My grandpa is my outdoor mentor, the one who got this whole crazy, bow hunting, fishing, deer hunting, living, breathing obsession I have with the outdoors started. Now mind you, I am not counting my wonderful parents out of the equation, they certainly provided me with outlets like Boy Scouts and such, but Grandpa has always been the one who I looked up to, the one I wanted to follow into the woods or onto the water.

I remember the first year I got to go deer hunting with him. I was 12 years old, and it had been tradition that the first year you came to deer camp as a young child you must observe, not hunt, whether you had a hunters safety certificate or not. This was my year to sit with Grandpa and watch how it’s done. I have many memories from that first year, but one in particular sticks out. Without out going into detail, I will just say Grandpa’s first shot on a deer didn’t quite get the job done, and as a young hunter I witnessed the reality of having to dispatch a deer at close range to keep the animal from suffering any longer. I know, I know, what a gruesome memory to have, but I am glad I have it. It prepared me for the worst possible situation between game and man you can have.

I have many great memories of hunting camp with Grandpa that do not involve harvesting deer at all. I have very fond memories of the days we’ve spent preparing for the hunts as well. In fact each summer, I spend weekends with Grandpa on the farm, preparing food plots, cutting trees and putting up stands. Those are all days and times I do not take for granted.

But these weekends I spend in the field with Grandpa, just him and I, in our own trees somewhere on the property, both hoping for the same thing, that the other one harvest a deer that day, are days I do not take lightly. I have talked about this weekend at great lengths, telling co-workers, friends and my wife. I am sure they all know my plans, the wind directions and what I expect the deer patterns to be when we get there by heart already. But it’s not just the hunt I am excited for, it’s another weekend with Grandpa, another chance to create that memory that I will never forget. It’s yet another chance for him to pass down a piece of advice for me to live by, some words of encouragement or tell a story of days past.

This Friday I get to do something special, it’s not out of the ordinary, just special. I get to hunt with Grandpa, once again. To me, that’s special.

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Scouting for ice fishing spots is a great way to keep your time outdoors productive. As soon as we have walkable ice, you already know where you want to go, where fish will be and you can keep the action going.

Put the GPS in your boat to work, in fact if you are looking into a new GPS unit that you may be able to use in both the boat and on the ice, look into a unit like the Humminbird 385ci. The 385 is a sonar/ GPS combo that allows you to use a highly detailed Lakemaster SD card to know where you are on the lake and the unit comes with a portable case that you can take out of the boat, and place on the ATV, snowmobile or truck dash. Hand held GPS units are nice too, though not always as accurate, and the options to get pre-loaded mapping cards are slim. But, in all honesty, any type of GPS is better than none. If you have a Smartphone, there are lake mapping apps you can purchase to give you an idea of what the structure is in the lake you are on.

When looking for places to fish for first ice, look to areas that have the largest amount of green weeds. You may want or need an underwater camera to do this type of scouting. The Aqua-Vu Micro is a handheld, pocket sized unit with a 3.5” LCD screen and 50ft of cable attached to its acorn sized camera. The Micro is a great tool to use when you want to run and gun, keep moving and exploring spots. If you want a more detailed camera, the full-size Aqua-Vu 760cz has a full color screen, 100ft of cable and 3Xs zoom. Green weeds hold the largest amount of oxygen and they provide shelter for the fish. Nearly anytime you have green weeds growing in a lake under the ice, you will find fish. Find these pockets in late fall in your boat and you will be able to walk right above them come firsts ice.

If you are scouting late enough, within a week or two before the lake locks up with ice, you may have a good chance to actually see where fish may suspend for the first portion of the winter. Some fish, such as crappies, may suspend just off of points and between humps in the lake bottom. These fish congregate together in the late fall and into winter.  You may be able to come home with one meal while your scouting and head right back to that spot once you can walk on to collect the next meal.

Of course most lakes will have areas that produce fish during first ice in the same spot every year. You just know they are going to be right there, but so will everyone and their brother when first ice arrives. Take the time in the boat to explore new areas, explore with every tool you can, GPS, lake mapping, and a camera, to get a truly detailed look into the potential of the lake or lakes you wish to target.

Contact me at hardwaterjeff@gmail.com

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Kelm won three first place and two third-place awards:
1st – Conservation/Nature category for “Raccoons in the Attic”
1st – Gear/Technical category for “Emergency First Aid”
1st – Outdoor Fun/Adventure category for “Conquer the Rhine”
3rd – Hunting/Shooting Sports category for “21st Century Deer Management”
3rd – Fishing category for “Ice Fishing World Championship”

Small won two second-place awards and one third-place award:
2nd – Hunting/Shooting Sports category for “Why Women Hunt”
2nd – Fishing category for “Threats to Mississippi River Fishery”
3rd – Gear/Technical category for “Real Time Wave Data”

In addition, Kelm’s segment “Conquer the Rhine” won the OWAA Presidents’ Award for the best segment entered in the Radio/Podcast Division.

Outdoors Radio airs each weekend on 12 stations throughout Wisconsin. See a list of stations, listen to the current show or an archived show or subscribe to the weekly e-newsletter or podcast at http://www.lake-link.com/radio. Outdoors Radio is also streamed twice daily at 11 p.m. and 5 p.m. PDT at http://www.theradiofactory.com. Read the Outdoors Radio e-newsletter each week at http://www.dansmalloutdoors.com.

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google +. Also listen to Dan Small and I every week on Outdoors Radio right HERE!

We don’t have many decorations, my wife and I combined have maybe 4 boxes of childhood memorabilia, but I do have half the basement filled with hunting and ice fishing equipment.

What a task it is to keep it all organized and clean, both of which I can readily admit that I could do a better job at. Each spring and late summer I sift through the clutter, attempting to gather up stuff that’s actually trash, and items I no longer need or use. As I have done this now for 3 years, I have an ever growing pile of hunting clothes that don’t fit, ice fishing rods that I don’t use, miscellaneous gear that is in good shape, or even brand new that I have no use for.

My mission is to set out to find an organization(s) that I could donate the items to where someone could use them. Places like GOODWILL are fantastic places to donate to, don’t get me wrong, but honestly, I don’t want my camo shirts used as a costume for one day when they could go to a first time hunter or veteran that will wear them for possibly years to come.

A simple GOOGLE search generally leads me to most things these days and I have tried this option. Here is my issue, either programs like this do not exist, which I find hard to believe, or they are easily found online.

I have multiple tip-ups, ice fishing rods, simple ice reels, Ice Armor Bibs, camo pants, shirts and a couple other items I would like to donate to an organization or organizations.

Please contact me with non-profit groups that may benefit from items like these. It is not a giant amount of items, but certainly someone would benefit. I will post the information that is sent to me so others may follow suit with gear.

We all know outdoor gear can get expensive, let’s work together to make sure those that want to participate in the great outdoors have the gear to do so.

I look forward to hearing about your groups.

Contact me at hardwaterjeff@gmail.com

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View trail camera photos from around Wisconsin.

Don’t be afraid to move the camera- Unless you have a specific buck patterned, move the camera to different places. Especially do so when you are collecting hundreds of pictures of deer. It is nice to see deer come in to use your food plot, but how many pictures of does and fawns do you need. Perhaps you get a photo of a large buck feeding in the plot at 1 am every few nights and you want to find out where he comes from, you must start moving that camera. Often while hunting in thick cover or “big woods” it is hard to follow one specific game trail, so set the camera up that it can see the crossroads of many, if you capture a deer you have an interest in establishing a pattern with, continue to move the camera up the trail until you have discovered one of two things, the trail he is not using, or his bedding area. I do not recommend walking into his bedding area, you will be able to tell how close to his bedding area you are by the time stamp on the photo, as you get closer to where he beds, the earlier in the day he will show up on the camera. Remember that just because he does not come out to the edge of the field or food plot till midnight, does not mean he is not up walking around in thicker cover.

Study each photo- Often I will look at trail camera pictures with someone as they zoom through looking for horns on the deer in their pictures. It is not uncommon to have does and fawns on the camera in the foreground and see a buck in the background easily missed. The other reason you study each photo is to help teach yourself their pattern and your property. Pay attention to the direction the deer is standing when they first appear on camera. Pay attention to the time the deer is at that position. If you are getting lots of deer pictures, but all come after what would be legal hunting hours, you will have to move your camera up the trail to find a closer position to where those deer bed. Pay attention to your weather forecasts via the internet and pair that with your photos. It is quite easy to install a weather widget to your desktop to monitor the wind and weather anywhere in the world. Record the wind directions whenever you can on a calendar. When you pull the pictures off your camera, check the date on the picture with the date on your calendar, the direction the deer are moving, the time they walk past the camera and how long they stick around will often correlate with the weather.

Trail cameras are one of the easiest to use tools a deer hunter can have. Though they can be inexpensive to purchase and operate they will give invaluable information to a hunter willing to study the pictures. Willingness to move that camera on a near weekly basis if possible will allow you to track a deer’s movement and establish a pattern prior to the September bow opener.

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The first day of fishing was an afternoon trip with local resident and guide Jeff Robl of Bobber Down Guide Service. Jeff has been fishing the flowage with his family for over two decades and knows his way around quite well.

That’s one thing on the flowage to watch for where you are! There are so many bays and small islands if I was out on my own I would have driven 200 yards from the launch and parked cause there was no way I was finding my way back without hitting something. That’s another thing; wow is there a lot of “stuff” in the water up there! Logs, submerged islands, rocks are all willing to give you a bill at the local repair shop at any second. 

Jeff did a great job navigating in and around the flowage all afternoon. We motored out to a section with a couple small islands, small meaning about 30-40 feet in diameter, just sticking up out of the water. Jeff likes to keep it simple for his clients, and why not with some many other things to worry about for a guide while fishing, the gear being lent to a customer should be easy to use. He had rigs readied with brightly colored 1/8 jigs under a slip bobber; we used for the most part a half a crawler, every now and then a leech. I did not take long for a bobber to go under with a small walleye on the hook, small enough to return to the water. Your limit is 3 per person on the flowage and a 12 inch eye was not quite what we were looking for. We pulled up the anchors and moved quite often. It really was the exactly the type of fishing I am used to. In the winter Ill pull up to an area, drill a grid of wholes, check with electronics, maybe fish for 5-10 minutes and if nothing I wanted appeared, off I go.  Jeff and I moved quite often that afternoon. Many times out into the open water sections to fish structure Jeff knew was holding fish. There was no drifting in Jeff’s boat, not with two 28lb anchors thrown out at each stop we made. It worked out great, as long as you got your sea legs under you, the fishing was good enough in most places it didn’t matter how rough it was.

To view photos from my trip to Mercer, WI click HERE

We had about 4 hours planned to fish together that afternoon. 4 hours was not what any of the guides feel comfortable with. It can take some time on the flowage traveling back and forth and with the weather conditions being as they were each of the guides would have liked to have seen more time with the writers. In Jeff’s boat though, it only took an hour before Jeff and I had our limit of walleye and started targeting perch and smallmouths. We fortunately did not have to go far from our walleye “spot” to find other species. At times it was as simple as a move to the other side of the same piece of structure. We caught a small northern pike, a number of walleyes, a few nice smallies and a handful of good eater perch.

My trip with Jeff and Bobber Down Guide service will not be one to soon forget. He managed to put me on fish all afternoon, I caught quadruple the amount of walleyes I had ever caught in my life and he even cleaned them up and packaged them for me. I plan on going back to Mercer soon, that trip will definitely include a ride in Jeff’s boat once again, a shore lunch that Jeff provides and hopefully and freezer full of fish too!

The second day of fishing was a morning trip. On this trip I was scheduled to fish with Mike “Doc” Sabec and local guide in Mercer who has been guiding for over 30 years. Doc’s Guide Service is the name and Doc will get you fish or die trying! Again we had windy conditions and more than a little chop on the water. In Doc’s boat we fished with a ¼ jig and again a half a crawler but this time straight jigging, no slip bobbers. The fish were not a cooperative the second day as they were for me on day one, but I still caught.  We had a mixed bag in the boat of rockbass, smallmouth and walleye. The fishing time had been cut a little shorter on this morning due to breakfast running a little late. Doc is an extremely knowledgeable angler and guide and there is no much he has not seen on the flowage. He had us fishing in what looked like the middle of nowhere but really were small humps holding fish that even the a new angler to the area with the best electronics would have a hard time finding. My trip with Doc was a great way to wrap up my fishing, for the most part, for the week.

The Turtle Flambeau Flowage and the Mercer area was a great place to experience. I cannot say it enough, THANK YOU to the Mercer Area Chamber of Commerce for hosting such a well organized event. I cannot wait for another trip up there in September to experience some more fishing and ATVing with my wife. The fishing guides in Mercer are truly sportsmen and will do everything in their power to get you on fish. I do want the chance to get on a boat again for some Muskie fishing possibly with one of the guides I did not have a chance to fish with. The flowage is such a large body of water, and the best way to learn to fish is to go with someone who knows it. Fishing guides generally are worth every penny paid, and the great guides in Mercer are no exception. 

 To read more about my trip to Mercer, WI click HERE

 Follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google +. Also listen to Dan Small and I every week on Outdoors Radio right HERE!

I was invited to Mercer, WI in mid June for a “writers Camp”, an invitational event for members of the Association of Great lakes Outdoor Writers (AGLOW). The Mercer Area Chamber of Commerce had organized activities for 7 outdoor communicators over the course of 3 full days. We had scheduled fishing trips, meals, tours and an ATV ride; they kept us moving right along in the short time we were there.

Upon arrival to Mercer, WI from the south of HWY 51 you run into the mascot for the Mercer area, Claire d’ loon, a 16’ tall, 2000# loon statute that the chamber will decorate to represent the happenings in town. At the time of our trip Claire was not wearing a hat or wreath like she can be found wearing at other times of the year, but you must stop for a picture with her or stop into the Chamber’s office and speak to the great staff.

The chamber arranged for most of us communicators to stay at a beautiful place on Spider Lake called Pine Forest Lodge. Pine Forest has been in operation since 1938 and features furnished cabins situated on parts of the property to allow the choice of overlooking the woods or the water. The main office has WI-FI and John and Cheri Stratte are some of the most gracious hosts I have had anywhere. One of the most honorable and unique qualities at Pine Forest Lodge is that they cater to clients with physical disabilities. Many of the cabins are wheelchair accessible, and events are regularly scheduled for folks with disabilities to enjoy like ATV trips and Kayak tours. I met some great people on my trip to Mercer and at Pine Forest Lodge I met Rick and Gina, both long time customers who had extremely high praise for Pine forest and all that John and Cheri do. Rick has taken many of the pictures that are found adorning the main office of the lodge and Pine Forest’s Facebook page. Gina can be found at least a couple times a year enjoying time with her son on the property, kayaking, swimming and relaxing. Pine Forest Lodge is the type of place that no matter what you do during the day, how much hustle and bustle you have going on, you can relax here. A trip to the main office to sit and talk with John and Cheri about the day and the surrounding area is something I looked forward to each day.

Everyone has to eat, and you have many choices when in Mercer of places to dine. One name came up every time you ask a local where to grab a bite, The Pines, a small German style family restaurant in downtown Mercer. The Pines does not skimp on the portions and the service is great considering it’s a small family that runs it and the couple times I was there the owner Erv, was the host, bartender, waiter and busboy. The special on a Saturday night is duck, my suggestion, get the duck, so good. Now that I have to wipe the drool from the keyboard, the other great menu item is their Schnitzel, oh so good. I am about two seconds away from dropping everything right now and drive 4 ½  hours to eat. So many of the resorts have some great food too! Beaver’s Resort just outside of Mercer is one of those resorts, the owners hail from my hometown of Sheboygan, WI and like many Mercer residents, they had traveled to the Mercer area a number of times and at some point decided to stay. Gateway Resort has some exceptional food as well and newly built “cabins” to enjoy. They may be called “Cabins” but they are way nicer than the house I rent even, and I have a nice house! Tom’s Café was a great stop for a breakfast on a morning before fishing with healthy portions and a nice selection on breakfast items to choose from. Our final evening found us at Cranberry Inn a revamped motel/bar that the owner stuck lots of heart and soul into. With a beautiful décor and excellent food the Cranberry Inn is a must eat place on any trip to Mercer. They also have multiple rooms for rent that have recently been remodeled with the coup de grâce being a basement type dwelling they call the Dorm. Sleeps 8 full kitchen, living room and eating area plus 2 bathrooms for only $149 a night!!! My mouth fell through the floor when I heard that price, what a great deal for a few families looking for great lodging.

To view photos from my trip to Mercer, WI click HERE

Besides the obvious things to do in and around Mercer like fishing (I’ll get to that in Part 2) and ATVing, Mercer has a history of logging, and with logging comes railroads. The Mercer Depot Museum is a nice stop while in the area to see what Mercer was like while the lumberjacks of yesteryear resided there.  Folks from Chicago realized how nice Mercer was long ago and the railroads quickly went from hauling lumber from Mercer to hauling people too Mercer. The shops in downtown Mercer will not disappoint either, with the highlight being the Wampum Shop, if you want something pretty, noisy, classy, or weird they will have it. Known for its eclectic mix of items from handmade moccasins to “I mooned the Loon in Mercer” t-shirts the Wampum shop is where you can find something for everyone for any occasion or no occasion at all. Visiting the antique shops can keep someone busy for a while and if you are in the market for fishing gear, two of the areas best bait shops are right across the street from each other.

Of course this is the north-woods of Wisconsin and there is plenty of wildlife to see. The Little Turtle River area is home to some unique visitors, trumpeter Swans. These large birds were re-introduced years ago and have come back to the area each year to rise the next generation. There are opportunities for bird watchers and nature lovers to explore a wonderful piece of Wisconsin’s wildlife all around Mercer. Zach Wilson is a naturalist that will give tours to showcase loons, ospreys, eagles and other Turtle Flambeau creatures. No trip to Mercer is complete without a sighting of their mascot, the Loon.  To get a greater view, of the surrounding area, try doing it by air. I had a wonderfully scary chance to jump aboard a float plane and see the entire Flambeau Flowage from the sky. I am certainly not a fan of flying, but I wanted to experience a float plane, and with Lauer Aviation I did just that.  

There was some great fishing in Mercer as well and the guides are worth every penny. Read all about my fishing adventures in Mercer in Part 2 Fishing- Mercer, WI.

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 There are many variables that make a sponsorship a good “investment” for the company handing over the check. The number one thing companies want when agreeing to a partnership with an individual or team is exposure to other potential customers, if you can’t offer that to a company, you’re in an uphill battle already.  Another issue companies have is persona of the individual or team they are giving money or product to. There are unfortunately a few bad apples that love to take the money and run, or don’t behave in a professional manner.

 The first statement I brought up we will get to in a bit. The second is where I want to start. I have seen too often a team or individual be denied a sponsorship because they could not write a professional letter, could not hold an intelligent phone conversation or with the introduction of social media, have inappropriate clothing, gestures or statements that could affect who would want to be affiliated with them. Just like in the world of job hunting, marketing wise companies have hired people to do research to make sure they are being represented well on social media and online. Think about that before you try to approach a company, do you have inappropriate photos on Facebook? Have you claimed a very polarizing view of politics on Twitter? Do you have something incriminating on your personal page that the company could see as offensive? You may feel like your hands are tied at times when you want to speak up, but that is a small price to pay to be able to enjoy promoting a product or company that has put its trust in you to be a steward for them.

 Now back to the first statement, exposure is key. If you have nowhere but a truck window or jacket to place the name of a company, do not expect a lot of attention from potential investors. You are a form of advertising for these companies, and they want to sell product, gain hits or garnish attention from other paying customers. Websites are extremely easy to establish these days, with a half hour and a small amount of knowledge you could have a fully operational website including a “store”, blog, video section and a whole host of other content that could expose your sponsor to new people. It takes some effort thereafter to grow your site, but with a base, you have some talking points to add to your resume. Pod Casts and videos are other great platforms to share your use of a product or introduce people to the company your working with.

 I have spent many months attempting to contact businesses that may be interested in allowing me to represent them while on the circuit. I set up professional presentations to give them, laying out exactly what we can do for them.  I customize a plan with each company to fit a need they may have. Our team is fortunate to work with a host of businesses, some have product we use on the tournament trail and some wanted to partner with us to gain online attention.

 Make sure once you have a deal set with a sponsor, you stay in contact with that company, inform them of your intentions to do promotion, or brainstorm with them to find ways to help them. Make sure you keep it about them, not you.

 There are many resources online that may help you set up a professional portfolio and also gain contact information for businesses you may wish to contact. Good luck, and be professional.

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google +. Also listen to Dan Small and I every week on Outdoors Radio right HERE!

3am was wake up in Sheboygan where I live, I figured an hour and forty-five minutes to get to our farm near Montello, set up by 5:30 and plan the rest of the day from the blind. I was close, everything went according to plan with only a 15 minute delay setting up the blind, it was very windy, and there were no stakes in the bag.

I called as the light of the day crept in, with the wind it was difficult to hear, but now and then you would hear that all too familiar gobble, on someone else’s property. Yeah, another year of me trying to draw birds off someone else, not unusual, I was just hoping to get lucky this year I guess. I sat in the blind until 7:30, did a quick glassing and walk around of our property, which I was pretty confident did not hold birds at this point of the day and decided to take a drive into the Grand River Marsh area. With the drive around and a quick walk through of some tree lines it was back to farm to set up once again on a lane we cut for deer, just to see if I would see turkeys moving at all.

This was the first day of my turkey period and I had four more days to stick with it. “Aggressive Scouting” I guess is what it could be called.

Near 12:30 in the afternoon I set myself up with decoys a blind and a comfy chair to wait out the birds. I figured I was in it for the rest of the day, just to see where these birds, if any, roosted.  I called now and then, nothing answered, until 1:15 or so, while I was looking a group of birds just starting to make their way out of our swamp. A hen from behind me answers my calls, I froze, no movement, no sound. I just could not believe I now have a hen behind me within 10 yards and a group of birds, still not known if they are hens or not within 70 yards of me in our swamp.  It’s early afternoon and I am nowhere near a plowed field.

I called once more to keep track of the hen, she quickly answered and proceeded to walk within 5 yards of my blind staring at the hen decoys set up in front of me. I sat motionless with the gun ready in case there was a tom tailing her. The birds that had been skirting the edges of our swamp now realized the live hen and nearly came running. A group of 4 jakes, almost tripping over one another to get to the hen, I was ready for them. The hen went directly to a rubber hen decoy I had outfitted with a Turkey Skinz, an A-Way Outdoors product made of real turkey feathers. The jakes ran to her like kids to a piñata. Those birds were maybe 30 yards away and I decided I was gonna take the lead bird. BANG! “What the…” None of the birds collapsed like I had seen on tv, they hardly moved! So in a quick thought, I picked one out and pulled again, nope didn’t happen that time either. Those birds split up and wondered into the swamp as if they smelled at fresh load of manure being spread.

To say I was disheartened was an understatement. I had missed multiple times the first time I had ever had the chance to even pull the trigger while hunting turkeys. Still in shock I decided to go to my phone, jump on Facebook of all places and pose as question to everyone. What do I do now? Do I leave, do I stay? I wanted a bird, I didn’t care if it was a jake or tom or bearded hen, I wanted a bird.

The first person to respond was my ice fishing tournament partner, his suggestion, move a little. By a little he means a few hundred yards, call again. They broke up headed back into the swamp, and they still want to hang out with that hen. So I moved about 350 yards as the crow flies to a large open area next to a food plot. I set up my single hen with the Turkey Skinz, tucked myself into a cedar tree, and called a couple times. Within 15 minutes of sitting down I saw the birds making their way out of the swamp in my direction. They heard the calls, saw the decoy and were totally committed. I was ready this time, and willing to wait till the bird pecked at the barrel of the gun to shoot too.  Those birds wasted no time coming into range and then, the first one stopped walking, just froze staring at the decoy. He was 15 yards away from me, in view, he took two steps towards me and that’s all it took. One last pull of the trigger for me and I had my first turkey.

It won’t win me a turkey contest, in fact it my bother some who are against shooting jakes. I am ok with that. I am allowed to shoot a jake by law and I was not going to eat my tag or work harder than I already had to maybe, just maybe encounter a tom.

I have another tag for last period, can I go 2 for 2? Not likely, but I am now willing to at least try.

Follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Google +. Also listen to Dan Small and I every week on Outdoors Radio right HERE!

It is a shame more folks did not attend the WI Conservation Congress Spring Hearings. I know, we say it every year,  many of us stand on this soap box and complain about attendance. Is the enitre state that busy? I thought everyone was unemployed? Or are you just taking it for granted?  You want this, that and everything when “your” season comes up, but are unwilling to help when it’s the Conservation Congress’ “season”.

I wanted to be on the Conservation Congress to be a young, new voice. I wanted to be someone who had an actual soap box to stand on to voice issues and speak up where others could not. No one is asking you to do the same, all we are asking for is your expressed opinion where it will do some good.

The anti-sportsmen’s group are well organized and well funded, and at this time they are positioning themselves to have a field day with the lack of participation from hunters and fishermen. They have the ability to spread their message quickly through social media and other outlets, just as we do. So how could they win then? It’s simply the passion they have for their cause. What you take for granted, they are passionately working against.

Our job as delegates is to help concerned citizens write resolutions asking for an addition or change in the hunting and fishing rules. We then take the resolutions that pass at a county level to an assigned committee, they meet and decide to ask them on a statewide forum. If the resolution passes at the state level it can then become a DNR proposed rule change.  It’s our duty to help the citizens of our county whether  we are personally against the resolution or not. If you want to see a change, if you have an idea, we can help the notify the public of it. This system works if used correctly, this system works if you work with it. This system will fail if you stop participating, which is what is happening. With fewer pro-hook & bullet folks and a constant number of anti-hook &bullet folks, the numbers become skewed. Obviously we have far more hunters and fishermen in this state than non, but that is not being represented to the congress, and it’s not our jobs nor our duty to guess what the citizens really want.

I get asked all the time why these hearings and questions cannot be done online, here are just a few reasons, there are many others.

First is discussion, if you have a question, where do you get answers? Who do you trust to get those answers from? During these public meetings the public can assemble and state their opinion or state a clubs position on a proposed question. If we were to ask you the same question online, how would a club define their stance? What if you’re not a snowmobiler and the question pertained to snowmobiles, you may not want to take away an opportunity from someone else but you know nothing about it. Who would answer that? There are many examples each year of groups stating their position so the public may stay informed. That would be more difficult to do online.

Second is voting legitimacy, since internet voting has been created there have been programs created to skew it. They are not hard programs to create either, but tough to combat. The idea has come up many times and the Congress is seriously looking at placing some Advisory Questions not DNR Rule Changes online. The idea that a single program could ruin the votes of many is a serious issue that must be cleared before the Congress takes this step.

Conservation Congress delegate voting online would again be difficult to manage, it would also become extremely impersonal. There is already a feeling of disconnection from the users,  all we would do then is post a bio online, and you must take our word that  is, one, who we are and two, what we actually stand for? I for one want to look someone in the eye before placing them in any position where they are representing me. At the very least ask questions or know a bit more history than a bio piece.

There are ways around all of these, it is just a matter of figuring out the most cost effective and safe way to secure everyone’s vote, address the concerns about the questions and decide how delegate selections takes place.

I would be happy to address other concerns, and answer other questions to the best of my ability, if I cannot answer them, I will refer you to someone who can.

This isn’t me against you, us against them. I am a citizen, I hunt, I fish, spend my money in this state just as you. I want to help make this work for many future generations, if that means putting it all online, great! If that means having the meetings on different days, awesome! Let’s all work to make it work, it starts with some participation from you.

Email me at hardwaterjeff@gmail.com

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