Trailer ramp · Lake Erie · Ohio

East Harbor State Park (West Harbor)

A public trailer ramp on Lake Erie, West Harbor in Danbury Township, Ottawa County, Ohio. Managed by ODNR Parks and Recreation.

Directions All Erie launches

The launch

What the agency lists

Launch type: Trailer ramp — boat ramp
Water: Lake Erie, West Harbor
Parking: Parking on site
Toilets: Yes
Fee: Listed: ramp fee
Managed by: ODNR Parks and Recreation
Location: Danbury Township, Ottawa County, Ohio
Coordinates: 41.5576° N, 82.8204° W

Also listed: transient dockage, fuel, restrooms, 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 a spot at or near East Harbor:

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.

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.

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

East Harbor State Park (Danbury Township)0.9 mi · trailer ramp · OH
West Harbor Public Boat Launching Ramp1.0 mi · trailer ramp · OH
Catawba Island State Park2.2 mi · trailer ramp · OH
Mazurik Access Area3.2 mi · trailer ramp · OH
Dempsey State Fishing Access4.6 mi · trailer ramp · OH
South Bass Island State Park5.9 mi · trailer ramp · OH

Straight-line distance, not a boating route.

Landmarks from the water

Lighthouses nearby

South Bass Island Light5.1 mi · deactivated
Marblehead Light5.8 mi
Green Island Light (Ottawa County)6.5 mi · deactivated

For the crew ashore

Beaches nearby

Camp or picnic

State parks nearby

East Harbor State Park0.9 mi
Catawba Island State Park2.3 mi

On shore nearby

Worth the stop

Marblehead Lighthouse5.8 mi · lighthouse
Kelleys Island Glacial Grooves6.8 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 Parks and Recreation 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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