Northeast Outdoor Newsletter: May 2024

It was May 2nd, just after five o’clock in the morning when Sprague and I pulled off the side of a well traveled road in southern Charlotte.  It was the second day of spring turkey season here in Vermont and at the moment, there was thunder rolling overhead and lighting off in the distance in pretty much every direction.  On top of that, it was raining and we needed to cut through a ditch and make our way to the corner of a corn field on the eastern side of the railroad tracks.  See, Sprague had inadvertently roosted a lone Tom the previous evening on his way back from picking up a couple deer skulls from the taxidermist just down the road.  Now it was about 10 hours after that had happened and we were determined to meet this gobbler’s acquaintance before he even had his morning cup of coffee.

Look, I’m not a fan of spoilers, so this is where the story ends in this post.  If you want to see for yourself, make sure to check out the latest upload over on our YouTube channel.  You can probably imagine the outcome of that morning, because after all, why would I elaborate on a turkey hunt to this length if the morning didn’t end in success?

Now it’s mid May and I am on a mission to tag out during the spring season for my first time ever.  It’s tough around Chittenden County, with a large number of hunters and a not-so-large amount of huntable land.  It’s a grind that is unlike any other hunting season for me, and I certainly feel like I’m losing my mind by Memorial Day Weekend after four weeks of 3am wake up calls.  I love every second of it.

I’ve mentioned this before on another post but I have a similar infatuation with bullhead catfish, or ‘pout’ as we say here in the Green Mountain State.  I’ve been out a half dozen times so far and have only found fish on my last outing.  Usually we can find those slimy buggers in early April, but it would seem that the enormous amount of snow we received in March pushed a few of the fish spawns back a couple weeks.  I’m going to get back out there this week at some point, and hopefully my efforts will be rewarded with a full bucket of the best eating fish in Lake Champlain.

I really haven’t done any foraging or trout fishing much yet this spring, but I will be making my way to the ramp patch at some point in the next few days to load my freezer up with my world famous ramp pesto.  Well, maybe not world famous, but I think it’s pretty damn good.  Pretty soon here the smallmouth on Lake Champlain will begin to move up shallow and jerk-bait season will be in full swing.  Until then, I will be in search of some more feathers.  Be good people, go get outside.