #4 work well on the lake trout but they usually aren't necessary. Aside from remaining unusually shallow throughout the summer, Champdoré lakers break the rules in that relatively small flies will frequently catch very large fish. Your favorite tan or gray caddis imitations work great during the big hatches (#10) and it is always hard to beat an elk hair caddis. Royal wulff and coachmen also work well, as do various colored bombers. Oh yes. Don't forget your big bushy lemming and mouse patterns (with short tails). Lemmings at Champdoré have a light gray belly and a dark brown back and tail.

As for leaders, we like them to be 16 to 20-lb test hard monofilament, about 3 or 4 feet long. Champdoré fish aren't line shy and they have large sharp teeth, so when the fishing is fast and furious, leaders take a real beating.

Baitcasting and spinning techniques work very well at Champdoré. Its hard to beat a 3/4 ounce red and white daredevil, and big pink insert pixies are also great. Crankbaits also work well but you have to make them single hooked and barbless. 10 to 15-lb test lines are good for the lakers.

When trolling for lakers, the largest-sized evil-eye flutter spoons are great. We usually have a few hard-to-find specialty spoons kicking about, but most trolling or casting spoons will do the trick. The ultimate controlled depth-trolling rig is pretty easy to assemble these days, and even though you won't ever need it on the river, we love these rigs whenever we troll for lakers in the lake, even when they are shallow. The rig consists of a "flippin stick", a line counter reel, and a braided "super" line (like spider wire) 40-lb test or more (braided wire also works but is much trickier to use). Add 3 to 6 ounces of lead and you can fish 100 feet deep if necessary. More importantly, you can fish any depth and repeatedly return to precisely that depth. This is very important as many times the lakers are suspended in a restricted portion of the water column. Although the majority of our customers come to Champdoré to flyfish, if requested, we are willing to put in some time on the lake trolling for "Godzilla". Some of the biggest lakers in the world roam these waters. We will have trolling equipment available as weight restrictions may prevent you from bringing your own equipment.

Brook Trout and Ouananiche: When fishing for these two species you may want to use a 5 or 6-weight rod and leaders lighter than those recommended for lakers, but bear in mind that large lakers (and pike) will be hooked "accidentally" from time to time. We usually use weight-forward floating lines. If it is necessary to get the fly down a bit we like using a 6-foot sinking tip that is attached to the floating line with a loop-to-loop connection. Big bushy mouse and lemming flies, streamers, match-the-minnow, zonkers, sculpins in olive or black (size #4), muddler minnows, baby trout, elk hair caddis (#10), bombers, yellow or orange stimulators, royal wulffs, and a few mayfly, midge and nymph patterns will cover the bases nicely. For the Ouananiche, traditional landlocked salmon streamers like the "grey ghost" work great, but the old olive sculpin will usually keep pace with them. When nymphing, we like using a large prince (#10) with a bomber functioning as a strike indicator. Large weighted black or brown stonefly nymphs also work well for both ouananiche and brook trout. There is rarely a need for ultra fine tippets at Champdoré. We find that 6 to 8-lb test lines work fine as the fish are not at all line shy. A medium light spinning rig with 6 to 8-lb test lines work well for these species. Furthermore, #3 spinners, smaller pink pixies and daredevils are very effective.

Northern Pike: For pike you'll want leader material made of hard monofilament or you may want to construct a 4 to 6 inch stainless steel mono-wire bite guard. For pike use the same flies that are used for lake trout, such as large streamers, poppers, and mice. In general, outfits described for lakers will work fine for pike, and most traditional pike flies and lures are very effective. Also, be sure and pack a few large bass-type poppers. They are useful for both pike and lakers.