Catching the Good Life in the Canadian Wilderness

Good Day Happy Campers!  Winter is slowly marching away and today is Fat Tuesday, the eve of March and Lent.  So I hope all of you filled your bellies with fried walleye and coleslaw?

Now that sounds delicious doesn’t it, fresh fish at Happy Camp with potatoes and some cold beverage to wash them down!  It wont be long now and camp will be open and reels will be singing with sounds of drag being tugged from Walleye Northern or Perch!  Now that would be a Whopper of a Perch if it sounded the drag, don’t you think?

For 2017, our rates will remain the same, $220 per person per week.  In addition, we have a few Bear spots open and that rate is $1300 per hunt and that will start on August 15th unless we can swing a spring hunt, but it seems unlikely at this point!

We did have some damage from the weather to camp, the porch is in need of repair as is some of the roofs.  So there will be something to do, always seems to be a list isn’t there?

So as we march towards Happy Camp 2017, I want to invite you to check out what we have to offer and think you will be pleasantly surprised as we provide fantastic wilderness adventures that include fishing, hunting, berry picking, bird watching, hiking and most of all a relaxing, enjoyable time.  So whatcha waiting for, shoot us an email or a call today to save your spot to Catch the Good Life with Us at Happy Camp Ontario!!  Take care everyone.

Hi and Happy New Year everyone!  I hope that the new year brings everyone all they can hope for?  As far as we are concerned, enough of this snow and winter already!  We are in the midst of our 3rd Blizzard and have not much room left for the snow!  Highs by the end of the week should reach maybe -5, a heat wave!

Magoo and I have finished chasing birds for the year and while Ducks and Geese were not the best, we certainly put plenty in the freezer and had days of wonderful hunting for Pheasant, Shaprtail and Hungarian Partridge, so all in all it was a nice time on the Prairie, but certainly not the same as Happy Camp!

We are starting to get inquiries about 2017 and some weeks are already filled!  In addition, we do not have a definite go ahead on our Bear hunt, but if we do we may have a couple of spots open and are considering a Spring hunt, so if you have interest, shoot us a message today!  Almost all of our Moose spots are full, but this will also shake out in the following months.

As I reflect back on our time in Northern Ontario, I have to say how wonderful meeting all of our campers has been, the absolute beautiful outdoors and the awesome adventures that we all have had.  From Fishing, stumbling onto Bear with Tom Kern, pulling the Beast out with the Best Bear Crew in all of North America, to the late night Moose drag with the Webster Crew, I would not have changed it for the world and you, Happy Campers, are simply the BEST!  Thank you for a fabulous time so far, and time only tells what the future holds?

So if you are looking for an adventure of a lifetime, whatcha waiting for, give us a call or shoot us a message today to save your spot to Come and Catch the Good Life with us at Happy Camp Ontario!  Take care everyone.

Hi Happy Campers,  we are only a week away from the US Thanksgiving and Happy Camp is closed for the 2016 year!  Thank you to all for yet another successful season.

As we look to the future, we are still waiting to hear from the MNR on our Bear Hunt for 2017.  As of now, we have many people interested in hunting with us and as I look back at our hunts, they certainly have brought us wonderful times, hunts and yes many special Bears seen, harvested and most of all the memories that we have made and I thank each and every one of you for that!

In addition, we are waiting for the Moose Season dates to be finalized, and we again have many people interested, with weeks already filled.

Finally, fishing weeks are starting to fill up with some already spoken for, so if this is your cup of tea, don’t delay, shoot us an email or phone us today to save your spot at Happy Camp Ontario.

Thanks again for a wonderful season and we look forward to seeing you all in 2017!  Take care and whatcha waiting for, Come and Catch the Good Life with Us at Happy Camp Ontario!!

Hi everyone and happy fall!  With Grouse season upon us, the first frost has hit the Happy Camp Region, but good fishing still continues.  Lots of Walleye, Perch and Pike filled the guys coolers from Michigan in the past week.  The fishing should continue until it gets cold in October for Moose season.

Magoo and I are busy working on the prairie and as I have told our Moose hunters, we shall miss each and everyone of you this year!  Some old friends, Gaetan and Peter will be hunting again at Happy Camp, hope the Bull finds its way through the bush to their call!  As with all of you hunting at Happy Camp this year, we wish all of you the best season ever and enjoy the adventure!

As we look to the future, we still have no clue what will transpire with the Bear season and tags, the Moose Calf season will be only 13 days in 2017, and hopefully the fishing will be kept the same?  As any of you know who have Bear hunted with us, we work extremely hard to give you the best opportunity possible and I guess it shows as if we get the tags, we already have enough hunters waiting in earnest to come up for another adventure!

Fall is slowly inching its way to the prairie, lots of ducks and geese in the area.  Crane season starts tomorrow and while we have seen a few, we will not be hunting for a few days.  Magoo has set goals for us to get after Pintails and Specklebellies this year, hope we can find some of them?  If not, we will get after the other birds that fly our way.

We want to thank you for making our first 5 years at Happy Camp Ontario seem like it was yesterday when we opened our doors and guess that Time Does Fly When You Are Having Fun!  We are starting to fill some fishing spots for 2017, so if you are looking to save your spot, shoot us a message or give me a call at 715-630-4444 to reserve your spot today to Come and Catch the Good Life with Us at Happy Camp Ontario!  Take care Happy Campers.

Hello everyone.  As Jeff arrowed the last of Happy Camp’s bears late Monday night, it brought a close to our 2016 hunting season.  After many hours of hard work, we were able to have a spectacular hunt.

Early this morning, Jeff, Bing and I left Happy Camp Ontario to gather their stands and I cleaned up the bait sites.  As I drove out of the hunting area, I slowed and thought for a moment about all the wonderful memories we had this year!

Henry wandering down the trail looking for me as he started out our season!  Donna saying, bring the sled as she brought her beast to its knees!  The sweat, hornets and group track and drag on Tim’s enormous Bear!  To have the many laughs, talks, sweats and cussing that make Bear Camp special, it is over so fast!

As Henry and I traveled out Sunday night talking about Bing’s bear, Henry said, you know it is not all about the hunt, but the people, nature, wilderness and all that encompasses us when we descend upon Happy Camp for Bear Camp is what is all about!  Well said Henry, well said!  As Henry, Bonnie and Buddy loaded the truck on Monday morning, the sadness came over their faces and even Buddy was somber as he said goodbye!

So as we close our 4th Bear season, I have to stop and say thanks to all of you who continue to make our hunts so memorable.  I also have to say Thanks to my Dad for instilling the drive to continually strive for perfection and Never Giving Up!  After all, who knows what is right around the next bush, tree, log or under that cedar tree, right Henry!

As we look to the future, we do not know what the MNR holds for our bear hunts, they have not given the go ahead for anything in 2017.  But if we go ahead as we have, then we have our spots already filled and a couple on the waiting list, so if you are looking for an adventure of a lifetime, whatcha waiting for, shoot us an email or call us today to save your spot to Come and Catch the Good Life with Us at Happy Camp Ontario!!

Good Evening from Sultry Happy Camp Ontario, Happy Campers!  Catfish Chris with a brief update with whats going on in the region.

The heat is back, after some rain Friday and Saturday, it was cooler on Sunday, but today, the heat is back on and should last for the rest of the week, enough already!  This summer has been nothing short of hot and dry, we need rain.  The rain we got Friday made berries ripe and what is out there is being gobbled up by the Bears!

This week we have Bernie and his son Joe from Edmonton, Alberta in camp.  They have been spending time fishing and hanging out.  They have had some luck with smaller walleye, a few Jumbo perch and Pike.

Mike from Toronto stopped in on Saturday for coffee then he and I went for a drive.  We took his Jeep down the hill to Hillsport Lake, and after many tries, he roared it back up the hill!  What a sigh of relief that was as with my shoulder in the shape it is, there is no way I would have pushed that beast out of the sand!  Anyway, after that we tooled down toward Mann Lake then up South Pincers and found some Rasberries and lots of Bear sign.  After that we rode down to Bound Lake, checked on the boat and headed back home.  Mike and I chatted lots and it was nice to see my old friend again, sometimes an old friend stopping in is just what one needs!!

Bear hunting is on the horizon and the baiting is keeping me busy.  Just yesterday I saw a nice sized Sow with twins, sure were looking healthy with their plump bellies.  As I walked into a bait called the ROCK, I noticed a hole in the ground about the size of a baseball around.  I looked into it and walked past to the bait.  After filling the bait, I walked back down the trail, and looked into the hole.

As I got closer towards the hole, I noticed one, two, seven, thirteen and then like 742 of them, a whole SWARM of hornets were buzzing around in the hole working hard at something!  Oh my I thought they must have something sweet to chow down on!  Interestingly, I did not spend much time at the swarm and quickly got back to the Jeep!  As I baited the spot today, I looked again, and sure enough the SWARM was alive and well doing whatever they are doing in that hole!

With Bear hunters starting to come in tomorrow, we will be extremely busy until we end our hunt in late August.  We are looking forward to all of our old hunters as well the new who are coming from all over to have an adventure with us!  It will certainly be a wild ride and come August 15th, Bear Hunt 2016 will be upon us!

As I try to often, we can not thank you enough for choosing to come and spend time with us at Happy Camp Ontario!  Each and everyone of you brings something special to Happy Camp and we are truly grateful for each of you, thank you!  Also, thank you to our partners, RayoVac, ThermCell and now ScentLok Enforcer for working with us to make our Hunts the best they can be!

That’s all for now folks, take care, keep in touch and whatcha waiting for, give us a call or shoot us an email today to save your spot to Come and Catch the Good Life with us at Happy Camp Ontario!!!

Good Morning Happy Campers!  Catfish Chris here at Happy Camp Ontario with a late July update.  Where has July gone, it seems like a blur, but then again time always seems to fly at Camp! The sun is shining brilliantly and the temps have finally cooled a little to morning lows in the 50’s, and afternoons in the 80’s.  Yesterday while Bear Baiting it was hot, reached almost 90 with little breeze.  It seems that the Black Flies have lessened, but there are buckets and buckets of Mosquitos!

Speaking of buckets, the berries are ripening quickly, Blueberries are coming along nicely and the raspberries, while small, are plentiful and winding down.  I do not care much for raspberries, but my dad who is not with me anymore, seemed to like them very much along with Blackberries which we would always go and pick near Navarino, Wisconsin when I was a kid.  Ha, many of you still think of me as a kid, guess I am but just a lot bigger now!

Fishing is going well, we could use some rain as the lake level is dropping quite a bit now.  Lots of Pike, some good ones too, have been eager to hit most anything.  Walleye up to 27 inches and Perch over 13 inch came into camp this week.

This week, Happy Camp Ontario hosted Take a Vet Fishing and we had a full crew of vets from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Tennessee and Alaska.  Thank you to all the vets for serving for me and the great USA, there is no place like it in the world.  We had lots of laughs, experiences and getting to know all of you a little was fantastic!

Joe, a vet from Chicago, was in charge of keeping the fish shack clean.  Well one night it was late, maybe 11:30, and the fish just got done being cleaned.  I could not find Joe, and Ed, another vet from Milwaukee, came and told me about the fish guts ready to go to the dump.  As Joe was sleeping in Cabin 1, I grabbed my trumpet and played Reveille for him to get up and get to work!  The other Joe, from Tennessee, came running near where I was playing wanting to report to duty!!

There have been a couple of Bear in camp and this week they have been in the dump.  Well some of the guys went along with me numerous times to look but never saw them.  Late Wednesday night, Joe the fish shack guy, and Aaron, took the guts to the dump.  It was shortly after 1 a.m. when they got back.  Aaron who is maybe 30, comes up on the north deck and yells, “Hey I saw my first Bear, I saw my first Bear”!

Finally, on the northwest part of the Lake there is a log sticking up out of the water with weeds on either side.  Don, Joe and Aaron found fish there everyday and while it was a good spot, Aaron spent quite a bit of time throwing lures and getting caught on the log.  In fact, one time Aaron cast over the log and a fish hit his lure.  He set the hook, but was caught on Obama Log!  Aaron with all of his military background, was not going to let this happen again.  Aaron stood up, jumped out of the boat, got to Obama Log, got the line off and caught the fish!!  Way to go Aaron.

Well can anyone guess why the Vets coined the name Obama Log?  Well each time the Log is visited, one or more of the fishermen donated to the log with a lure.  So as the free hand outs were put on the log, it was given the name and justly so!

Bill from Illinois played Pinochle this week, it has been so long, but good to get playing again!  Sherriff Tom Kern, I could use your pinochle, wine and bear baiting skills up here at camp, haven’t heard from you this year, What’s up with that?

Bear hunting is on the horizon and the baiting is going well.  This week I ran into Mr. 278 and yesterday 3 bears were waiting for their lunch when I stopped in!  So the activity is high and the anticipation is starting to grow.  We also have one guy who likes to sleep at the bait for a couple of nights.  He put on quite a show all night and he certainly is a boy if you know what I mean?

If anyone has ideas how to relieve pinched nerve in neck, shoulder and arm, please give me a call or email me.  I have tried many things, including this week getting acupuncture, and I can tell you I am not a big fan of a needle stuck into my neck, especially when not much help happens!  I did contact my old back snapper, Dr. Dean Gerard, in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.  Dr. Dean is so great, and while distance makes seeing him impossible, he did offer advice and suggestions that I am trying!  Dr. Dean, you are the BEST, thank you man!

With that, the dogs are restless wanting to go eat some blueberries, so gotta take them out.  Thanks again Vets for a great week, and as we usher in August, we look forward to fishermen from Alberta and our Bear hunters who will come into camp soon!  So take care and whatcha waiting for, Come and Catch the Good Life with us at Happy Camp Ontario!!

Good Morning Happy Campers!  As many of you know, I teach music and soon will be returning to North Dakota to keep building our music program in Rolette!  Big Muddy is a Jazz festival in southern North Dakota that I aspire to attend with the musicians that I am teaching!

As I drove Bear Baiting yesterday I crossed the Fraser River, and as I did I looked to the left and noticed the river was very muddy.  I thought wow they must have gotten a lot of rain in the past day.  Then as I looked past a blow down laying in the river, a Bull Moose lifted his head out of the weeds and looked at me!  Aha I thought, there is where the mud is coming from!  So as the Bull romped out of the river into the bush, I named him Big Muddy and immediately I thought of the students and festival!  As I turned the corner onto the trail north of the river, my thoughts quickly changed back to baiting but believe me kids, music thoughts run rampant in my mind and soon we will be working hard to make the Hills alive with music again!

Last weeks fishing was tough to say the least.  Mayfly hatches, weather and wind continue to make fishing a roller coaster.  Woody from Indiana pulled in a beautiful 26.5 inch Blue walleye to top the week and Dave was close behind with a 25 incher.  Thursday the guys did pretty well, then yesterday the fish seemed to slow again as some local chaps got only a few Pike for their efforts.

Bear Baiting is in full swing, all baits are being hit on a daily basis.   Our hunters are starting to see the Bear on the cameras, hope they continue to travel to the baits as the Berry crop is starting to ripen.  I picked the first Blueberries of the season, they are small, but looks like a good crop, time will tell!  There appears to be a Mom and baby Bear frequenting the dump, so watch out if going to drop off some stuff, the little fellow just might poke his head out of the pit, that could get very interesting to say the least.

Until next time folks, take care and whatcha waiting for, Come and Catch the Good Life with us at Happy Camp Ontario!!

Good afternoon Happy Campers, this is Catfish Chris with an update.  Before any update, it is the eve of the passing of my father back in 2001.  So often I am reminded of how I was raised and I can’t thank them enough for putting me into the water, woods and bringing me into the wonderful world of nature.  As I played on the ground with young Angus this afternoon, it reminded me quickly of how short life is, how precious life is and how wonderful it is to experience all we have here in the Happy Camp Region with all of you who choose to come to Happy Camp Ontario.  Thank you Happy Campers!

Fishing has been up and down this week, but we did have success on shallow and deep, in the mud, weeds and rocks.  In fact, many Cisco are near the surface in the evening devouring the end of our Mayfly Hatch.  Walleye, Perch and Pike continue to roam all over as we did as well.  The MNR is currently taking fish out of the lake and Cisco were seen in the nets.  In addition, we did get out after some Speckle Trout this afternoon with Jeff, Don, Larry and me, and we caught a nice mess of fish.

A couple of times this week we ventured to BeaverCross Lake searching for cool looking rocks, first with Larry and today with Don who is a Geology teacher in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  Don said the BeaverCross area is a spot called Glacial Till where the Glacier stopped and left all kinds of different rocks.  All I know is the shoreline is really cool looking.

This morning as Don and I, along with trusty Magoo walked the shore, a couple of Loons were swimming along the shore.  I said, hey Don, look at the Loons.  Next a Bald Eagle soared overhead and I said, hey Don, look at the Eagle.  Soon it was apparent that the eagle was hunting something out in the lake.  The Eagle swooped low but did not connect and soared upward.  Out of the blue 3 Arctic Terns came into sight and they were bombarding the Eagle as it swooped down again toward something on the lake.  It was a Baby Loon and the adult Loons were now near the baby as the Eagle swooped again towards the Baby and the Terns Bombarded the Eagle.  The Eagle lifted up again and the Terns flew at the Eagle and it left the lake and perched high on a tree along the shore!  To watch this act of nature was simply priceless and something that Don, Magoo and I were very lucky to be a part of!

So this week I have seen Moose, Bear, Grouse and the Bird show on BeaverCross, all simply priceless.  Thanks Dad, you have no idea how much I miss you everyday, but your spirit lives alive here at Happy Camp Ontario!

As I close, our open spots are slim, so if you want to come experience the true wilderness and all it can offer, shoot us an email or call us today to Come and Catch the Good Life with us at Happy Camp Ontario!!

Hi everyone, Catfish Chris here at Happy Camp Ontario!  The fishing still has its ups and downs with heavy Mayfly activity and hot and cold making it tough to figure out a definite pattern!  Yesterday we had a tough time catching fish but were able to put enough together for a wonderful fishery with our guests from Wisconsin.

As Larry and I were drifting along some structure, I heard a weird sound and said, Hey Larry do you hear that?  Larry did not say anything, and I started to say, It sounds like a Moose, when I look to the shore and see not 1, nor 2, but 3 Moose standing in the water!  Larry and I watched them for a few short moments, then they hopped into the bush and disappeared!  What a beautiful sight!

We also have a Bear near camp, he was sighted in town and this morning as we left to head to Kapuskasing near Hillsport Lake.  Jeff, Larry, Angus and I traveled to Kap to have Angus, Jeff’s new beautiful hunting dog checked as he has been sick!  Great vets at MCM in Kap, and Angus appears to be well onto the road of recovery!!  In fact, just before coming in the lodge to write up this update, Angus was raising cain jumping on Larry and biting with those razor sharp puppy teeth.  That a Boy Agnus!  Speaking of hunting dogs, of course Agnus is a Lab, the only hunting dog, right!

The woods is alive with baby Grouse, we have Spruce and Ruffed near Camp, no Sharps yet, but they prefer the more wide open areas.  They certainly have enough bugs to eat, heck I think there are enough bugs for like a gazillion Grouse!!

Good berries on the bushes now, so if timely rains and heat keep coming, we should get some picking, that will be great!

As we settle into summer, we stop and say thanks to all of you who have made our 5 years fly by, where have they gone?  I guess time flies when you are having fun, eh!  We have a couple of spots left open, so if you are looking to book an adventure, shoot us an email or give us a call to reserve your spot and Come and Catch the Good Life with Us at Happy Camp Ontario!