Trailer ramp · Lake Erie · New York

Dunkirk Harbor

A public trailer ramp on Lake Erie in Dunkirk, Chautauqua County, New York. Managed by Municipal.

Directions All Erie launches

The launch

What the agency lists

Launch type: Trailer ramp — hard surface launch
Water: Lake Erie
Parking: 50 cars and trailers
Fee: Not published in the source — ask the manager
Managed by: Municipal
Location: Dunkirk, Chautauqua County, New York
Coordinates: 42.4884° N, 79.3361° W

Fish cleaning station on site.

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 Dunkirk:

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

Off Dunkirk Harbor: 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.

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

Smallmouth Bass Fishing on Lake Erie

Dunkirk and Barcelona: New York eastern basin ports with quick access to 25–45 ft of hard bottom. The deep drop-shot fishery that produces the lake's largest smallmouth.

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.

Muskellunge · September through November, with October the best window

Lake Erie Muskie Fishing: Where to Fish & Fall Tactics

Lake Erie is not a muskie destination and you should not plan a trip around it. Where the fish do concentrate — Presque Isle Bay, the upper Niagara River at Buffalo, and the western basin near the Detroit River mouth — they are genuinely large, and a fall fish there is a real trophy.

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

Lake Erie is not pike water, and outside a few sheltered, weedy corners you will rarely see one. Presque Isle Bay in Pennsylvania is the one place on the lake with a dependable pike population; the upper Niagara River is the New York option, and Ohio's pike are scarce.

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

Sunset Bay State Marine Park12 mi · trailer ramp · NY
Hanover municipal launch12 mi · trailer ramp · NY
Barcelona Harbor17 mi · trailer ramp · NY
Sturgeon Point Marina20 mi · trailer ramp · NY
Northeast28 mi · trailer ramp · PA
Buffalo Harbor State Park35 mi · trailer ramp · NY

Straight-line distance, not a boating route.

Landmarks from the water

Lighthouses nearby

Dunkirk Light1.0 mi

For the crew ashore

Beaches nearby

Main Street Beach (Chautauqua County)0.3 mi
Wright Park - East1.0 mi
Wright Park - West1.0 mi

Source

Launch facts are from the NYSDEC, Boat Launch Sites for Chautauqua County, retrieved 2026-10-05. Ramps close for repairs, fees change and water levels move; confirm with Municipal before you tow. Fishing rules are set by theNYSDEC.

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

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