Northeast Outdoor Newsletter: October 2022

This will be the first post of a monthly installment that I am going to call the “Northeast Outdoor Newsletter” where I am sharing which outdoor activities I’m currently invested in, planning on doing soon or are on my radar in one way or another. I hope this serves as motivation for people who love being outside in some capacity but aren’t sure of what opportunities are currently present in the north country. Here goes nothing.

I recently made my way to one of my favorite trout ponds in Vermont, and I guess I should really say ‘on earth’ because there are few locations I’ve been to more or enjoy greater than Sterling Pond in Jeffersonville, Vermont. If you find me on Instagram, my most recent post can provide a glimpse into why this place is so damn cool, especially in the fall when the leaves, and more importantly, the brook trout that call that black water home, change color. Sterling Pond is a destination for me anytime from May to October, but I tend to ignore the months in between because the hike up in July is a muggy and scorching-hot mosquito-infested sweat lodge. I prefer the spring and fall.

You know who else really enjoys that area in the fall? The thousands of people from southern and Mid-Atlantic states that load up their minivans to check out the landscape change from a pale green to figurative inferno. Maybe growing up here makes me a little critical of these folk who like to park in dangerously inconvenient locations just off the road, and drive ten miles per hour under the speed limit to gander at some dying trees, but I just can’t imagine going on a vacation that doesn’t somehow involve me wetting a line or heading out on a hunt. Seriously, do these people not have trees in their home states? Us locals actually have a few names for you out of towners: ‘leafers’, ‘leaf-peepers’ or just plain ‘peepers.’ Don’t let the labeling scare you off, you’re all welcome back anytime.

Outside of late May and early June, October may actually be my favorite month to head out with a fly rod. Most ponds that have been running incredibly hot over the summer months are now fishable all day, and trout have this innate ability to sense the seasons change and that means they’re going to throw on the feed bag. Streamers and large stimulator dry flies are what proved to be successful at Sterling Pond just a few days ago.

My advice for heading out on a river this time of year would be to sleep in. The best the bite is going to get on moving water is in the afternoon, beginning at midday and going until dusk. With nighttime temperatures heading into the low fifties and high forties, trout can be incredibly sluggish and tight-lipped in the morning, before the river water has had a chance to warm up. It’s remarkable how much the water temperature can change between 8am and noon, but often these few degrees can mean the difference of being skunked and having a banner day of fly fishing. Typically, most outdoorsmen and women are already focused on hunting by this point in the year, so that means you’ll have the water to yourself, and all sorts of hungry fish ready to take a fly in some of the best scenery the United States has to offer.

In addition to trout fishing, many fish begin to migrate out of the ocean and lakes to spawn up rivers. I recently had a very enjoyable four days in Pulaski, New York with some of my best friends to fish the king and coho salmon runs off of Lake Ontario. These fish show up in the tens of thousands and can grow to tremendous sizes that aren’t paralleled in Vermont, but we still do see the fleeting population of land-locked Atlantic salmon and Lake Champlain-dwelling rainbow trout or ‘steelhead’ make their way into rivers like the Otter, Winooski, Lamoille and Lewis Creek in our state. Going after these fish won’t produce results like they do on the west coast or even in Western New York, but they present a very cool opportunity for an angler looking for a challenge.

Bass fishing is also tremendous this time of year. As the lake begins to cool off, schools of bait fish begin to scatter and run up shallow, with throngs of giant smallmouth and largemouth bass hot on the trail. There really aren’t any ‘dinks’ this time of year, even fish that hatched in the spring and summer aren’t exactly guppies anymore. I like to look for smallies and largemouth mixed in together, in anywhere from eight to 25 feet of water, depending on water temperature and weather conditions. I like to use underspins, chatterbaits and jigs to pull the fish off the bottom, and what I’ve found is that as long as you can present a bait in front of them, they aren’t picky eaters. Some of my best bass have been boated on Halloween weekend over the years.

Obviously, it’s now hunting season. Many seasons opened in September, like resident Canada goose, gray squirrel and early season black bear. October 1st saw the opening of Vermont archery season, and unfortunately I haven’t gotten my butt out there yet with my bow. There’s a farm in town that we have hunted on for about 6 years now, and have harvested pretty much every species you could imagine there. Fishing and filming for the Woods North YouTube channel took most of my time and energy this summer, so I am running a few weeks behind on tree-stand maintenance and tuning my bow. I plan on making it out there within the next week or two for some evening sits. At the end of October, I’ll also be participating in Vermont’s anterless only muzzleloader weekend down in Benson, Vermont. I was able to purchase a surplus tag for Unit K, and I am fortunate enough to have a very close family friend and hunting mentor with a camp in the area. Hopefully I’ll be able to harvest a doe and share my experience here and on YouTube.

There’s so much more to do in October as well, with duck season opening in the Lake Champlain zone, to foraging for giant puffball mushrooms, what I’ve found over the years is to find the few activities that you enjoy the most and commit. For me that's fly fishing, bass fishing and deer hunting, but it’s different for everyone. It’s a little early for me to get excited for rifle season and ice fishing, but that’ll be here soon enough. I’d like to quote the great Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation: “Never half-ass two things; whole-ass one thing.” Do what is the most fun for you and get really good at it; it’ll get even more fun after that.