[lbkiel]

We are considering a move to Vermont....I have already posted another question regarding that. BUT, we have been spending hours upon hours researching and I am having a hard time getting good information on the lakes. This is very important to us because we like to boat, tube, ski and FISH! My husband loves to fish and would like to be able to fry up and eat his "catch" on occasion. We are currently living in S. Illinois and as stated in my earlier post, we vacation in S. Missouri and Arkansas lakes where the water is clear and you can eat the fish....seriously, you can see your toes while swimming. The lakes are popular scuba diving locations because of the clear water.

I am leaning towards Middlebury, Bristol, Waterbury/Montpelier, ???

You can read my other post "Midwesterner looking to move to Vermont" for more info. I know "lake" season is much shorter than "snow" season, so this is probably NOT a common question...thanks!

[swanstone1]

Uhmmm no offense, but you can see your toes in all VT lakes. I came from the South and all water was cloudy. However.........can you handle hopping in? I know for a fact Crystal Lake is the 3rd cleanest in the state. You can eat fish out of any lake/stream/river. But, common sense says don't eat trout out of rivers right beside an electric dam.

[vter]

Lake Dunmore is a great lake. Willoughby, Crystal Lake, Joes Pond, ahh..there are too many to mention.

[lbkiel]

Ummmm, none taken. I just don't know! I have never been there and I assumed all the lakes would be clean but very COLD....again, dumb, I guess. Upon reading what little I could find concerning the lakes in the region, I was worried about being able to EAT the fish. Just because it's clear, doesn't mean it's safe. Thanks, VTER for the list of lakes. I will check these out on the map....sounds like we have nothing to worry about around there, huh?!

[arctichomesteader]

Arguably the cleanest are the most isolated ones in the NEK and the mountains elsewhere. Still, few of them are truly dirty. As with any natural water body you don't want to drink untreated water, for example. Champlain is, sadly, polluted still, probably among the or the dirtiest. I wouldn't eat much fish out of Champlain, I wouldn't hesitate to eat the fish out of Lewis Pond (a note: the terms pond and lake are used fairly loosely here compared to elsewhere, so what may be called a pond can be quite a lake, such as Norton Pond, and conversely, some lakes are smaller like ponds elsewhere, as Griffith Lake is). There are some camps with grandfathered in septic systems along some more developed lakes that are a bit questionable, but perhaps not enough to overwhelm the lakes with waste.

[RunawayJim]

Originally Posted by arctichomesteader

Arguably the cleanest are the most isolated ones in the NEK and the mountains elsewhere. Still, few of them are truly dirty. As with any natural water body you don't want to drink untreated water, for example. Champlain is, sadly, polluted still, probably among the or the dirtiest. I wouldn't eat much fish out of Champlain, I wouldn't hesitate to eat the fish out of Lewis Pond (a note: the terms pond and lake are used fairly loosely here compared to elsewhere, so what may be called a pond can be quite a lake, such as Norton Pond, and conversely, some lakes are smaller like ponds elsewhere, as Griffith Lake is). There are some camps with grandfathered in septic systems along some more developed lakes that are a bit questionable, but perhaps not enough to overwhelm the lakes with waste.

Generally, lakes are larger than ponds. I was taught in a limnology class that lakes have different levels of temperature stratification while ponds do not, but I think that's old school thinking.

I'd probably eat fish out of Champlain before I ate fish from any river in RI.

[68vette]

http://healthvermont.gov/enviro/fish...Alert_2007.pdf - from Vermont Fish and Wildlfe

Something to consider about any lake on the east coast or anywhere for that matter. We consider the lakes or ponds to be clean and pure, but all the pollution from factories and plants west of us, ends upfalling in our lakes and streams when it rains or snows. Look at any of the fresh snow that falls and see all the particulate matter in it.
I live right on the lake and would not eat anything out of it. I don't even swim in the lake. Every summers the E Coli count gets high enough to close the beaches. Sadly this is not just from farm run off. Most of it is human sewage and run off from streets. Old outdated treatment plants can't handle what is flowing into them at this point. With heavy rains there are overflows and most of it ends up in Champlain. There are typically over 50 overflows per year. Most of the spills are around 5-6 thousand gallons, but they have also had a 2.5 million gallon spill.

[arctichomesteader]

Originally Posted by RunawayJim

Generally, lakes are larger than ponds. I was taught in a limnology class that lakes have different levels of temperature stratification while ponds do not, but I think that's old school thinking.

I'd probably eat fish out of Champlain before I ate fish from any river in RI.

Yeah, but when they named the lakes and ponds here, in many cases they were pretty random and used the two terms interchangeably.

I don't know, I'd keep any eating of Champlain fish to a low amount. There's plenty of cleaner places to get fish from here anyways.