Trailer ramp · Lake Erie · Ohio

Dempsey State Fishing Access

A public trailer ramp on Sandusky Bay in Danbury Township, Ottawa County, Ohio. Managed by ODNR Wildlife.

Directions All Erie launches

The launch

What the agency lists

Launch type: Trailer ramp — boat ramp
Water: Sandusky Bay
Parking: Parking on site
Toilets: Yes
Fee: No ramp fee listed
Managed by: ODNR Wildlife
Location: Danbury Township, Ottawa County, Ohio
Coordinates: 41.5077° N, 82.7609° W

Also listed: restrooms, fishing pier, shore fishing.

Before you launch

Lake Erie is big water

Erie is the shallowest Great Lake and the quickest to turn. A sustained blow builds a short, breaking sea in a couple of hours, and summer squalls can arrive from the west with little warning. In the western basin, mind the reefs; on the run to the islands, mind how far you are from shelter.

Wind against a shallow basin. Erie stacks up faster and steeper than any lake on the chain — a sustained 20-knot wind over 60 feet of average depth builds a short, breaking four-to-six-foot sea in a couple of hours. Boats swamp here in weather that would be uncomfortable elsewhere.
Unstable ice. Western-basin ice moves. Anglers have been carried off on detached floes and taken off by helicopter more than once, most infamously with over a hundred people at a time.
Fast-moving line squalls in summer, often arriving from the west with little warning behind a hot afternoon.

Read how to read a Great Lakes marine forecast and trailering and launching on big water. Pack the big-water safety kit.

From this launch

What to fish on Lake Erie

Our Erie fishing guides name spots at or near Sandusky Bay:

Muskellunge · September through November, with October the best window

Lake Erie Muskie Fishing: Where to Fish & Fall Tactics

Sandusky Bay: A large warm shallow bay with weed and a river mouth. Historically muskellunge water and still worth a fall cast, though the odds are long.

Northern Pike · Ice season on Presque Isle Bay; April through early June and September through November in open water

Lake Erie Northern Pike: Presque Isle Bay and the Upper Niagara

Metzger Marsh, East Harbor and Sandusky Bay, Ohio: The western-basin marsh country. Ohio's Division of Wildlife names Metzger Marsh as one of the few places anglers catch pike, with occasional fish from Sandusky Bay and East Harbor. Fish them because you are there, not for the odds.

Brown Trout · October through April in the tributaries alongside steelhead; April and May nearshore; July and August deep

Lake Erie Brown Trout: Pennsylvania's Small Stocked Fishery

Lake Erie brown trout are a small, stocked side fishery concentrated on the Pennsylvania shore, and most are caught by anglers fishing for something else. Pennsylvania stocks steelhead by the million and browns by the tens of thousands — come for steelhead and treat a brown as a bonus, not a plan.

Lake Trout · May and June in 50–60 ft off North East, PA; July through early September in 90–130 ft off Dunkirk and Barcelona

Lake Erie Lake Trout: The Eastern Basin off Dunkirk and 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.

Smallmouth Bass · Late May through June, and September through early November

Smallmouth Bass Fishing on Lake Erie

Erie grows the heaviest smallmouth in the Great Lakes and the eastern basin from Erie, Pennsylvania to Buffalo is where they live. The western basin islands give you numbers and easier water; the eastern basin gives you five-pound fish over 25 feet of rock.

Steelhead · Late October through April, with the heaviest push after the first cold rains in November and a strong March run

Steelhead Fishing on Lake Erie

Steelhead Alley is the highest-density steelhead run in North America and it happens in creeks you can throw a rock across. From Vermilion, Ohio to Cattaraugus Creek in New York, roughly a hundred miles of shale-bottom tributary fills with fish every fall, and access is public across most of it.

Walleye Yellow Perch

Erie by season

SpringJig season on the reef complex SummerTroll the open basin, and go east as it warms FallSteelhead Alley and the biggest walleye of the year WinterIce when it comes, tributaries when it doesn't

Next ramp over

Nearest Erie launches

Mazurik Access Area2.3 mi · trailer ramp · OH
East Harbor State Park (Danbury Township)4.0 mi · trailer ramp · OH
Shelby Street Public Boat Launch4.2 mi · trailer ramp · OH
East Harbor State Park (West Harbor)4.6 mi · trailer ramp · OH
West Harbor Public Boat Launching Ramp5.1 mi · trailer ramp · OH
Big Island Preserve and Landing6.2 mi · hand / carry-in launch · OH

Straight-line distance, not a boating route.

Landmarks from the water

Lighthouses nearby

Marblehead Light3.2 mi
Cedar Point Light3.7 mi · deactivated
Port Clinton Light9.0 mi · deactivated

For the crew ashore

Beaches nearby

Willow Cove D & E Association0.5 mi
Castaway Campground and Marina0.5 mi
Willow Cove Water Slip Condo Owner Assn0.6 mi

Camp or picnic

State parks nearby

East Harbor State Park3.7 mi

On shore nearby

Worth the stop

Marblehead Lighthouse3.3 mi · lighthouse
Kelleys Island Glacial Grooves7.6 mi · park

Source

Launch facts are from the Ohio DNR Office of Coastal Management, Lake Erie Public Access, retrieved 2026-10-05. Ramps close for repairs, fees change and water levels move; confirm with ODNR Wildlife before you tow. Fishing rules are set by theOhio DNR Division of Wildlife.

Chart shoreline generalized from Natural Earth (public domain). Not for navigation. Something wrong or missing? Write to contact@greatamericanlakes.com.

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