Fall in Vermont does this thing where the air gets sharp and the light goes golden across the marsh grass and you remember why people write entire novels about New England autumns. If you're a waterfowl hunter, it's also the time of year that matters most. And right now, applications are open for the fall waterfowl hunting lotteries at two wetland areas just inland from Lake Champlain.

The two areas are Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area in Addison and Little Otter Creek Wildlife Management Area in Ferrisburgh. Both sit in the Champlain Valley, which is basically a highway for migrating waterfowl moving south in the fall. Ducks and geese funnel through this corridor in numbers that make it one of the better waterfowl hunting opportunities in the Northeast. The state runs these as lottery hunts to keep the pressure controlled and give the habitat room to breathe.

If you've never done a lottery hunt, the process is pretty straightforward. You submit an application, they draw names, and if you get picked you get assigned a shooting station or a blind for specific hunt days. It's not complicated, but you do need to pay attention to deadlines because they don't extend them because you forgot.

What I like about managed hunts like this is that they keep access fair. Everybody who puts in has the same shot. The controlled numbers mean the hunting pressure stays reasonable, which is better for the birds and better for the hunters. Nobody wants to be set up in a marsh at dawn listening to somebody else's calls from forty yards away.

For gear, waterfowl hunting in Vermont in October is a different animal than early season stuff anywhere south of here. I've been caught in a Champlain Valley marsh in late October wearing insufficient layers and it is a memory that keeps me honest every time I pack a bag now. You want waders that are actually waterproof, not "kind of" waterproof. A good shell. Gloves you can shoot in. And bring more than you think you need, because the weather on Lake Champlain changes its mind about every twenty minutes.

The wetlands themselves are worth being in even if you never fire a shot. Dead Creek especially is one of those places where you show up in the dark and the sound of birds waking up around you is so loud you can barely think. Geese talking, ducks winging overhead in the pre-dawn, the whole marsh coming alive.

Details and application instructions are available through the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. Get your application in early and don't sleep on it. The marsh waits for nobody.