Boating & launches
Where to Put In
420 public launches on six lakes in six states, straight from the agencies that run them. Lanes, parking, who manages it, and how to get there — then what to fish once you are off the trailer.
Public launches
420
Trailer ramps
353
States
6
Source agencies
6
Trailer ramp Unimproved or carry-in
By lake
Pick your water
Lake Superior
Superior launches are spread thin along a long, cold shore: city harbors at Superior, Ashland and Marquette, harbors of refuge built where the coast offers nothing else, and small river-mouth and beach launches between them.
Lake Michigan
Most Lake Michigan ports on the Michigan shore are river-mouth harbors — you launch on a river or a drowned river-mouth lake and run a channel between the pier heads to reach the open lake. The Wisconsin side adds Door County’s bays, Green Bay, and city harbors from Kenosha to Sheboygan.
Lake Huron
Huron’s Michigan shore runs from the Saginaw Bay ramps — many of them small launches on drains and cuts through the marsh — up the Thumb and the long northeast coast to the Straits and the Les Cheneaux islands.
Lake Erie
Erie has the densest launch network on the chain: the western-basin ramps from the Detroit River to Catawba Island and the Bass Islands, the central-basin city and park launches from Vermilion to Conneaut, and the Presque Isle Bay ramps at Erie.
Lake Ontario
Lake Ontario’s New York launches sit mostly at creek and river mouths — Wilson, Olcott, Oak Orchard, Rochester, Sodus, Oswego — plus the bays and marshes of the eastern shore around Henderson and Chaumont.
Lake St. Clair
Lake St. Clair launches cluster on the Michigan shore: the big Macomb County ramps on the lake and Anchor Bay, and the St. Clair River and North Channel launches up toward Algonac and Marine City.
By state
Every launch on a state's shore
Illinois and Indiana launches are not in the directory yet. We add a state when we have its agency data, not before.
How this directory works
Where does this launch data come from?
From the state agencies that run or inventory the launches: Michigan DNR, NYSDEC, Ohio DNR, Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission, Wisconsin DNR, Minnesota DNR. Each launch page names its source and the date we pulled it. We publish only what the agency lists — if a field is missing, the agency did not publish it.
Which launches are included?
Public launches on the open lakes and their bays, river-mouth harbors with a channel to the lake, and the Detroit and St. Clair rivers. Inland lakes near the shore are left out, even when they are close to the water, because most have no navigable connection.
Are the charts accurate enough to navigate by?
No. The shorelines are generalized for illustration and the launch positions are the agency coordinates. Use a current NOAA chart and a chartplotter on the water.
Sources
- Michigan DNR, State Sponsored Developed Boating Access Sites
- NYSDEC, Boat Launch Sites for Oswego County
- Ohio DNR Office of Coastal Management, Lake Erie Public Access
- Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission, Fishing and Boating Access
- Wisconsin DNR, Public Boat Access Sites
- Minnesota DNR, Public Water Access Sites
- Shoreline: Natural Earth 1:10m lakes (public domain).
Retrieved 2026-10-05. Corrections to contact@greatamericanlakes.com.