Weekend Lake Erie trip to Put-In-Bay

[steined]

My wife and I took a trip to lake Erie this past weekend. I was on lake Erie probably 30 years ago and got sea sick and generally didn't have a good time, but when you are a kid, perhaps you have different perspectives on life

We launched from a public ramp in Catawba Island State Park (Catawba is not an Island as far as I can tell). It offered a free launch ramp and free parking. It could be a nice park, but all of the restrooms were closed, with 3 overfilled porta-potties and no trash cans in site ANYWHERE. The ramp was ok though and the price was right.

We programmed our new Dragonfly with the launch ramp coordinates, plugged in the coordinates for the South Bass Island State Park . We arrived at the dock and unloaded our camping gear and hiked it to our rather distant camp site. It was a last minute reservation and we had never been there before. We learned a few things on this visit. It is a beautiful park with beautiful views of the water. However all the "kids" and partiers are camping in the cliff sites so it is a drunken mess after the bars close. We should have picked a site further from the commotion, but live and learn. You can park your boat at their dock for a maximum of 4 hours, so it was enough time to setup camp and grab a quick bite to eat. This park is nice about dogs as well, which is great since we had our 14yr old 15lbs poodle with us. We setup an ENO Double Nest hammock tent, which is unbelievably comfortable for one person and not as great with two, but passable. Probably will grab another with another insect net but share the rain fly, we'll see. We may give it another go with two people. I won't digress too much, but the hammock, rain fly, mosquito net, LED head lanterns, plastic hammer and tent stakes all fit in a plastic 50 cal sized ammo can. It is the ultimate for boat camping!





Once we left the park, we had to find a place to dock. We ended up docking at Miller's Marina. The guys there couldn't have been nicer. You hail them on Channel 74, they ask about the size and duration, and if there is room, they help you dock. We don't have anything like this on the Ohio river or the lakes around here so this was all new to us. They didn't make us feel dumb, and our 24ft yamaha, other than the OTHER 24ft 242 LS I saw at a nearby dock, was probably the smallest boat there other than little skiffs/tenders. They had great facilities, showers, etc. The fee for our boat was around $30 a day. I HIGHLY suggest you try them out if you head to Put In Bay!

If you plan on watching the sunset out on the water, get into town quickly as most kitchens close before 10 and downtown turns into Bourbon Street north!! It is a party scene that I've only witnessed in New Orleans and maybe a few Concerts I've been too before. And it was a SLOW weekend we were told!


How was the water? - Perfect. We actually went to Lake Erie to get some experience on what some people say is the most treacherous water in the US. I guess due to the shallow nature of the lake the waves can really get going and are short period as well. But we really had pretty glassy water with maybe 1.5 ft rollers at the most when out of the island areas. We went over to Kelley's island, Middle Bass, and went around North Bass island as well. We found a bay called Manilla Bay in North Bass island that was sheltered from the wind and almost perfectly calm. We also saw probably 2 dozen or more of the "Lake Erie Water Snake" in that bay. We saw a couple with what were probably the Round Goby in their mouthes, and I am pretty sure we witnessed one of the mating balls they mention here. We saw a few birds try to catch them as well. It was a pretty spectacular bay we had almost all to ourselves as we watched the cycle of life taking place! There were cranes, a few gulls, and some other predatory birds circling overhead. Some caught fish, some ate snakes! All pretty neat to witness. The water was very clear, we could see the fish in the bay mainly Small Mouth bass of pretty decent size. We could also see the bottom up to about 10-15ft. It was cold the first day, and the second and third days it was perfect. Low humidity, high 70s low 80s.






We also witnessed why it is so important to have charts or a chart plotter on water you're unfamiliar with. There are several areas that appear safe, are not marked, and are extremely shallow. There was a cruiser that ran up on rocks around north bass island. If you look at the water, you see no channel marker or shallow water bouys. However on the chart plotter you can see the channel markers are far off the island and there are rocks marked there. They were on the radio all day with rescue trying to get the boat patched up enough to tow. It did not sound like a pleasant experience. It made the $500-ish dollars spent on the Raymarine Dragonfly with Gold charts seem like money well spent, as I'm not sure I wouldn't have taken the same route.





Anyhow, I hope people find this interesting and helpful. Lake Erie is a nice place and I didn't expect it to be so pleasant.

 

[GTBRMC]

Excellent adventure and write up, steined.

We lived in Huron, OH - just east of Sandusky for a couple years about 10 years back. Visited the islands a handful of times on friends' boats or via a ferry. Always wished I had my own boat to take out there.

 

[Chris5105]

As a kid my parents would take us there all the time. My dad had a Sea Ray 340 so we always stayed on that but some of my relatives came out to the island on smaller boats and would rent rooms in hotels or motels in town. We always stayed at the "Crews Nest" in the bay. I think they are open to members only on weekends but if your vacation is during the week they allow non-members mon-fri. There are also public docks inside the bay. It's probably a good idea to stay inside the bay if you are planning a trip for more than a couple days as weather can kick up fast on that end of Lake Erie. I can remember going from hot and sunny to not being able to see the bow in a matter of hours.