Lake Dunmore

Lake Dunmore lies at the foot of the Moosalamoo National Recreation Area in the towns of Salisbury and Leicester, a three-mile ribbon of clear water beneath the wooded ridge of Mount Moosalamoo. At 985 acres and 105 feet deep, Dunmore is that valuable thing in a fly angler's geography: a genuine two-story lake — coldwater fish below, warmwater fish along the banks — within fifteen minutes of Middlebury and with a state park on its shore.

The coldwater story runs on rainbow smelt. Lake trout and landlocked Atlantic salmon are both stocked and hold well in Dunmore's deep central basin, and rainbow trout add a third salmonid that spends more of the year within fly reach. At ice-out in April, all three push shallow after spawning smelt, and for a month the shorelines, points, and the mouth of Sucker Brook produce fish on smelt streamers fished from boats, kayaks, and even the Branbury State Park shoreline. The lake's other identity is warmwater: smallmouth bass thrive along the rocky eastern shore and the ledges below Rattlesnake Point, joined by largemouth in the weedier southern coves.

Summer sorts the fishery by depth. Salmonids drop below the thermocline — trollers' territory — while the fly game turns to morning chironomid fishing over the 30-to-50-foot contours, damselflies along the weedlines, Hexagenia mayflies hatching over the silty southern flats on July evenings, and reliable smallmouth on the rocks all day. This Hex hatch is an event: big duns coming off at dusk bring every fish in the south end, bass and holdover rainbows alike, to the surface.

Fall reverses the spring. Cooling water pulls salmon and lakers back into the upper layers in late September and October, staging fish gather off Sucker Brook and the gravel points, and streamer anglers get their second and often best window at Dunmore's premium fish, with foliage lighting the Moosalamoo ridge above the lake.

Access is a strength: Branbury State Park on the eastern shore offers day-use shoreline, beach, and rentals; a state fishing access serves trailered boats; and the lake's modest size suits small craft. Cottages ring much of the shore and summer weekends are busy with recreation, but early mornings, the shoulder seasons, and the whole month of October belong to anglers. For a traveling fly fisher working the Middlebury area rivers, Dunmore adds a stillwater dimension no other Addison County water can match.

Dunmore is a clear, moderately fertile two-story lake: a deep, cold central trench flanked by gravel points and rocky eastern shorelines, with weedy, silt-bottomed flats at the southern end. Sucker Brook, entering from the Moosalamoo highlands, is the primary inflow and a magnet for spawning smelt and staging salmonids.

Rainbow smelt anchor the coldwater food web; perch, shiners, and crayfish feed the bass. Insect life is diverse — abundant chironomids, June damselflies, dragonflies over the weedbeds, Callibaetis on the flats, and a genuine Hexagenia hatch over the southern silt in July that ranks among Vermont's best stillwater dry fly events.

A popular winter fishery: lake trout and salmon through the ice in season over the deep basin, with perch and panfish on the flats. The lake's accessibility makes it one of western Vermont's busier ice fishing destinations; the bite is best early and late in the ice season.