The room at 7 Pinecrest Drive had vintage blue booths, white-topped tables, a seafood case by the register and a live-lobster tank that took up much of the ordering area. The family had planned it as a retail fish store with a few tables. Over time it grew into a 50-seat restaurant. Ray's Seafood Market and Restaurant was scheduled to serve its last meal there on Saturday, Sept. 12, and kept 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. hours through that final week.
In those last days, co-owner Janis Clark told the Essex Reporter that customers were worried about one dish in particular. "Pretty much all of it, but right now everybody's worried about where they're going to get whole bellies," she said.
The clams were the Essex story. The fried Lake Champlain perch on the same menu connects to something larger, and much of that larger thing ran through a different Ray's address.
The Address Most Diners Never Saw
Ray's had a long run before Pinecrest Drive. According to Seven Days, Ray and Mae Dunkling started the business in 1949 with a single truck hauling lobsters from Maine to Vermont, then opened their first store in Burlington's Old North End in 1951. Their son Reg and his wife, Hazel, took over in 1959 and later passed it to their five children. The Essex Reporter traces the retail store from North Street in Burlington to Five Corners in Essex Junction before it settled off Susie Wilson Road. Seven Days dates the Essex store and its year-round restaurant to 1994. That restaurant became known for seafood baskets, including fried Lake Champlain perch fillets.
Ray's never fully left the Old North End. It still runs a bait, tackle and fish-buying counter at 49 North Street in Burlington. Ray's own "Lake Fish" web page says the business buys fresh local fish there year-round. The family's closing letter named the Pinecrest Drive location and did not mention North Street. The Essex Reporter said the Burlington shop would stay open, with hours of 1 to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 2 to 5 p.m. on Sundays, and that it does not sell seafood for eating.
So diners lost the Essex counter where they ordered perch, while the North Street counter, where perch came in from anglers, was still listed as open.
How a Bucket of Perch Leaves Vermont
VTDigger described this trade in March 2025, while state regulators were rewriting its rules. In that reporting, fish moved in four steps.
- Recreational anglers catch more panfish on Lake Champlain than they plan to eat.
- They sell the extra to small bait shops around the state, and those shops resell to Ray's.
- Ray's acted as what VTDigger called "the state's main hub for fish distribution." It sold some panfish locally.
- Most of the fish went by truck to processing plants in Canada's Great Lakes region, which sell fillets to online retailers and wholesalers. A lot of it also went to markets in New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
Paul Dunkling, who managed Ray's, described the downstream side simply. "It varies. It all depends on what the markets are doing, but there are lots of different options for it," he told VTDigger. In a typical year, only 12 to 18 bait shops and fishmongers across the state reported fish purchases to the state.
Seen this way, the fried perch basket in Essex was the small local slice of a much larger flow of fish.
Why This Trade Exists Here at All
In most states it is illegal to sell fish you caught with a rod and reel. The Vermont Daily Chronicle's August report called Vermont the outlier. Vermont's statute protects a short list of game fish from sale: salmon, trout, lake trout, walleye, northern pike, muskellunge and black bass. Nearly everything else can be sold. Lake Champlain sets no daily limit on the panfish anglers sell most often, and white perch can be sold too.
The rules changed this year. The state's Commercial Angling Rule took effect January 1, 2026, and the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department's overview says Lake Champlain panfish limits stayed the same.
Under the 2026 rule | What it means |
|---|---|
Anglers who sell fish | Need a valid Vermont fishing license plus a Fish Seller's Endorsement, and must report pounds sold by species and size group |
Businesses buying fish to resell | Need a Fish Buyer Permit and must report purchases every quarter, including how much came from Lake Champlain |
Black and white crappie | Can no longer be sold or bought |
Walleye | Was already barred from sale by statute |
Yellow perch on Lake Champlain | Still no daily limit |
Shawn Good, a fisheries biologist with the department, told VTDigger in 2025, "We have no clue how many people are selling fish." The endorsement is meant to answer that question. The first full winter of reporting under the new rule starts this year, the same season Ray's will no longer have its Essex storefront.
A Trade That Was Already Shrinking
VTDigger's reporting includes a baseline figure. Using International Trade Administration data, Vermont exported an average of about $1 million in fish a year to Canada from 2020 through 2023. In 2013 the figure was roughly $9 million.
Ice matters too. Vermont Public reported in March 2025 that more than 90 percent of Vermont's commercial fishing happens on Lake Champlain, and that most panfish are caught on hook and line during ice-fishing season. One of the buyers further up the lake is Scott Mobbs, who owns Big Scott's Bait at 1914 Dunsmore Road in St. Albans and buys panfish from anglers fishing St. Albans Bay. He told Vermont Public how a shorter ice season was cutting into his business.
"Last year I bought fish for six weeks in the winter, where we used to buy for four months."
The Essex restaurant felt the same seasonal pattern. The Essex Reporter said traffic usually drops in fall and winter, which is part of why the family chose to close at the end of summer. Clark recalled her brother asking about the crowds that showed up after the announcement: "Where were all these guys, all these people, all winter when we're struggling? The winter time is terrible."
Seven Days reported that the family's reason was simpler. "It was just time for some of us to retire and move on," Dunkling said, and no one in the younger generation wanted to take on the retail business. Ray's also reached past its regular customers. The Essex Reporter said that for nearly 10 years Ray's took part in Age Well's Restaurant Ticket Program, serving close to 25,000 meals to adults 60 and older for an $8 suggested donation.
Where the Perch, Clams and Fresh Fish Are Now
Ray's also supplied other businesses, including Lantman's Market in Hinesburg and Pulcinella's on Shelburne Road. Fewer places now serve perch that is clearly identified as Lake Champlain fish. These are the ones current sources confirm:
- Lake Champlain perch: Farmers & Foragers Dockside at the Burlington Harbor Marina, 75 Penny Lane, serves perch tacos made with Lake Champlain fish. It operates in summer, so call before you go this late in the year.
- Whole-belly clams: Shanty on the Shore, 181 Battery Street in Burlington, lists whole belly clams in the fryer section of its menu.
- A fish counter close to Essex: Williston Meat & Fish Market at 104 Cornerstone Drive and Shelburne Meat & Fish Market at 2989 Shelburne Road both list fresh fish, including organic salmon and wild swordfish.
- Co-op seafood: City Market runs seafood counters at 82 South Winooski Ave. and 207 Flynn Ave. in Burlington.
None of these sources confirms Lake Champlain perch on a year-round menu in the Essex area. That gap is the real change on the table.
What This Ice Season Will Show
Several questions are still unanswered as of early October. No local report published after Sept. 12 has described what will happen to the Pinecrest Drive building. Before the closing, Dunkling told Seven Days only that the wholesale business might continue "in some form." Ray's Lake Fish page still advertises year-round buying in Burlington. The page is undated, and its species list still includes crappie, which the 2026 rule now bars from sale.
The Dunkling family is still on the water. Paul Dunkling and his sons, Brian and Adam, plan to keep running their charter business, Sure Strike Charters.
Once the lake freezes and anglers start bringing in buckets of perch, the counter at 49 North Street will show whether Vermont's angler-to-market fish trade still has its hub.
If you're in Essex or Essex Junction and want to talk through anything local, Flex Realty is a calm, practical place to start, and our team follows changes like this one in the communities we serve. Contact us whenever you're ready.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
