KAMO – November, 2022 Newsletter
For comments related to this document, contact Mike

Joe Hunt Updates/ Considerations –
Bob Brodeur is looking for a leftie youth deer rifle if you have one.
Event will run from Friday, December 9th until buildings are cleaned and inspected on Sunday, December 11th. That is a hint – the rooms are cleaned by people. People that have stayed there, ate there, socialized there should plan on helping with that clean up before leaving.

Staying in the dorm? – Do yourself a favor – bring earplugs. Valuables should not be left anywhere in the dorm unattended.
There will be a $20/ night fee for each person staying. Someone from your chapter should probably bring the chapters? checkbook in case some dorm fees are covered by your chapter or other expenses come up. Generally, the state KAMO pays for the event, but the individual chapters pay for the kids they bring and the adults pay their own way (or the chapter might cover that as well).

Save some lower bunks for the older mentors.
In case you are chosen to hunt on MacKenzie (and you won?t know until you get there)- Mentors should be prepared to have an orange blind cap or a 12×12 piece of blaze orange for each side of their blinds in case they are chosen to hunt on the MacKenzie property as it is public land and also an attached tag with the blind owners name, address, and customer ID# to be left overnight.
Criteria for participants – Participants don?t need a license, but do need a DNR Customer ID#. Customer ID line – 888-936-7463. Each child needs to bring a completed Kid Profile Form and Waiver Form to turn in to the hunt coordinators upon arrival..

Criteria for Mentors
Mentor makes sure LTH participants have waiver and profile forms filled out and ready to bring upon arrival to MacKenzie.appropriate clothing,orange, firearm. Sleeping bag and pillow?
Mentors must be adults and have a current hunting license for any game species, not necessarily deer. For example,your duck hunting license would be valid.
There Is solid interest in this hunt, Currently, there are 21 mentor/ mentee pairs. Bring a blind and seats unless you know there is a stand setup for you..
Some landowners do not want us leaving the blinds to look around or search for/ clean/ drag a deer for safety/ potential for crossing into neighboring properties reasons..Some landowners want only does taken. One wants only bucks taken. .
Arrive at MacKenzie Friday with enough daylight left so you can check in, learn your assigned property, be taken to a spot and set up a blind somewhere. If you are going to hunt on Friday, Rick and Bob need to know that in advance of that day..

Other – There is free food and drink throughout our stay. We have a first aid/ CPR person
Interchapter Activity – For chapters interested in having winter activities that would attract both kids and new mentors, some weekend fishing derbies could be set up for chapters to challenge one another. Look no further than Meadow Valley?s ice fishing outing in January on Lake Tomah.

A form is available for chapters that are interested in inviting other chapter?s members to a challenge/contest. It can be used for a contest on one body of water or for a contest between groups in separate locations on the same day. It would need to be sent out at least several days prior to the event.
There will be copies available at MacKenzie, available electronically, or you can copy it from the final page of this newsletter.

Scroll down to the end to view the form that challenges you to challenge..

Activity Planning – School districts typically start their Christmas break on Friday, December 23rd, 2022 and go back Tuesday, January 3rd,2023. This is a window of kid availability for your chapter to do something if mentors can also have one of these weekdays off.

Hunter Education –
A facility for training new hunter ed instructors in the La Crosse area has been booked in March. Any interested adult can come to it. In the past we?ve had people from 4 or 5 counties come to these.There aren?t enough active instructors and this has created hunter education certification class access issues, particularly on the western side of the state.
Hunter accidents among young hunters are on the rise for the first time in years. Whether this is correlated to online only certification is up for debate unless someone researches whether these injured youth in 2022 took an actual class or not. .
Another facility has been reserved for indoor hunter education classes in Onalaska, one in spring,one in fall.
Having at least one hunter education instructor in your chapter provides solid benefits.

Chapter Reports
Baraboo – The Baraboo chapter met on Nov. 14 at Rivers Edge Resort. Much of the night’s meeting was focused on the final details of this year’s Joe Hunt. I did make 2 announcements at the meeting. 1). I will be stepping down as president of the Baraboo River Chapter as of Jan 1, 2023 and 2) that I will not be coordinating the Joe Hunts moving forward.
These decisions were not made out of emotion or in haste but out of personal necessity. KAMO has been a wonderful part of my life over the last 10+ years and I am proud to have worked with some men and women who are truly passionate about the outdoors and teaching kids. The story is not over but a new chapter must be written.
Rick Miotke

Coulee – Took small groups out on the range for the upcoming MacKenzie youth hunt. Four mentors and three kids with a parent are coming. Mike went to UW-L to talk to the fishing club about how we may be able to help each other. One of our long term mentors is leaving for health/ age related reasons making it clear that it has been a good ride and the mentors are great people he was privileged to meet..Jim deserves our respect and appreciation for his contributions. We took in a mentor recently and have had two other inquiries.
Dodge County Conservation – Have several plans for December. Four mentors coming to the MacKenzie Hunt.
Lake Wisconsin – Actively planning land sites and other aspects of upcoming hunt.

Meadow Valley – Meadow valley met with only 5 members present.
We have 4 mentors going to the Joe Hunt, (Mark,Bob, Jim and Craig) and
4 kids we will be mentoring. All plan to hunt Friday evening.
We are still tentatively planning an ice fishing event in January at
Lake Tomah. We will be discussing this at our December meeting.

Northwoods – Hello from the Northwoods Chapter,
We will be scheduling a meeting for December to review 2022 and what to expect for 2023. As of now we are looking to purchase a double hub style shack and update some ice fishing equipment. We have some interest for a new mentor with a young daughter and has been at the last 2 fishing events. Our ice fishing event will be in February again. I think the ice fishing challenge is a great idea also, Keep doing good things and hope for good ice, Johnny Johnson from Florence, Wi..

Yellow River – Reported in with no new stuff. Brad is planning to come to MacKenzie.

Challenge form further down on a separate page – allows you to make a copy. Have suggestions to improve it? Please forward to Mike.

Chapter To Chapter KAMO Challenge

The _________________________ Chapter challenges the _______________________
Chapter (s) to a fishing contest on the day/ weekend of ________, __________ 20 ____ between the hours of _______ and _______.
Scoring options:
Total length of fish/ # of participants Total # of fish/ # of participants/ hours group fished
Largest: Northern bass, walleye, crappie, perch,bluegill
Prize options:
______ Rod and reel combo _______ Tackle box w/ lures
______ Gift Card ________ KAMO hat/ t-shirt
Supervising mentor: _________________________
Procedure:
At least one mentor from the participating chapters would have to be involved. The participants should always be safety conscious, sticking together and being aware of and avoiding potential dangers in the area.The mentors would plan in advance which upcoming dates/ times would work out for them and their kids.
The participants would choose which type of contest/ scoring they want to be in. They would stay in their own area unless a common designated location is decided on. Prizes would usually be the responsibility of the competing chapters, unless the event was on a state-wide scale.
Fish would have to be measured using a pre – arranged, agreed upon device such as a bump board. These measurements,totals, picture of the fish,participants name and chapter would be submitted as evidence to the supervising mentor by the mentor or volunteer with the group.
Prizes could be given by the winners chapter or sent by the competing chapter.

Revision suggestions for this document should be forwarded to kamocoulee@gmail.com