Chautauqua Lake

[JohnB]

Looking at heading up to Chautauqua next weekend. Will be staying at a hotel in Jamestown.

I hear Bemis point is the happening spot on the lake. Any other places to check out or hang out?
Also, trying to figure out where we will keep the boat overnight. Plan right now is to just park it at the hotel. Any other suggestions? Are there transient docks available at the Jamestown end to rent?

 

[JohnB]

Nobody here boats on Chautauqua?

 

[obrien19]

I'm curious about Chautaqua lake myself. Live an hour away from it, but really it's the only local lake the wife and I haven't made it to. Would love to hear about your experience!

 

[Brad_Ct]

I was there once a bunch of years ago, can’t give you any information other then the Bemus Point area but that may of changed since I was there last. I know the Hotel Lenhart is still there, one of the owners is a old friend, they had docks and there was a restaurant/bar that was on the water just down the street from the Lenhart.

 

[kcumjc]

I don't know about transient dockage on the lake. Check Long Point Marina. It's a state park and we stayed there for many summers, but that was many moons ago (last time was roughly 20 years ago).

Bemus is good. The Casino is a bar/restaurant with decent food. Not much else directly on the water. But in that area there is dockage and you can walk to a few places.

The east end is full of weeds, there are some really shallow parts around too. It get really busy on nice days, so much at times it's tough to relax or motor around.

Plenty of fun stuff in the area, the lake just isn't "dock and walk" friendly outside of Bemus (central) and Mayville (west).

 

[JohnB]

Closing the loop on this.

Had a nice weekend in Chautauqua. It's a rather large lake, 13K acres. Had a good time boating around. Really enjoyed docking at Bemis Point and going to EBC and the ice cream shop. Being able to boat to restaurants is a novelty for me and was fun. Lake itself is really large but in some respects non-descript. Had fun tooling around and jumped in at a few places. Didn't find a boaters swim area or hang-out beach. Lake is big enough that the eave will kick up with any wind / showers. We launched out of Long Point. Stayed in Jamestown @ the Doubletree. Not the best for having a boat in tow. Would recommend the hotels out by 86 for trailering. Also when winds kick up, can be a bit of a downer (literally) for the little sailboats.

Pics in the next post...

 

[JohnB]

A few pics