How I Spend My Summer

[chickenhawk]

Hi there guys, it has certainly been quite a while since I have posted because I have been so busy with school and just haven't had the time to get out fishing much at all this winter. Got out a couple of times steelheading and put a couple bows on the bank but nothing special. Since it is that time of year I thought I would share some of my adventures while guiding for Kettle Falls Lodge which is owned by Halley's Camps. Halley's is located on the English River System....the part that we use is known as Umfreville Lake. Halley's owns 3 lodges on Umfreville, there is Kettle which is where I am stationed throughout most of the summer, One Man Lake Lodge which is the 2nd Lodge and it too offers guided trips but most people don't use guides who go there, and then there is the Caribou Falls Landing which is accessible by vehicle. Kettle Falls is located exactly 70 miles west of Kenora On, and to reach it you have to travel by boat from the landing or ride in on one of these bad boys.

 

 

This is myself and one of our top guides named Mac unloading the caravan. Not only can this plane land on water but it can land on pavement as well. We use this plane to go back and forth from the Winnipeg Airport to bring in guests to our lodges. George and Gene Halley are both co owners of Halley's Camps, River Air and the Outpost Company. Unfortunately this past December George passed away from a heart attack he suffered while out at one of the lodges. He will be greatly missed. River air owns a base in Kenora and a base in Minaki and supplies the majority of the lodges in the area with necessities. For our lodge we mainly see two beavers, one turbo otter, two cub 180s i believe they are called and of course the caravan. Here is a couple pictures I took from the plane while on a fly out.

 

 

 

Now the outpost company is something that the Halley family offers instead of booking a vacation within one of the lodges which gives you the opportunity to be flown into an outpost cabin and stay there for a number of days with your own personal lake and boat. I was flown into a cabin this past summer called Moosehorn Lake and was full of these feisty little buggers, although this one was caught from Umfreville.

 

 

Now this is what my day consists of, everyday I am woken up at 6:45 to head up to the lodge for breakfast which is generally bacon and eggs or pancakes, honestly I get sick of it by the end of the first month. After the guides eat the breakfast bell for the guests rings around 7ish and while the guests eat the guides prepare their shore lunch boxes and prep their boats for a day on the water. Generally the guests are finished eating and in the boats and ready to be on the water by about 8 o clock. We start every day jiggin for shore lunch fish and once we got that the day is ours. We generally meet up around noon for lunch and back on the water by about 1:30-2:00ish...fish the afternoon until 5 when everyone is due back at the docks. From there, the guests can head back to their cabins and the guides head up to the lodge to unload their shore lunch boxes and write down any trophies that were caught during the day. The dinner bell rings at 6 and the guides have their own table while the guests enjoy the dining room. Sharon Halley who also runs the kitchen at Kettle Falls, announces trophies about mid way through dinner and hands out prizes. After dinner, the younger crowd of the guides a.k.a me, Curtis who was our dock boy and Chase Halley who is George and Sharon's grandson are in charge of catching minnows for the following days work. We have two ways of doing this, early in the year when the water is still cold we set traps in a little beaver pond for chub minnows but once it begins to warm up a bit we can start to sane for shiners and boy oh boy what a pain in the arse that can be some nights....out till dark chasing around minnows....sound like fun? But once we get that done if we do get it done then we can generally sneak out fishing for a couple hours before dark. After that we retire to our shacks for the night....Here is a picture of the dining room area facing the kitchen while guests enjoy their supper.....

 

 

Now this group that I spent 4 days guiding, was just a hoot. There were four of them between myself and another guide named Adrian. All four of them were jail guards and boy did they have some stories but we'll save that for another time...Anyways these guys were an absolute riot especially the one guy who I nicknamed Chop while he was there lol its okay cuz he nicknamed me Stroke. Anyways here is a picture of three of them with myself and Adrian...

 

 

Here is another picture of the group while at shore lunch...Chop's the short little fat guy on the left....haha poor guy, I have to tell this story...the first day Chop was in my boat in the afternoon he wanted to go casting for snakes and I told him he couldn't handle it, so he called my bluff and said "LET'S GO YA JACK JOB!" so we start casting this bay pickin up the odd pike here and there and I think we may have even gotten a nice smallie when finally Chop gets a big fish on, and he is fighting this thing, I mean Chop is gaspin for air by the time this thing surfaced beside the boat and what a beauty pike it was I have to say probably woulda went around 40 inches or so, a definite trophy. When it came up beside the boat I told Chop you just gotta hang on because he is going to do one more big run and we can put him in the net, so Chop was ready as ever and that fish took off like I said it would but didn't stop just took poor ol Chop's leader and everything with him lol I couldn't help but laugh at him, that's probably why him and I got along so well...anyways heres some pics with Chop and the group...

 

 

Ah, here is Jeff Young who was apart of Chop's group with a beauty 28.5 inch walleye we jigged up one morning, Jeff had been coming to the lodge for ten years and caught numerous trophy pike and bass but never a wallleye, was glad to get him his first.

 

 

Here is the same fish

 

 

I forgot to mention that Jeff is a helluva fisherman, I've never seen anyone cast so accurate with a baitcaster, that guy could put wherever I told him to put it and he had a good couple days, here is a beauty pike he caught that smashed his crankbait right at the boat.

 

 

During all the fun, Adrian landed this beauty eye

 

 

and here is just a couple more pictures of myself that were taken while Chop and them enjoyed the rest of their stay.

 

 

 

Which brings me onto the Bob White group, I am just going over a few of my favourite groups from the summer. Bob White is a fella who comes every year to the lodge but always brings newcomers with him. This year he brought brothers, Derek and Devin Avery. I had the privilege to fish with the brothers for a day and then with each of them and their dad. We put an absolute slaying on those mid summer walleyes. I had my eyes glued to the depth finder for 3 days and seemed everywhere I found a mid lake hump, there was walleyes there, in 3 days we boated over 400 walleyes, I know that because the boys kept a clicker. Here is a couple pictures of the slaughter fest. This morning I spent with Derek and his dad was unbelievable, between 8 in the morning and 12 at noon we had boated over 80 walleyes with a big pike thrown into the mix, enjoy. First up is a picture of the brothers....Devin is on the left and Derek on the right...

 

 

Of course I can't forget that big pike that showed up....

 

 

and then dad chipped in with one or two....

 

 

Hey sometimes, the guide even has to get in on the action...

 

 

 

Another shot of the action, haha

 

 

Here is a picture of myself and two of the veteran guides, Lindy and our head guide Brian Parker, just doing what we do best....

 

 

and of course who could forget,

 

 

mmmmm mmmmm, which brings me to the Shulz. Now when I first met Robert, Chris, Keith and Bobby I thought, oh no here we go. Ended up being the best group I guided all summer. These guys were so fascinated and interested and eager to learn how to catch fish that they put those Zebcos to the best of their abilities haha...yes thats right Zebcos! These guys were all from Chicago and the three brothers had put their money together to bring their dad to Halley's in hopes of getting him a pike bigger than 20 inches.....NO PROBLEM BOYS! Well they were with myself and Adrian again for 4 days and we piked and piked and piked....and man did we get em. The very first day of their trip in the morning we were casting a little spot I know can sometimes hold a big fish and I was following Keith and Bobby up with a spoon when I seen a big pike chasin my lure....he followed it right to the boat and i took it away from him...i said "hey bobby, toss that jerkbait out there about 20 feet or so and twitch it a couple times, does so and WHAM!!! FISH ON!!! lol after we landed it and took 100 pictures Bobby's first of many big pike swam away to eat another day. Here is the first one, measured up to 38.5 inches, nice start!

 

 

and the release,

 

 

later on that day bobby hooked up with another half decent snake, maybe 30 incher or so...

 

 

and wouldn't you know it he picked up a big bass at some point as well....

 

 

lol most of my pictures of this group are of Bobby, haha he had a great trip, another pike he picked up....i think this one was 37.5 inches was close but not big enough...

 

 

Oh yeah, big pike eat little pike...

 

 

and here is Bobby's biggest fish he caught in the rain on his last day, was a ton of fun putting that thing in the boat, measured up to 39 inches....

 

 

Same fish, gives ya a look at the length...

 

 

and not long afterward poppa Schulz a.k.a Robert landed his first ever pike over 30 inches way to Bob Sr.!

 

 

lol did I mention how often it rains up there? oh wait nevermind, it doesen't rain forget I said that haha...now this one that Keith brought in, he was jiggin for walleye when he hooked that small walleye, on the way up that Northern grabbed the walleye and Keith fought em both all the way to the net, was quite the catch, surprisingly both fish swam away, the walleye was a little beat up but he swam away...

 

 

and here is a group shot with the entire group along with Adrian and myself....

 

 

And of course I can't forget some of the times I spent on the water with no customers after dinner, shared some laughs and some surprises....and just plain enjoyed the beautiful scenery Northwestern Ontario has to offer.

 

Here is a picture taken during shore lunch with the Schulz's just soooo peaceful.....

 

 

and here is my new PB northern that I landed one night after minnows....Mac, Adrian and myself went exploring one night and found this old pothole and we had to jump about 10 logs before we could get back there....and the pike were just on fire that night...but we were so useless that this one was the only one that got landed and it was the smallest of the pike that we seen that night....anyways this one was a solid 40 incher but I sure woulda loved to have had that 44 that I lost...man those things are powerful....

 

 

Anyways guys, I hope you enjoyed reading this post and the pictures I have shared with you, I am looking forward to going back again this summer.....Now if there are any questions about the lodge or outpost company or river air feel free to ask, or you can check out the Halley's website at www.halleyscamps.com if not once again I hope you enjoyed this post and I look forward to doing another one. Tight lines everyone....

 

Hawk

[danbouck]

 

Yes I'm Jealous!

[Twocoda]

Nice report Hawk....take a bow..

 

welcome back ..looking forward to the next report

[Syn]

Awesomely entertaining report chickenhawk. Thanks for taking the time to post all that. Feel so lucky I live in Ontario, we have some awesome fishing here.

[crappieperchhunter]

Very envious of you or anyone getting the opportunity at a dream job like that.Thx for taking the time with such a great report to share with all of us.

[greenfshrmn]

Excellent photographs!...Thanks for putting that together. I've often thought of doing a trip like that, maybe one of these days. Hope you don't mind me asking but are the guides paid a regular wage or by the clients that they take out? What amount of tip is considered fair for a successful day out? Thanks again.

[TerryC]

That is a great report & Excellent read. For a minute I forgot it was February. It was always a dream of mine to do a summer or two of guiding. You summed it up awesome. Looks like hard work & great reward.

 

Thanks,

 

Clarence

[danbouck]

i just checked the rates

[fishyfingers]

very nice, you guys got some good pike!

[chickenhawk]

Excellent photographs!...Thanks for putting that together. I've often thought of doing a trip like that, maybe one of these days. Hope you don't mind me asking but are the guides paid a regular wage or by the clients that they take out? What amount of tip is considered fair for a successful day out? Thanks again.

 

We are paid a daily wage of 110 dollars a day with ten dollars taken off each day for room and board. On top of that it is simply up to the customers however they feel is necessary to tip the guides, the most common tip is 50 dollars per day, but ive received tips from 50 to 150 a day....like i said all depends on the guest....and dan don't let the rates scare ya....that is why we offer the outpost company, check it out we have a number of fantastic lakes and cabins we use every year.... oh and all tips tend to be in american but that is only because we have a large american market....

Edited February 21, 2010 by chickenhawk

[TJQ]

Nice report. great pictures!! what a summer!!

[backbay]

Great way to spend the summer, Hawk, great pics!

[chickenhawk]

thanks guys....

[MCTFisher9120]

Wow, that a journey and fun time you had. Interesting photo's and catches man!

 

Thanks for the refreshing report,

MTBF

[moparhawk]

Excellent post and pictures, well written too. You"ve had a good education.

[carll2]

awesome pics...reminds me of my summer job, nothing like fishing may-september all day long for pike and eyes!!!

[chickenhawk]

where do you work carll2?

[solopaddler]

Thanks a bunch for taking the time to post that.

 

Ahhh to be young again....those're memories that'll last a lifetime.

[carll2]

where do you work carll2?

 

 

reservoir gouin in northern quebec....one big lake...check it out www.laventurier.ca have a good season

[chickenhawk]

Thanks a bunch for taking the time to post that.

 

Ahhh to be young again....those're memories that'll last a lifetime.

 

thanks alot sir, means alot coming from you, your reports always used to fascinate me...hopefully you still get out as much as you used to...