| Overall Rating |   |
| Fishing |  |
| Staff Helpfulness | |
| Value | |
There aren’t many places in the world more beautiful than the Killarney Wilderness Park. Combine this natural beauty with great fishing and you have yourself the making of a prime fishing destination. Bear Lake Wilderness Camp offers you access to Killarney Wilderness Park’s excellent fishing and beautiful scenery.
BLWC is a boat-in camp offering fishermen many lakes to fish from. You can fish on the chain of main lakes and enjoy yourself, but the best fishing is found on their many portage lakes. Smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, pike and panfish are the top targets for fishermen. Walleye are available on the main lakes but in limited quantity. That said, they do catch a number of trophy walleye every year. Lake trout and brook trout are also available.
This entry contains the information I have learned about Bear Lake Wilderness Camp from searching the web. Fishing Traveler has received no financial or any other type of compensation for this post. The information here is accurate only to the best of my knowledge. All information should be verified with Bear Lake Wilderness Camp before booking a trip.
Fishing
I have already described the fishing in the introduction but want to emphasize that the best fishing at BLWC is on the portage lakes. There are some people who go there and only fish the main chain of lakes but I don’t recommend this plan unless you are a only targeting trophy fish. You just won’t find the numbers on the main lakes that you’ll find on the portage lakes.
They have about 25 lakes that have boat or canoe caches. Some of these lakes you do need to hire a guide for the first time in order not to get lost. We didn’t do that and caught a lot of fish. I do know someone who did this and the fishing was out of this world on a lake stuffed with largemouth bass.
Even some of the easily accessible portage lakes can be phenomenal, especially if you are a bass chaser. You can see our full trip report to Bear Lake Wilderness Camp here. We just scratched the surface of the fishing potential at this camp.
From a dad’s perspective, this is a great camp to take children to due to the combination of adventure of a boat-in and number of fish you can catch. Both of my sons caught their largest bass ever on this trip.
I recently had a conversation with someone who called the bass fishing unbeleiveable but was disappointed about the walleye fishing at Bear Lake. So let me emphasize that it is my opinion that this is not the place to go to chase walleyes in numbers. They do catch a number of trophy walleye every year on the chain of main lakes. I would guess if you really focused you could find some nice fish during a week’s stay. We didn’t target walleye. So, I can’t comment too much on the walleye fishing from personal experience. I just know what I have read and heard from others.
Lake trout, perch and bluegill are available. They also have a brook trout lake if that fits your interest.
Fishing Video
Here is an overview of what Bear Lake Wilderness Camp offers.
Accommodations
Bear Lake Wilderness Camp is a boat-in camp. BLWC is not totally isolated and there are other cabins on the main lakes but don’t let this bother you as there is not a lot of fishing pressure here. I think we saw one other boat during the week that was not associated with the camp.
The cabins are typical for a boat-in camp. They have electric which works on a generator that shuts down overnight. They have running water for drinking. You will have to use an outhouse which really isn’t that big of a deal.
Packages and Rates
BLWC offers a Housekeeping Plan package. The rates on their site are still from 2009 but will run adults about $700 per person. Kids under 14 are just $150 each. You do need to pay an extra $90 for your portage motor for the week.
They offer a pike and walleye special for late May into the end of June for approximately $500.
Location
Bear Lake Wilderness Camp is located near Espanola, Ontario. The Google Map below is intended to give you an idea of their general location and does not reflect the exact destination.
Contact Information
There is a lot more information about Bear Lake Wilderness Camp on their site or by calling 705-866-7100 during the season and 502-648-2758 during the off-season.
Comments and Reviews
If you have fished at Bear Lake Wilderness Camp, please take a moment and review your experience. If this is your first time leaving a review, please take a moment to review our guidelines.
Or, you can choose to leave a comment or ask a question and choose not to leave a rating at all – 0 stars is treated as no rating, and won’t lower the average ratings.
We caught a ton of fish a BLWC. Check out our full report for more details.
Bear Lake Camp has good fishing, caught alot of small mouth , largemouth and Pike. Walleye fishing is really not that great, when I was there, there was a group of guys who were supposely walleye experts and they caught very few and said they would NOT go here for walleye fishing again but they did like the place.
The cabins are nice(nothing fancy) and has the basics for comfort. I’ve been there twice, the price is cheap and you can catch some fish.
Going to the portage lakes is alot of fun and we caught some big fish in them.
Jim the guide is great and very nice.
Probably go back there for a 3rd time sometime in the next couple years.
Great place. Hope to return this year or next. We were there in July 2010. Took my wife and 4 sons ages 17,15,12, and 9. They are ready to go back. The cabins are nice, not fancy, equipped with a propane refrigerator, and stove, also running water and a sink. Hot showers are in a separate building. We fished about 6 of the portage lakes, always caught lots of fish. Mostly small mouth and large mouth. The owner and Jim were professional and friendly. I love the remoteness of this place. Note if you do not like bugs mid to late July is a great time to go to Canada. On this particular trip the mosquitoes were almost non existent, still bring some 100% DEET and you won’t have a worry. They make a trip into town mid week too, in case you forgot anything.
I have been to Bear Lake many times over the past years. It started with “Matt” who was the owner that lived in Windsor. He took the time to show us some hot spots on the main lakes and map out a few on the outer lakes for us as well. Then a few years later “Chuck” purchased the property. They both ran the camp well and as always the equipment was in excellent condition. All the boats in the outer lakes were well mainhtained and there for our pleasure. To the fishing now. I found the main lake an easy lake to fish. Look for the structures hidden or marked. There is a nice ridge that comes up to about 20′ from 60′+ in the middle of the main channel about 1/4 mile up from the camp. Use your depth finder to find it. We had luck with pickerel there and pike. At the narrows you will get nice pike on minnows at dusk. Fish on the bear lake side of it. On a cloudy day, we found the Cranberry lakes the best for pick. Troll a silver spoon with red eyes through the narrows between the two lakes. We had the best luck in Bassoon Lake as well on a cloudy day. Fish near the Eagles Nest. Those of you who have been there know where it is, those of you don’t…. just watch for it. We always got great Bass out of that lake. Mile lake, although small will provide some nice trout fishing if your patient. I don’t think Burnt Cabin is open any more. I believe the beavers have damned some of the trail and the lake has become a swamp. However, the owner of the camp now would have the information. Check with them before heading out. The most productive lakes we found were Cat Lake and Howery. Both for pike, but Howery for trophy pike. Cat Lake if your happy with a bunch of 3 – 7 lb pike. I suspect that Chuck no longer owns Bear Lake Camp and the owner is wondering who in the hell I am. If the camp is being run now as it was in the past, then a trip here would certainly be worth your while and should be on every fishermans “Bucket List”.
My son, my brother-in-laws and I have been at Bear Lake Wilderness Resort in summer 2008 and again in 2009. Everything Chris has stated in his review is right on target.
It’s a basic camp, nothing fancy just a down to earth camp geared towards fishing. They meet you at the pickup point in right on time; you load up on the boats and take off for their island. The owners are nice and responsive to questions but also leave you alone to do your own thing. We spent some time fishing on the main Bear Lake during 2008 but much less time in 2009 because most of the action is on the smaller portage lakes.
On one of the small lakes we caught numerous 15-19 inch large mouths on nearly every cast and with every type of lure. Plastic worms, top waters, rat-l-traps, etc. Other lakes were active enough to make it exciting and worthwhile. As Chris said every time you see a beaver lodge you will catch fish. We also did extremely well just off the weed beds near beaver dams.
We caught very few pike but did not make a serious effort on the pike, we were there for bass.
Some lakes have both small and large mouth, others only large mouth. While there we saw lots of beaver, deer, some bear, a moose, also some real ugly aggressive snapping turtles. We did encounter rain in 2009 but it only slightly interfered with our fishing.
Overall it’s a very productive location and allows you to be totally alone and the only person fishing on the smaller lakes. Will we go back? – Yes.
Greasy dirty cabins,the fridge had mold all over it,and had to clean the stove first to prevent a grease fire. Comments from the owner about the conditions was quite simple, THEY HAVE BEEN BUSY. What I mostly saw was the staff and owner watching TV or boating hunters to and from. Fishing was terrible. Will advise others their website is deceiving. This place is run down.