Hand / carry-in launch · Lake Erie · Ohio

Showse Park Launch

A public hand / carry-in launch on Lake Erie in Vermilion, Lorain County, Ohio. Managed by City of Vermilion.

Directions All Erie launches

The launch

What the agency lists

Launch type: Hand / carry-in launch — small-boat launch
Water: Lake Erie
Parking: Parking on site
Toilets: Yes
Fee: Not published in the source — ask the manager
Managed by: City of Vermilion
Location: Vermilion, Lorain County, Ohio
Coordinates: 41.4294° N, 82.3134° 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 a spot at or near Vermilion:

Walleye · Late April through June, then again from mid-September into November

Walleye Fishing on Lake Erie

Huron and the Vermilion mud line: By late June the school slides east. Deeper, dirtier water off Huron and Vermilion holds fish in 45–60 ft through August.

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.

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.

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 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

South Street Launch Ramp2.4 mi · trailer ramp · OH
Wakefield MetroPark2.7 mi · hand / carry-in launch · OH
Main Street Beach2.8 mi · hand / carry-in launch · OH
Lakeview Park6.5 mi · hand / carry-in launch · OH
Lorain Public Boat Ramp7.2 mi · trailer ramp · OH
Lakeside Landing7.8 mi · trailer ramp · OH

Straight-line distance, not a boating route.

Landmarks from the water

Lighthouses nearby

Vermilion Light2.8 mi
Lorain East Breakwater Light7.1 mi
Lorain West Breakwater Light7.2 mi · deactivated

For the crew ashore

Beaches nearby

On shore nearby

Worth the stop

Marblehead Lighthouse22 mi · lighthouse
Kelleys Island Glacial Grooves24 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 City of Vermilion 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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