Nunavik:
the Kingdom of the Char
by Barry Ord Clarke

On a barren treeless tundra in the very north of Quebec in Canada they say you can find the largest and strongest char in the world. In August last year I travelled to see if these rumours held any truth …..

		The Kodak yellow DeHavilland twin otter flew slowly over the disturbingly short and rough landing strip at North camp. The pilot was just taking a dummy run to make sure that all was clear for landing, suddenly with a pirouette swing with the tip of one wing almost touching the ground, we landed. At last we had arrived after 24 hrs travelling.
“Welcome to North camp”, said David Angutinguak and showed us to our cabin. One of six makeshift buildings made of a wooden frame covered with white plastic sheets to form the walls and roof. The first five days of our trip would be spent here in search of the elusive Arctic char, and David will be our guide. 31st of July and North camp has just opened for the season. The first three weeks for fishing char, both sea run and land locked, and lake trout, the largest member of the char family, and the rest of the season for caribou hunting.

The land of lakes After crossing the Atlantic with a Jumbo jet, one night’s stay in Montreal, 2 hrs flight north to Kuujjiuaq with a 737 jet and then 40 minutes with twin otter over tundra and thousands of lakes, it's difficult to wait to get your line wet. The anticipation reaches boiling point when David rolls out a 1:50 000 map of the area on the table and says: “This is char country!”
It's not difficult to agree with him when there is so much blue on the map that it makes Finland look like Saudi Arabia. We are soon tackled up and in the boat. David cranks up the 20-horse power motor on our 15 ft aluminium boat so we ride the top of the white horse waves that the strong wind has whipped up in this huge but shallow lake. After 30 mins hard boat trip we arrive at the first fishing spot; a 2-300 metre river stretch of fast water, not really a river but a stretch of rapids and pools where our lake runs into another huge lake. With the wind in our backs it isn't difficult to cast a big streamer out on the other side of the river. On the edge of the current on the other side, my fishing friend Jon has the first take, a heavy fish that heads straight for the fast water when he understands that he is hooked. After a few minutes he begins to work his way towards us, deep on the bottom of the crystal clear water, the fish attempts a few short runs to try and get back into the fast water, but Jon presses him hard into the shallower water.

		-Isiuralitaaq! shouts David in inuttitut, the language of the Inuits, when the fish shows its sandy coloured spotty side, as it rolls in the surface. -Lake trout he says in English as he stretches out with his large salmon landing net. It's name is deceiving, because it's not really a trout but a fish eating char that can grow to 15kg in this area. We don't catch any that size, but take many in the 3-4 kg weight class.
They are strong and heavy, but they don't take much line when they are hooked. All of the fish but for two, kept for eating, are returned, and David cuts delicate bright red filets from them and fries them in fat, together with onions and sliced potatoes. This is a fantastic lunch, and because the wind is keeping the flies at bay we can lie down after lunch in the ling and sleep for a while. What a life!

In the afternoon we move to another short river stretch and carry on fishing. Lake trout after lake trout are hooked and landed, but David says there should be much bigger fish here, and he is right... As I play a lake trout of 2-3 kg into the shallows, suddenly comes a huge dark shadow out from the deep, fast water and snaps its large fish eating jaws, like a crocodile around the fish I am playing, it spins around and disappears into the fast water with my fish! Here it just stands fast, I am unable to move it! I can feel my fish trying to escape, or is it the larger fish shaking my fish? A heavy banging on the rod persists for the next 10 seconds, and then "ping" it is gone along with my fly. “It's a good job you didn't catch them”, says David, with a smile, who has experienced this many times before, “you know it's not allowed to fish with live bait.”
Arctic char The next day the wind over the flat tundra from Ungava bay has really picked up and David is forced to take us to another fishing place than the one he had originally planned. With incredible local knowledge he steers the small aluminium boat close to land through extremely shallow water, to avoid the back-breaking gale, and after 30 minutes we arrive at a new stretch of river. "I have never fished these rapids!" says David. "It is possible that no one has ever fished here before," he continues. I have heard this before at other remote fishing destinations, and shortly after finding a beer tin or a cigarette packet, it's difficult to believe. But here in Quebec's tundra I do believe it's true.

		This stretch of white water and pools is filled with large blocks of stone, that make for good hiding and feeding positions for fish. After a couple of lake trout have been landed and released, Jon hits the first artic char in the fast water at the bottom of a small water fall. This is a same char that we would catch in our home land of Norway but here it's called Land locked. This is the same speicies as sea char but they choose to have a different life stratergy. The smallest type spending it's whole life in fresh water and the other spending periods feeding in the sea. We change tactics and go from streamers to large stone fly nymphs, resulting in many fish in the 0.5 -2 kg class. The largest being over 3 and nearer 4, these are strong fish and fantastic fighters.
Good Guides David is not of the type of guide that follows you everywhere, ties on flies, and is frightened of you falling in the water. He's more like one of the boys, with a good sense of humour. In addition to this, he handles the boat with great safety and navigates only like a local can.

The Insects Attack After another great lunch, this time artic char, the wind drops, and the insects arrive. Dark clouds of midges, mosquitoes and seriously carnivorous black flies. We have no choice but to put on our mosquito jackets, gloves and a good slash of DEBT. Luckily it's not only biting flies that are hatching in the warm wind free conditions. At the tail of the river where it runs into yet another big lake, caddis flies are hatching in their millions, and in the next couple of hours we experience the most fantastic dry fly fishing for artic char between 1-2 kg. With their tail and dorsal fins out of the water like patrolling sharks they cruise around in the mirror flat patches of water at the edge of the current, sucking down hatching caddis flies. Just about any type of caddis fly pattern we present these feeding fish is accepted. Some of the larger fish are even lifting our fly line clean out of the water with their backs as they swim under.

Monster char When the caddis fly hatch begins to cool off we change to large streamers. I begin casting across the swiftest current and feed out 30-40 metres of fly line and backing and let this swing around and straighten before I begin my retrieve. And then it happens!! My line has just swung around and not quite straightened when something big takes a hold of my fly, and I know immediately that this is no lake trout. My line cuts through the water at high speed, side ways, followed by 3 or 4 heavy bangs that put my # 7 six piece travel rod to a formidable test. Suddenly about 50 metres from land it breaks the surface like a pilot whale coming up for air, dives and makes a run. It's not possible to stop it! I shout to Jon who also sees the fish break the surface. After 7-8 minutes hard fighting the fish shakes its head and spits out my fly.

A few days later we return to the same spot, almost by accident. The place David takes us first we find a family of otters that are ere also fishing, there is not a fish to be seen! So we return to the spot where I had lost the big fish. I only have to wait 30 minutes before I am hanging onto my rod with both hands again. This is as heavy as a goods train, can it be the same fish? And after a single run that lasts about 9-10 seconds, 175 metres of fly line and backing are stretched out between me and the fish, with a total of 180 metres on my large arbor reel, when luckily the fish stops after the first run. After 10 minutes' fight, of which I had no control over the fish, I just hung on, we saw it for the first time. A bright red, big spotted char, that seems to be as broad over it's back as it is long. After two more long powerful runs, I think the fish is finished and try to bring him over David's net in the shallows, but the fish quickly turns and steams across the shallow bay with its back high above the waters surface. David moves quickly, jumping from stone to stone like a mountain goat, slides the net under and lifts the monster to safety. The scales show a good 7kg. Arctic char shouts David. When the sea char are 3 or 4 years old they swim out to sea in late spring and return back to fresh water in early autumn, but not all of them are ready for spawning. Some of them delay spawning until the following year and spend a year in fresh water. This is one of them.

Air Canada took 135 dollars in extra baggage charges for my frozen hand luggage, but worth every cent.

Our Outfitters: Ungava Adventures 46 St Anne Street Suite 3A Pointe Claire Quebec H9S 4P8 Canada Tel 0015146944424 Fax 0015146944267 www.ungava-adventures.com