Trailer ramp · Lake Erie · Ohio

West Harbor Public Boat Launching Ramp

A public trailer ramp on West Harbor in Catawba Island Township, Ottawa County, Ohio. Managed by Catawba Island Township.

Directions All Erie launches

The launch

What the agency lists

Launch type: Trailer ramp — boat ramp and small-boat launch
Water: West Harbor
Parking: Parking on site
Fee: No ramp fee listed
Managed by: Catawba Island Township
Location: Catawba Island Township, Ottawa County, Ohio
Coordinates: 41.5525° N, 82.8384° W

Also listed: 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

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 · 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 (West Harbor)1.0 mi · trailer ramp · OH
East Harbor State Park (Danbury Township)1.1 mi · trailer ramp · OH
Catawba Island State Park1.8 mi · trailer ramp · OH
Mazurik Access Area4.0 mi · trailer ramp · OH
Dempsey State Fishing Access5.1 mi · trailer ramp · OH
South Bass Island State Park6.2 mi · trailer ramp · OH

Straight-line distance, not a boating route.

Landmarks from the water

Lighthouses nearby

South Bass Island Light5.3 mi · deactivated
Port Clinton Light5.6 mi · deactivated
Green Island Light (Ottawa County)6.6 mi · deactivated

For the crew ashore

Beaches nearby

Camp or picnic

State parks nearby

East Harbor State Park1.5 mi
Catawba Island State Park1.8 mi

On shore nearby

Worth the stop

Marblehead Lighthouse6.6 mi · lighthouse
Kelleys Island Glacial Grooves7.7 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 Catawba Island Township 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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