Shoreline
The eastern anchor. Lake Ontario’s south shore grows the heaviest king salmon in the system, and the Salmon River run at Pulaski is the biggest tributary event on the Great Lakes calendar.
Shoreline
577 mi
Lakes
2
Gamefish
9
Places covered
3
Water it touches
Smallest in surface area, but deeper than Erie and Huron and holding the heaviest average king salmon in the system. New York runs one of the most aggressive stocking programs on the chain, and the Niagara Bar in spring is as good as brown trout fishing gets.
The shallowest, warmest, and by a wide margin the most productive. Erie grows more fish per acre than the rest of the chain combined, and its western basin is the best walleye water in North America. Shallow also means it stacks up fast in wind — respect the forecast.
Who makes the rules
Licences, seasons, size and bag limits, launch permits, and shoreline access in New York are all set here. Rules change annually — read the current version before you fish or launch.
Open NYSDECFish in New York waters
Where to go
Eroded drumlin spires standing up to 150 feet over Lake Ontario in Wayne County, New York — a landform with no real match on the chain.
A sand beach and bluff park on Lake Ontario in Cayuga County, New York, between the lake and Little Sodus Bay.
A village on the eastern end of Lake Ontario in Jefferson County, New York — the U.S. Navy's main Great Lakes base during the War of 1812.