All the people who say "wool" are right. Look at wool army surplus sweaters (available at your local army/navy store, or at www sportsmansguide com). If you've got the money, add in a Stanfields wool undershirt (Van Island Tux) and a good set of long johns (not cotton).
I fish on the Bay of Fundy Oct-February and this is the basis of my stay-warm gear.
Re: camo patterns/Browning Vs UnderArmour/whatever - mostly marketing hype. Good longjohns and good wool and smarts about staying under cover while moving are the most important things.
i d,ont know where you hunt Buddy but your game must be blind ,i do agree with you on the stink part. but camo is everything, if they see you your fu#$@#ed ,i,ve hunted all my adult life since i was a teenager, i am 46 now and guided in the province of new Brunswick for moose, black bears and deer for the last 20 years or so and scent is important but camo is everything!!! with good camo patterns that blend in properly in the environment i have had deer come so close to me that i could of killed it! with a stick!!!!!!camo is everything!!!!!!!!!!! my five cents Worth!!
If you're hunting deer with camo on in NB, you're breaking the law, plain and simple. And I've shot every deer I've shot wearing blaze orange, as the law says (most with buckshot at close range, too).
You do not need camo, but you do need to know how to stay out of sight while hunting. No Browning pattern can beat the concealment of a brushpile. If you're hunting bears over bait, you don't need it, as long as you know how to build a blind properly. If you're hunting on foot, again, any bear is going to spot you if you're running all over creation on foot, and if you are still hunting, just sit behind a bush or a tree. Not rocket science. Same for moose. You either build a proper stand, or don't run around in the open.
Even duck hunting, you can get away without it, although it does help a lot there, especially if you don't have time to build a proper blind.
If I had to pick my favourite all-around commercial pattern, it would be Cabelas Guide camo, but I don't own any of it, just like the look of it, as it's very very bland and looks like it would work in a wide variety of terrain. My favourite milsurp pattern is British DPM, followed by German flecktarn.
