Lake Trout · Lake Erie
Lake Erie's lake trout are a stocked population rebuilt from zero, and they live almost entirely in the deep, cold eastern basin off New York and Pennsylvania. It is a real summer fishery in 90 to 130 feet off Dunkirk and Barcelona, but it is narrow, and most fish are still caught by walleye trollers running one rod deep.
Prime time
May and June in 50–60 ft off North East, PA; July through early September in 90–130 ft off Dunkirk and Barcelona
Depths
50–60 ft in spring; 90–130 ft on or near bottom in midsummer
Typical size
5–12 lb
Lake max depth
210 ft
Where
The New York shore near Westfield drops into some of the deepest, coldest water in the US half of the lake. Lakers hold on bottom in 90 to 130 feet straight out, and the rock reef where wild fry were found in 2021 is about five miles west.
Northwest of the harbor the bottom falls into 100-plus feet. Dunkirk is one of the lake's rotating lake trout stocking sites and home to the DEC's Lake Erie fisheries station.
A glacial field of rock piles about 10 miles southwest of Dunkirk in 50 to 60 feet — historic spawning ground where DEC ran an experimental project in 2025, jetting silt and mussel shell off test sites. It is spawning habitat under rehabilitation: leave it alone in fall.
Two to two and a half miles offshore, in about 55 feet, is the structure local anglers call the Mountain. The Pennsylvania record lake trout came off it in May 2019.
Erie is Pennsylvania's lake trout stocking site. In summer the fish sit far out in the cold bottom layer; the run is long and the open lake is not Presque Isle Bay.
How
July and August, 90 to 130 feet off Dunkirk and Barcelona. Ball within 3 to 5 feet of bottom, 1.8 to 2.2 mph, an 8-inch dodger on a short leader to a spin-glo, or a standard trolling spoon alone. If the ball is not occasionally ticking, you are too high.
May and June, troll the 55-foot area off North East and zig-zag across the structure. Riggers just off bottom with spoons or dodger and spin-glo, baits in the bottom 10 feet. Copper, chrome, green and orange spoons all take fish.
Most Erie lakers are caught this way. Keep the walleye program running on the upper water and set a single rigger or a wire diver on bottom with a spoon. It costs one rod and covers the bottom layer the walleye baits never reach.
When sonar marks fish 10 to 30 feet off bottom in late summer, an 11-inch flasher and a fly between 80 feet and the bottom takes lakers and the occasional steelhead in the same pass.
Lake trout were once the top predator in Lake Erie’s eastern basin. Commercial fishing, pollution and invasive species finished them. By about 1950 the native population was gone.
Cooperative stocking to bring them back began in the early 1980s. It has run on two things ever since: hatchery yearlings and sea lamprey control. The Lake Erie Committee’s stated goal is modest and specific — a lake trout population that supports a cold-water fishery in the eastern and central basins.
That is what exists today. It is a stocked fishery, it is real, and it is small next to the lake trout water on Superior, Huron or Ontario.
Erie is the shallowest Great Lake, and most of it is no place for a cold-water fish. The western basin is a warm saucer. The central basin goes low on oxygen along the bottom in late summer.
The eastern basin is different. It is the deepest part of the lake, and off the New York shore at Barcelona and Dunkirk, deep cold water sits within a short run of the harbor. That cold bottom layer is where the lake trout live from July through September. If you are not in it, you are not fishing for them.
Stocking rotates among sites at Dunkirk, Erie, Pennsylvania, Fairport, Ohio, and two Ontario reefs, so no single location gets fish every year. In 2021 the agencies put 255,338 yearlings into the east and central basins.
The milestone came in May 2021. DEC biologists set fry traps on a rock reef about five miles west of Barcelona Harbor and caught newly hatched lake trout — the first wild fish documented in Erie in about 60 years. In 2025 the DEC ran an experimental project on Brocton Shoal, a historic spawning ground southwest of Dunkirk, jetting silt and mussel shell off test sites to see whether clean rock draws spawners.
From July into September, run straight out of Barcelona or northwest of Dunkirk to 90 to 130 feet. Put the downrigger ball within a few feet of bottom and troll 1.8 to 2.2 mph. A dodger and spin-glo is the standard bottom rig. Spoons work on their own. When fish lift off bottom, a flasher and fly fished from 80 feet down covers the gap.
Most boats out of these ports are walleye boats, and that is how most Erie lakers are caught: one rod on bottom under a walleye spread. If you are running the eastern basin for walleye in August, set that rod. See downriggers vs. divers vs. lead core for how to get a bait to 110 feet and keep it there.
In May and June the fish are shallower. Off North East, Pennsylvania, two to two and a half miles out in about 55 feet, is a structure local anglers call the Mountain. Work it with riggers just off bottom and zig-zag across it. The Pennsylvania state record — 31 pounds, 13 ounces — came off that structure in May 2019 on a copper-orange spoon over 55 feet of water.
Every adult in this lake is a fish somebody raised in a hatchery and protected from lamprey for five years or more. Lakers brought up from 100 feet can bloat, so work them up steadily and release them fast. Leave Brocton Shoal and the Barcelona reefs alone in fall. The fish on them are spawners, and those reefs are the whole point of the program.
Erie’s weather applies here too. The eastern basin builds steep, short-period waves in a southwest blow, and Barcelona and Dunkirk are small harbors. Read how to read a Great Lakes marine forecast before you commit to a 100-foot run.
New York DEC manages the New York waters of Lake Erie and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission manages Pennsylvania’s. Each sets its own lake trout season, size and possession rules, and they differ from each other and change. Check the current regulations from the agency whose water you are on before you go.
Where to put in
Dark marks are launches named in this guide. Generalized shoreline, not for navigation.
Kit
A simple, nearly unbreakable electric downrigger with a 60-inch telescoping boom and no software to fail.
A programmable electric downrigger that cycles baits, tracks bottom, and takes the guesswork out of fishing 100 feet down.
The value flasher — a smaller, lighter rotator that pulls less than an 11-inch chip and still drives a fly hard.
A narrow, fast-fluttering spoon built for higher trolling speeds — the steelhead and coho answer when kings are not the target.
A tougher, better-machined line counter than the budget tier, with a three-ball-bearing drive that stays smooth under a long run.
A 9-inch chartplotter-sonar with Navionics charts built in — the single most useful electronics purchase for a Great Lakes boat.
Questions
Same fish, other water
Size limits, bag limits, and open seasons for lake trout on Lake Erie are set by Michigan DNR, NYSDEC, Ohio DNR Division of Wildlife and PA Fish & Boat Commission and change from year to year. Check the current rulebook before you keep a fish.
Sources
Last updated 2026-10-08
