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21 . Otter Creek

Location: West-central Vermont, about a 1-hour ride from Burlington; a 2½-hour ride from Albany, New York; a 3-hour ride from Manchester, New Hampshire; and a 3½-hour ride from Boston, Massachusetts. Full-service airports are available in all four cities.

There is nothing like stripping an 8-inch streamer as fast as you can with a water wolf chasing it. If you like casting large flies to big pike, Otter Creek is the place for you. Regulars consider a 24-inch pike small, a 30-inch pike a good one, a 36-inch pike somewhat common, and pike

over 40 inches always a possibility. Even small pike provide excitement with their hard hits and reckless behavior. I once read that northern pike (Esox lucius) are the fastest freshwater fish, capable of short bursts of up to 35 mph. Henry David Thoreau described the pike as the “swiftest, wariest and most ravenous of fish.” In 25 years fishing Otter Creek, there have been many times I have seen a 30-inch pike try to eat the fish I was playing. Few, if any, rivers in the Northeast can match Otter Creek in regard to the quantity and size of its pike.

Otter Creek is known as the “Indian Road” and played an important role in settling Vermont. It is the longest river in the state, at 112 miles. It terminates at Lake Champlain. Otter Creek is a tiny stream when it flows out of Emerald Lake in East Dorset. It is still fairly small as it goes through Danby and Wallingford. By the time Otter flows into Rutland, it is a big river.