Harvey's Lake

Harvey's Lake drops to roughly 140 feet in a compact basin at West Barnet, making it one of the deepest lakes in Vermont for its size. The cold, clear water sustains lake trout and rainbow smelt, and Vermont Fish and Wildlife adds 600 two-year-old rainbow trout under the 2026 trophy trout program — the largest trophy stocking among the state's ponds. Brook trout, perch, and pickerel round out the fishery. Local lore holds that a young Jacques Cousteau, summering at a camp on the lake around 1920, made his first dives here breathing through hollow reeds.

For the fly rod, Harvey's is a spring and fall lake. Ice-out sends smelt shoreward with lake trout and big rainbows behind them, and a Grey Ghost on a sinking line along the steep contours is the classic play. Rainbows keep feeding on the shelf edges into June — chironomids and leeches take them consistently — before summer pushes the fish below fly depth. The state fishing access with a concrete ramp makes boat logistics simple.

Cold, clear, spring-influenced water that plunges quickly from shoreline shelves to a basin around 140 feet. Rainbow smelt are the dominant forage, shaping both the laker and trophy rainbow fisheries.

A steady winter fishery for lake trout, rainbows, and perch; jigging smelt imitations over 60 to 100 feet of water is standard.