This December isn’t a contender with the cold like other years. We still have warm weather and hardly any snow. You can look at the lakes around here and see half the lakes spotted with snow and bare ice! We are usually across the English River making our way to One Man the first week of December but there wasn’t enough ice this year. It was a couple of weeks behind.

It was great to hear all the people calling to get Christmas presents in the shape of either gift certificates for trips to Halley’s Camps or the full Monty-the entire fishing trip paid. It was also great to have people phoning to wish us all a Merry Christmas and check in. We have our fingers crossed for this summer!

Still to date, the Canada and the US border is still closed. Once a month the border situation reviewed whether there is going to be another monthly extension. We are very optimistic as you have all heard that the vaccine is getting ready to be rolled out across the states. This is very good news to us as we are hoping that the more people are vaccinated in the states, the earlier the border will open.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Family, friends, health and happiness are something to capture at this time of year. And after the year we just had, try taking some extra time to treasure everyone in your life and what better than on a fishing vacation spending the quality time together and making memories that last you a lifetime.

We do have available dates on our www.halleyscamps.com. If you are interested in any dates or know someone who might be looking for a fishing vacation, please contact us.

Wow—what a fall this has been. October was very cool and we even had quite a bit of snow. And the beginning of November came with warmer temps. All of our lodging contracts at Caribou ended on November 5 and then it was us. For a few days, we closed the cabins, drained the water and moved back to our winter house.

All of us within Halley’s Camps spoke about everything that has occurred through the spring, summer and fall. When the US Thanksgiving came around we reflected on everything to be thankful for this past year. We were able to toast to our health, the health and good spirits of our guests, family life, business, fishing, hunting, and a great environment. Cheers to all of our guests for making Halley’s Camps over the years what it is today. We miss you all!

It’s huntin’ month around here! Our moose hunts this fall were amazing. We had groups in from all over Canada tracking or calling moose in. All of our hunts this year were unguided. We had many groups that were successful being able to take a moose and will have nice lean meat to fill their freezer. Whether its roasts, steaks, sausage or jerky-moose meat has such a nice mellow flavor.

The cold weather hit in October-we had one night that was -13°C which is about 8°F—it was very cold and windy. With the cold weather, our summer camp at Caribou Falls Landing had to winterize many buildings as we were hosting contractors that were living in the cabins and eating in the lodge dining room daily.  There was snow and ice all around making it look like a day in December. We served them up a large turkey dinner for our Canadian Thanksgiving on October 12^th. To commence Halloween some of the guys staying had brought their pirate hats and their “ar” to the dining room and gave us all a chuckle.

Chris was able to go out moose hunting with his oldest son, Louis, and was able to get a moose almost immediately-wow what a great tasting moose it was-it was a young bull. Partridge, geese and ducks were also some of the other hunting items that were on the successful lists.

As September rolls in, the concept that summer is coming to an end is welcomed by the beautiful fall days with the changing leaves. It was an amazing September—we had a couple of days where we went fishing for a couple of hours and caught lots of walleye! Cannot wait to see what next year’s fishing is going to be like as we have great fishing but with hardly any fishing pressure in 2020, the 2021 fishing season is going to be absolutely fantastic! Chris, Bob, Kim and Amber broke away from Caribou for 3 hours to go lake trout fishing on the last day of trout season. Holy Toledo! We all caught multiple fish at this fly out lake and Chris caught a mammoth of a trout—weighing 17#! It was sure an awesome way to wrap up September.

We were able to get to One Man and figure out the front wall. There were over a dozen logs to replace on the log building. WOW!! The first thing that had to be done was to remove the entire stone wall that was behind the woodstove. This stone has been on the wall for 25 years and it looks so bare without it now. Gene came up and headed the project and got it done in a day and a half. There is still one more portion to replace but that will have to be a spring project.

Normally we would be posting pictures of fish, shore lunch, and our guests having an amazing time fishing. Our current reality is taking pictures of little projects that we are completing. This August was definitely a different one compared to what we are used to. We at Caribou, (Chris, Amber, Bob and Kim) were working to take care of all of the cooking and cleaning for all the crews that we had in camp.  

We made time to get to Kettle Falls and start some projects there. Chris, Bob and Jonny had leveled out the lodge while Kim and Amber were taking one some painting on the lake side of the lodge. Even though we had no guests at Kettle this summer, maintenance still had to be performed on the grounds and buildings. Some of the big ticket items were tree clearing and brush clearing. We are looking forward to next year to hear the laughter and chatting from all staff and guests and smelling the tasty aromas of the homemade meals baking and cooking.

One Man has been very quiet as well. We did some tree clearing and organized a plan to replace some of the logs in the lodge’s front walls. Chris and the boys went to the mill and cut enough lumber to be able to replace the logs in the near future.