Northeast Outdoor Newsletter: January 2024

Here we are again: warm, wet and windy in 2024, and that has us ice fishermen chomping at the bit and willing to embarrass ourselves in Facebook groups by shamelessly asking for ice reports from strangers on the internet.  What a time to be alive.

An online hat order came through the other day that caught me off guard.  The shipping address was in Texas, which I thought was very cool because as far as I know, I don’t have any friends in Texas who were fans of Woods North.  I then realized this website has been an area of neglect over the last few months, and I think 2024 is a good time to start fresh with keeping this blog up to date, even if only a couple people will ever read this.  But I hope all of you in the ice belt are looking for ways to be distracted for a few minutes, like I am, in lieu of a bevy of safe hard water opportunities.  So here goes.

January in the north country is a time where most big game and waterfowl hunting seasons are coming to an end, and usually has us ice anglers making our third or fourth trip out with our augers and tip ups.  While 2024 is shaping up to be very similar to 2023, to say there is absolutely no safe ice here in Vermont simply isn’t true.  As I write this on January 10th, I have had two excursions onto 9+ inches of ice on smaller ponds in the Northeast Kingdom here in Vermont, albeit with varying results.  The first journey this year was on January 3rd to a small, 33 acre pond that yielded a few dozen perch and sunfish on the jig stick, and eight very vibrant and energetic chain pickerel on tip ups.  I managed to film and edit all the footage together and uploaded a very fun video to the Woods North YouTube channel, go check it out if you’re into that sort of stuff.

Our second outing was just yesterday, and provided a much different experience.  We visited a much larger pond that is slightly closer to where our first outing was. We were in search of pike, pickerel, trout, perch, smelt or whatever else was willing to come out and play.  Sprague and I managed a handful of perch, but nothing worthy of taking home to fry up, and not surprisingly, I felt as though there wasn’t enough action to constitute making a video from our trip.  While not how most people would refer to getting “skunked”, this is how I felt yesterday walking off the ice.  

There was rain today and the high is in the upper 40’s, but I have high hopes that the frigid temps will return in the next few weeks to allow us to salvage what’s left of the 2024 hard water season.  Yes it’s still early, but if you’re like me, last year's season felt like it ended before it ever began, and it’s even warmer this year.  Hopefully the bays of the Lake Champlain Islands will skim over in the coming days and allow anglers to chase some tail before the month ends.  Otherwise, I’m planning on hitting every pond in the Northeast Kingdom or southern Vermont that will allow me to safely pursue trophy fish and provide content to all of the social media channels associated with this brand.  My favorite species to pursue through the ice are lake trout, brown trout, rainbow smelt, northern pike and yellow perch and thankfully Vermont has a plethora of smaller lakes and ponds that hold all of these fish.  I would suggest picking up a copy of the 2024 Vermont Fishing Guide and Regulations handbook for free wherever licenses are sold.  Inside you can find a breakdown of every species located in a specific body of water, extremely valuable information to a dedicated angler.

One of my other favorite January activities is chasing cottontail rabbits on the farm on a warmer day.  In my opinion, rabbit is some of the best tasting wild small game there is, and the hunt can be extremely rewarding yet challenging, without the technical proficiency required in a more involved hunting method like bowhunting.  Some use dogs, I don’t, but regardless, chasing cottontails is a great way to enjoy a day in the woods in the dead of winter.

So that’s what I got for the start of 2024.  I’m going to do my best to make sure that there’s a post here every month.  I do enjoy writing, but the bulk of my time is spent on filming, editing and video production for the over 1,700 subscribers on YouTube.  I hope if you’re reading this, you also check out the awesome work I put up over there as well.  Right now I don’t have anything for sale on the website, I sent the last beanie out in the mail two days ago.  That being said, I have a brand new shipment that should be here in the next two weeks, so I will make sure the store is completely restocked for February, and I may just add a couple new items as well.  Stay tuned!