KAMO – January, 2021 Newsletter
For comments related to this document, contact Mike at brownmtjc@gmail.com

President?s remarks
Hello to all KAMO friends and members!
This is KAMO president Mark Walters with my monthly update. On Monday, February 1st vice presidents Mike Brown and Bob Nicksic had a long and productive conversation about KAMO’s immediate future.As we all know Covid 19 has temporarily taken the wind out of the sails of pretty much all group activities almost worldwide and with an upcoming February 16th Board of Directors meeting on the schedule we decided it would be best to reschedule that meeting until we can see more data on the results of the vaccine which we are fairly confident will start to
show up by mid March.
In other words we did not see it making sense to make plans with 12 people in less than two weeks for our future when we do not know if we can make plans. Mike will be sending out emails on a mid March BOD meeting. On other news we had an extensive talk on replacing myself with a different president and since we have not exactly hit a home run in that area we have decided to work on it with Mike, Bob, Tom St Clair and myself. I have no intention of leaving KAMO but feel that after 14-years as president it would be best for myself and KAMO to get some new blood running the ship.
Though it seems like dire times for volunteer organizations in reality this is just a period of time and I believe that soon we will make plans for warm weather one on ones and events and to plan “The Joe”. I also look forward to getting our Beaver dam chapter up and running.
As always, thank you for everything that you do for Kids And Mentors Outdoors!
Mark
Next B.O.D. teleconference meeting – The KAMO B.O.D. will meet at some point TBD. The president will meet again in early March to determine when.
Do you have anything for the B.O.D. group to consider?

Hunter Firearm Safety Education – Instructors are beginning to line up spring classes. They are listed on GoWild under ?student dashboard? ?enroll? ?type class? ?state wide/ area?. There are currently 15 internet Field Days and 13 regular classes scheduled in the state. There has been a lot of coordination between instructor groups resulting in instructors traveling to support
one another and a surge in the number of instructors seeking the IFD certification. For example, the March 6th, 2021 Mondovi class has six instructors coming in to help and to get their IFD certification.
In the LaCrosse area, we have a hunter education trailer coming. It will be stored on French Island, contain most of what it takes to run a class, and be available for use in surrounding counties. For a hunter ed group to get a trailer, a starting point is for them to have a reputation as an active group. A person in the instructor group has to be dedicated and responsible enough to store it, be responsible for its upkeep, maintain an accurate inventory, and be willing to transport it to the scene of a local or regional class.
The objective is to eliminate the need for instructors to haul so much gear back and forth, borrow equipment, wonder if someone the group is depending on for an equipment need is even going to show up, etc.. La Crosse is also going to be issued a couple more firearm action sets.
If you know someone in need of a hunter safety class, have them begin looking soon.

Slow Year for Ice Fishing – big year for equipment sales
Generally, it has been considered to be a lean year for ice fishing. The word up and down the river, on inland lakes,and in the cranberry flowages,has been ?the screen is lit up – no biters?.The prevailing thought is that low water has prevented fish from entering their normal winter holding areas in river systems. The lack of sunny days we’ve had also slows the activity down. Without that sunlight penetrating into the depths at a time when fish metabolism is low to begin with, the cycle of life slows down even further.
Having said all that, ice fishing gear has flown off the shelves and many stores are down in winter inventory generally and some items (augers) are sold completely out. Lake Onalaska has seen so much weekend fishing interest that finding a parking spot near the lake can be tough.

2021 Dates
March 31st – Hunting/ fishing licenses expire
January 2nd – April 30th – Early Inland Trout (catch & release)
May 1st -October 15th – General Inland Trout
May1st – March 6th, 2022 – General Inland Fishing
May1st – Musky (south)
May 29th – Musky (north)
June 5-6 – Free fishing weekend
September 12-January 3rd/31 metro – Archery
TRD – Youth waterfowl
October 10th – 11th – Youth Deer Gun
November 30th – December 9th – Muzzleloader
De. 10 -13 – Antlerless Deer
Chapter Reports –

Beaver Dam – Plan for an organizational meeting in February

Coulee – Thursday,January 7th Zoom chapter meeting.Talked about the possibility of providing the community with outdoor activity suggestions.
Spoke with a representative from Happy Dancing Turtle,a non profit operating in both Mn and Wis about the possibility of partnering/ combining resources after mid-March. This group started in Pine River, Minnesota, has a presence in Trempealeau County and would like to expand into La Crosse. HDT works primarily with kids upto age 11-12 to interest them in the outdoors.

Other chapters indicated that they had no activity to report.