Picture by OFGNe Drake
Sunday, September 6, 2009
I set my iPhone to a 5:30am alarm. The rise was well before the shine at that time of the morning. But it was Day 1 of fishing and we all were excited to get on the water. We were too excited to know we were tired.
Discovered sunrises at Halley’s Camps were spectacular.
Sharon (Halley) had coffee on the east side deck at 6am. Breakfast was served at 7. The three of us, along with the other guests started arriving at the deck for pre-breakfast conversation around 6:30.
One of 4 guys in another group was from Austin and was one of those avid, somewhat obnoxious UT football fans. Nice guy and fun to talk with. Met and spoke briefly with him before breakfast.
The dinner (or breakfast) bell was rang and, like cattle coming to the trough, we all stepped into the dining hall expecting great things. Breakfast was two eggs, bacon, toast, and hash browns. Sweet rolls and breads, and a mix of fruit was also available each morning. My kind of breakfast.
Mac the Guide greeted us with a cheery good morning and inquiry on what we wanted to drink this day while on the water. 6-pack of LaBatt’s and a 6-pack of bottle water was the order for the boat cooler. This day, the beer was fully consumed.
At 7:50 we were at the boat and ready to start fishing.
Halleye’s Camps is located on the English River. It was dammed up in the early 50’s to create 
this vast, shallow body of water. I still don’t know whether to refer to it as a lake or river…so I will do so interchangeably.
Off we go up-river for a day long day of fishing on One Man Lake. TR in the bow, Dad in the middle, and me (the weighted one) and Mac in the stern. What a wonderful boat ride – brisk morning air, water as smooth as glass.
Walleye fishing at Halley’s Camps is a bit different. We had these lures of lead the size of a small marble. The one I used was the Pink Lady (top half painted bright pink, bottom half was white, barbed hook out the bottom). Mac instructed us to “jig”…which meant we dropped the lure to the bottom and then raised it slight and inch or two. Mac baited each of our lures with a minnow. And so it started….
Most of our fishing for the day would be in 6′ to 16′ of water…and we would find ourselves in the middle of the lake with those depths. It was rather odd for sure.
Walleye fishing was our first attempt at building stories. Within 30 minutes, Mac stopped counting our catches at 26 (between the three of us). The pace stayed about the same all day long.
Walleye in the English River enjoy what I call “casual dining”. When they take your hook/bait, they usually do so in swallowing fashion – the really don’t “strike” the bait. There were many times we felt a slight ”resistance” on our pole only to discover lunch had been served at the bottom of the lake and eaten without our knowledge.
Walleye will put up an enjoyable brief fight once you start reeling them in, as we started to soon discover. Dad and I were having consistent luck and fun with the English River habitants…TR was ribbed all day (by me mostly) for a luck of maybe 1 fish for every 4-5 of Dad’s (but when he did catch one, it was either really big or really small).
But that’s not to say Dad had champion luck all day. He was the first (and only one) to catch a crawfish… and he apparently put up a fight as we all thought Dad had caught our first pan sized fish. Smart thing, or maybe it was a wise father that made the crawfish let go of the minnow and flop back into the water before my camera was at the ready.
We all started talking to the River; we were asking for “Walter”.
Another unexpected enjoyment of Halley’s Camps and the English River is it is home to an abundant population of Bald Eagles, loons, gulls, ducks, and transient Canadian geese. I love the sound of a loon….
We learned (but did not see) that wolf, minor, beaver, and black bear were trapped in the fall as well. Deer and Moose were hunted in the early season.
The day got hot (±90°), sunny, and had no wind. We had to move the boat to the next fishing spot to cool off. Reflected glare sunburns were being avoided with ample sunblock and chap stick stuff.
Mac used a hand-held GPS to set us atop his favorite fishing spots. Those spots were saved be GPS coordinates. We fished a couple of his “old reliables”. His location marker was an orange floating dumbell thing with a open-end wrench as its anchor. It would get pitched over the side whenever Mac’s coordinates were reached.
Early on, Mac started collecting walleye in the live well that we caught for lunch. Halley’s Camps is in a conservation district and the limit on Walleye is 2 per day, per angler. We were collecting our limit for lunch. All other catches were released.
About noon, we stopped fishing and landed at Eagle Point for shore lunch. It was a designated campfire site complete with a fire ring, crude picnic table, and cut (put not split) wood.
We three split wood – Mac cleaned fish and started to cook lunch.
Shore lunch proved to be entertaining, educational, and delicious. We had breaded walleye, molasses beans, and potatoes & onions.
While eating lunch on shore, Mac and I watch a splashing commotion on the lake, in the middle. We could only speculate a Pike (maybe a rouge Muskie) got after a duck, loon, or gull. I preferred to call it a lochness monster sighting. That was odd whatever it was.
We Pike fished after lunch with very little luck.
By day’s end, we caught 100+ fish – mostly Walleye - on Day 1. We were back in camp by 5pm.
Pre-dinner conversation with other guests on the east deck. Besides the Austin/UT guy and his group of Chicago guys, another father-son (also from Chicago area) joined in, as did guests from Wisconsin. George (Halley) also joined in on a brief conversation
Mosquitos were hungry, as were we. Dinner at 6pm: prime rib, veggie mix, mashed potatoes and brown gravy.
Spoke more to the guy from Austin/UT after dinner…mostly in between punts, turnovers, injuries, and scores. We watched the OU-BYU game in the Lodge lounge. Obviously Mr. Austin/UT was delighted with (Sam) Bradford’s injury and cheered loudly the OU loss.
TR and I split on the purchase of a bottle of Wiser (Canadian Rye Whisky…from Tara) for the evening. Needless to say, we sampled and goods, but didn’t polish off the bottle, but I ended up sleeping well regardless. TR let me hit the rack at 10pm.
