As we look towards February and slowly lengthening days, we find ourselves in the center of the winter months. The next few weeks will probably determine what our sustained snowpack will look like, so despite the desire to want spring fishing conditions, think snow. Overall, this year’s milder weather has offered what feels like more days to get on the water that are above freezing. The challenge has been working around the changes in water levels and turbidity related to melt and rain. Even with those hurdles we have still found some productive fishing locally.

The Otter flows will be bouncing around allot unless we get a full runoff or a hard freeze. It looks like we have some colder days in the forecast next week, so that will tame the water levels some as the melt locks up a bit. Remember the change in VT regs allows catch and release artificial on nearly all the water in VT, save a few places. Consult the 2023 Handbook until you have a grasp on what’s open and what’s not. In additional, don’t forget your 2023 license if you haven’t bought it already. The Otter Creek tribs have been more reliable from a fishability sense, though this last wet snow and rain...