Outfitters Accessing information on our outfitters and comparision of all your various fishing or hunting vacation options is easy
Map This is your guide to fishing, hunting and outdoor recreation for Northwestern Ontario - Canada's Great Outdoors.
Welcome to Canada's NW Ontario to "Catch Canada Fever"
So.... you’re thinking of taking a trip to Canada for the fishing, hunting or wilderness adventure trip of a lifetime. Well, you’ve come to right place to start or should I say one of the right places. The Patricia Regional Tourist Council maintains a series of websites each targeted to a particular sector of the tourism industry in our vast wilderness area of Canada's Northwest Ontario. The fishing here is second to none with our primary fish species being walleye, northern pike, musky, trout and smallmouth bass.
This particular site is dedicated to the fishing and hunting lodges of the region. For clarity, there is no fixed difference between a fishing/hunting lodge, resort or camp other than in name alone. Generally speaking a resort would be more family oriented and have more extracurricular activities than a fishing lodge or camp, but this is not a forgone conclusion one can draw simply from the name “Resort”. The fishing lodges, resorts and camps of Canada’s Heartland come in 2 basic flavors that are then further categorized by the methods of access to their facility.
Lodges, resorts and camps generally provide American Plan or Housekeeping Accommodations
An American plan (AP) resort, lodge or camp provides meals and daily maid services. Enhanced services such as fish cleaning and packaging, guides (often optional) and upgraded boats, fuel etc. can often be part of the basic AP lodge package in Canada. The level of services included in basic rates varies from lodge to lodge and one wants to be clear on exactly what is or isn’t included in the package as quoted. On a full service Canadian AP fishing trip you can expect to be just a little bit pampered. When you wander down from a full breakfast, your boat should be cleaned and gassed in the morning and your bait ready and waiting along with your guide. Come lunch time you relax shore side while the guide prepares one of those wonderful Canadian shore lunches of fresh walleye, northern pike or lake trout. Then after lunch, it’s back out on the water for more fishing action.
A Canadian Housekeeping plan (HK) resort, lodge or camp provides basic accommodation and additional services either on an a la carte basis or in various packages. The basic difference being that HK packages do not include meals or daily housekeeping service as these you do yourself. At a housekeeping lodge or camp you are expected to be a great deal more self sufficient. You’re the guide, cook and chief bottle washer although your host will be happy to point you in the right direction as far as where the fish are etc. Also, as noted above, services such as a guide for your day on the lake, fish cleaning & packaging, can generally be purchased for an additional cost.
Lodges, resorts and camps are further categorized by the method of direct access.
There are 3 basic methods of access: Drive to, Boat-in and Fly-in.
A drive to lodge has, of course, direct road access, although that may be via relatively primitive wilderness roads.
A boat in lodge is accessible only by water - usually the lodge or resort will have a private landing where you can park your vehicle and transportation from there is provided by the lodge via a camp launch or boat.
A fly in lodge is accessible only by air either to a private landing strip at or near the lodge or by float plane - usually the lodge or resort has a civilization main base where they provide parking for your vehicle and air transportation from there is provided by the lodge. NB. You are still responsible for providing your own transportation to the operator’s civilization main base.
