Matthew Dickerson: Fishing on thin ice

Even before stepping out onto the ice of Bryant Pond 30 minutes before dawn on New Year’s Day, I could tell it was going to be an unusual opening to Maine’s ice fishing season. 

Vermont 2023 hunting, trapping, and fishing licenses, as well as the 2023 lawbooks for these activities, are now available on the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department’s website and wherever licenses are sold.

It’s probably not accurate to say that fish taught me anything. Numerous fishing outings on which I failed to interact with any actual fish is evidence that I don’t even understand their language.

I’d only been out on the river once all month. So after dinner, when the river calls my name, I heed the call.

A lone sockeye salmon sits in the stream in front of me under a low canopy of alder. The stream is wide, gravelly and shallow: only two to three inches deep and a few feet wide.

For five days and nights I resided in a shoreline cabin partway up the Wood River system in Alaska’s Wood-Tikchik State Park. Officially, I was serving as artist-in-residence for Alaska State Parks and had come to spend a week in the state’s largest park … (read more)

University of Vermont researchers are enlisting the help of Lake Champlain anglers this summer to complete two important studies.

Vermont’s Arrowhead Mountain Lake is the only place I have ever caught a bowfin.

With the beginning of summer and anglers fishing from shore, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department reminds people that open fires and swimming are prohibited at all Vermont state fishing access areas.

Vermont’s annual, statewide Summer Free Fishing Day is Saturday, June 11 this year, and it will be highlighted by a free family fishing festival in Grand Isle as well as opening day of the state’s regular bass fishing season.

We were still within sight of the boat launch where we began our six-mile float down the Shoshone River in Cody, Wyoming.

There’s nothing quite as enjoyable as spending a spring evening fishing. At least that’s what Mark says. But then, he practically grew up with a fishing pole over his shoulder. I grew up with a book bag over mine.

The Vermont walleye fishing season opens on Saturday, May 7, marking the return of some of the best walleye fishing in New England.

For years I have been hoping for — and advocating for — year-round fishing in Vermont. Now I have my wish.

Despite lingering snow cover in some areas of the state, the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department says anglers can still have fun and be successful early in the season if they keep a few strategies in mind.