Northeast Outdoor Newsletter: March 2024

It’s over, and I’m over it.  Of course, I’m talking about the abysmal ice fishing season that 2024 brought to the northeast, easily the worst season for making ice that I can ever remember.  Normally in early March, we would be chasing some lake trout on Lake Champlain as the biomass begins to make their way north from the Crown Point Bridge, jigging up yellow perch the size of a small bass, or sitting in a shallow bay watching tip ups in hopes of landing a 40 inch northern pike.  It would seem as of now that all of those activities will need to be conducted in a boat in March of 2024, and I guess I am finally at terms with that.  Time to move on.

It’s way easier to dwell on the lousy winter, and lord knows I did.  I was only able to get out on the ice about seven or eight times, and with that I was only able to film and upload two videos over to YouTube, well below what my subscribers expect.  However, I am forcing myself, no matter how hard, to be excited for what an early spring is going to bring to us outdoorsmen and women here in Vermont.  

My first day on my Tracker Pro Team 190TX bass boat last year was April 10th, and I am on pace to beat that by two or three weeks this year.  Usually a lackluster year for ice leads to lake trout and land-locked Atlantic salmon being veracious in mid March into early April, and the first reports from Lake Champlain charter captains certainly back that up.  Hopefully in the next five days I will be out there, attempting to confirm those reports.  

In addition to lakers, I’m sure this warm weather will bump up the annual smallmouth spawn by several weeks, and allow us who forage for ramps and fiddleheads to find success much earlier than we usually do.  With how many times our rivers jumped their banks in 2023, I’m anticipating an above average year for foraging for fiddleheads.  Only time will tell.

The only animal reaction I am unsure about are those pestering Eastern Turkeys.  With the season opening May 1st, the current weather conditions could have them ready to mate in the second week of April.  However, Vermont being Vermont, we could all of a sudden enter a second winter with below freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall at any moment.  I plan on doing a lot of scouting over the next four or five weeks to hopefully punch a tag or two come May.  

So let’s be excited.  For the early Spring we didn’t ask for, but the one we certainly got.  I’m done ice fishing, even though I know there’s some northern ponds that are still holding up okay.  If you find yourself out there, be extra careful.  Don’t fish alone, wear safety gear and remember no ice is safe ice.  Conditions can change by the hour with these warm and wet temperatures, so safe ice on Monday could be completely open water by Wednesday.  Here’s to Spring 2024!