Echoing Lake Camp Comes to Life 2019

I first heard about Echoing Lake Camp in the Fall of 2014.  My curiosity was peaked by the location on two fronts.  It is the furthest North-operating lodge in Ontario and it is within 20 miles of several world-class pike and trout lakes (Edmund Lake, Kistigan, and God’s Lake).  So it had location in spades and when I heard the lodge held at most 8 guys and had been very lightly fished I was SOLD. 

I tried in 2015-2017 several times to work my network of outpost guys to get together a group of 8 but I couldn’t quite get that number together.  Then in stepped my opportunity.  A friendly group of 5 that had gone to Echoing the year before as 8 had lost 3 guys and desperately wanted to go back.  They posted on Walleye Central that they needed 3 more guys.  I was in within 24 hours and figured I could find a boat partner.  Obviously I had huge expectation and I knew who would be the perfect fit.  My Dad.  After fishing a number of fantastic lodges in the last few years I want to show my dad a fantastic trip.  Another plus for this trip was this one would be over my dad’s 79^th birthday, which made the trip even more special.  The group also found a single and we were a full group of 8.  This was really happening!

Travel to Sioux Lookout offers a few choices.  The simplest choice was to drive up through Thunder Bay or International Falls.  If you choose to drive you can look forward to approximately 3.5 hours from International Falls to Sioux Lookout.  We stayed at the Sunset Inn ands Suites.  As a guy who spends 100+ nights a year in hotels I can Sunset is rough!  I don’t recommend it but it has one big plus.  The restaurant in the parking lot is Dicks Grill house.  I highly recommend Dick’s.  Good food with tons of choices and based on the 8 meals delivered to our table it is a great choice.

The trip was scheduled to be Sunday Sept 15 to Sept 22.  We woke up to a near perfect Fall morning. This trip was a go!  My expectations of the entire experience couldn’t be higher.  Thank goodness our flight left right on time. The two plus hour flight left ample time to daydream about trout and pike on nearly every cast.  At this point in steps our first are you kidding me moments.  6 of us and a few random pieces of luggage were put in the Caravan and left right on time around 830a.  Two guys and the remaining luggage were placed in a Beaver that was to follow us up at 30-40 mph less but no big deal, right.  The plan was to wait 30 minutes or so for the 300-mile trip to be completed by the Beaver and we would be on the lake by noon!  Well my dad and I were on the first flight with 4 other guys.  What we didn’t know is at the last minute they pulled the Beaver from service due to a travel time restriction, which would push the plane past a minor service check.  This meant the Beaver sat for 2-3 hours waiting for a maintenance exemption certificate to be issued by a mechanic.  A better plan would’ve been to keep guys with their gear together even if that meant 5 guys in the Caravan and 3 in the beaver.  Then the 5 could’ve been fishing by noon.  Instead none of us could fish until around 3p.

Ok we are finally on the lake.  We were fortunate to start out with the most senior guide, Issac!  He asked what we wanted to do and I suggested the rock pile and reef Mike Borger had fished 3 years early.  It is located in a sheltered portion of the lake directly off the dock.  My thought process went like this.  It was already 3p.  Our travel time would be almost nothing.  If we could get our feet wet with a few quick and easy fish that would be great.  Success!  The first cast my dad made he picked up a small 3lb Lake Trout.  We pounded away for an hour or two on the reef and picked up 30 or so smallish trout on Medium weight spinning gear.  What a blast. The crystal clear water was amazing and made the fish fighting an especially fun experience.  Not only did the trout fight with reckless abandon but they also could be seen spinning and bulldogging in the crystal clear water.  Amazing experience!

The next morning we fished with Isaac again.  We fished several other reefs and could see the trout cruising the reefs in 8-15 feet of water but the bite wasn’t exactly fast and furious.  We had a bit of luck with Dr spoons in the following colors; Paintball, Orange, Silver/Blue, and Chart with 5 of diamonds in Red.  Other lures that were good for Trout and turned out to be good for the whole week were the 1oz salt water Rat-L-Traps in Silver/Blue and Chart/flash, Husky Juniors from Eppinger, and 6 in Salt Water Grubs from Berkeley in Pink / White / Orange Tiger.  The average Trout was fun sized at 22-26 inches.

Later on day two we left the reefs to chase pike.  On the North shore of Echoing are two huge weed filled bays that has still green cabbage in 10-15ft of water.  That is where the pike should be and man were they ever there.  The size, quality, health of these pike could rival anywhere I had fished in recent years.  In an afternoon my dad and I managed 4 pike over 40 inches with many, many in the 35-39 in range.  I can conservatively say we had 9 more in the 35-39 range and that is pretty much how the pike fishing continued whenever we ventured out to fish the weed beds.  

As the week continued the trout fishing slowed a bit everyday and the pike kept right going hot as heck.  Everyday the fish were in there feeding like crazy.  We just needed to work our pattern a bit everyday depending on the wind, sun, and temperature.  One day smaller spoons like Dare Devyle Dogs were better.   Another day the Savage Gear hard swimbaits were better.  About 50% of the time a 1/2oz-1oz Zman jig 5/0-8/0  hook with a 6 in Berkeley Salt Water Grub was hot.  I burned through 7 bags of these with my dad and I both fishing out of my bag.  I absolutely love fishing pike on big jigs.  Great hook setting ability, quick easy release, and super easy to fish.  Cast / Set Hook / Fight / Quick Release.  We hit A LOT of fish just like that.  We ran up a count of 9 40+ with another 50 in that 35-39 inch hard fighting fun pike for the week.

Back at the lodge we had a cook preparing all of our meals.  We were asked when we wanted to eat and we asked for 730a / 100p / 700p.  This was about all we could fish due to the short days in mid-September.  The meals were quite basic but after a day of fishing definitely a plus to not worry about cooking.  The lodge has hot and cold running water with a 3-piece bath and brand new mattresses to sleep on.  Another very nice feature with this lodge is the Wi-Fi and Satellite TV, which meant the shorter days allowed us to watch Monday night football, Thursday night football, and several pre-season hockey games.  I imagine the TV would be nice if the weather had turned out to be less than perfect.  We were blessed with BEAUTIFUL Fall weather.  Most days started out in the low 40s and rose to mid 60s.  The leaves were changing and gave us beautiful day after day of picture perfect scenery as we moved from place to place.

One of the other features of this lodge is the promise of fly-outs included in the trip price.  The fly out we wanted was to fish Ney Lake.  Which is just a quick 10-15 min fight from Echoing.  As near as I could determine from chatting with the 4 guides NO ONE had ever fished Ney from Sachigo or Echoing and I wanted to be that guy SOOOO bad.  Isaac tried to make it happen.  He had stripped a boat down to make it as light as possible and it was sitting right by the dock, but the plane never showed up.  MAJOR disappointment.  We changed gears the next day when the plane did finally show up at 1130a and flew into Yelling where there is another very basic cabin/shack.  We flew over and search the reef were Mike Borger killed the trout 2 years earlier and they just weren’t there in great numbers.  Sure we caught a couple but they just weren’t there.  Then we switched to walleyes and found a few but they also were scattered.  So we returned to the bay near the cabin and fished pike for an hour or two waiting for the plane to return around 6p.  In general the experience of a quick day of fishing on another lake was fun.  The fishing just wasn’t great and with our late start we didn’t have a lot of time to pattern the fish.

Our last full day of fishing was my dad’s birthday.  I gave him the choice of where to fish and how to fish.  He said he wanted a big trout for his birthday.  I suggested to our guide we fish parallel to the large reef east of camp.  This boulder strewn reef earlier in the week had left me speechless when a 30+ pound trout followed my big spoon back to the boat and despite many follow up casts the best I could do was to manage a second look one time by the big girl.  So trolling we went in 40ft of water parallel to the reef and after I picked up one smaller trout in the 5-pound range I was absolutely SMASHED by a big fish.  One minute we are trolling along and the next I get a hit that was like a punch from Mike Tyson.  The massive trout attached to my St Croix Tide master MH rod and Shimano Static 5000 was peeling off line at a furious pace. I watched 50 yards of line scream off the big reel before I started tightening the drag.  I tighten it up slowly but finally was able to stop the fish after more than 100 yards was put between the big fish and the boat.  Keeping the tip up and slowly working the fish back I was able to net the trout I had dreamed about since I first heard about Echoing 5 years earlier.  Mission Accomplished.  Then my next thought was SHIT!  This should’ve been my dad’s fish.  If only this big girl had hit his spoon and not mine this would’ve been a perfect birthday for my dad.  I still feel bitter sweet about that fish more than any other trophy I have ever caught.  For his part my dad was thrilled to see me catch the fish and was fine with me catching the big girl.

The next morning we were scheduled to fly out.  The beaver was brought in the night before so we could get out at first light.  Also Isaac had asked the pilot to grab a birthday cake from town for my dad in before he flew in.  THANK YOU Isaac for the very kind gesture of bringing in a cake for my dad.  The cake tasted as good as it looked and my dad and I are very grateful.

Overall impression – Fantastic Value in an outpost camp.  The issues are around the camp’s over-promising and under-delivering.  Which creates disappointment at times but it is hard to be disappointed when you get to see your dad so worn out his average cast is in the 20 ft. range.  LOL I also got to see him laugh and grunt at massive pike hitting his lures a few feet from the boat time after time.  This was a fantastic trip with fantastic fishing at a price slightly higher ($800-$1000) than some outposts and WAY lower than many similar lodges ($1500-$2000).

I take a good bit of pride in being completely transparent when reviewing a lodge so let me layout the Pros and Cons

Pros                                               Cons

Price/value                                                    Organization of camp

Great multiple species fishing                     Only one fly out available only to Yelling

Sioux Lookout is drivable                             Long float flights into camp 2-3 hours

Wi-Fi                                                               Yelling Cabin is VERY basic

Satellite TV                                                     Guides aren’t very experienced

American Plan                                               Food is very basic

Brand new boats and motors          

New mattresses

Hot/Cold running water and shower                                 

Well 2019 is in the book. Dunlops – Taltson – Echoing This was a pretty damn great year with fantastic experiences. I’ll do a summary post soon but for now I am incredibly grateful to the lodges and my family for allowing me these experiences. Hoping 2020 can live up to 2019 but it will be tough!