Fishing in Ohio

Put-in-Bay on South Bass Island is a major departure point for Lake Erie walleye and smallmouth bass fishing.

With an army of anglers and a meager sprinkling of small reservoirs, Ohio certainly depends on a large share of Lake Erie to satisfy its residents. The most fertile and productive of all the Great Lakes, Erie and its sprawling waters and plentiful fish schools can easily accommodate a crowd.

Lake Erie’s shallow Western Basin is a world premier freshwater spawning ground, a bonanza that has earned it its reputation as the “Walleye Capital of the World.” The walleye fishing is great, and the often ignored smallmouth bass fishing is even better. The wide range of gamefish inhabiting Lake Erie will test any angler’s interests and abilities.

Although anglers flock to northern Ohio to feast on Lake Erie’s bounty, if they ignore the Buckeye State’s inland lakes and the Ohio River, they’re missing out on a smorgasbord of treats. Ohio’s collection of small reservoirs features fine angling for panfish, catfish, bass, and walleye, as well as surprisingly good muskies. The darling of the modern fisheries programs is the saugeye, a walleye-sauger hybrid generously stocked in many of the state’s reservoirs.

Most visiting anglers fail to realize that although Lake Erie and the Ohio River have a long history of pleasing recreational anglers, natural inland lakes are few and far between. The largest natural lake in Ohio is little Chippewa, a 300-acre private patch of water about 40 miles southwest of Cleveland. The 31 inland lakes that boast 1,000 acres of water or more are all reservoirs. Most have been created over the past 50 years, and some are considerably younger.