New York’s 2025 Great Lakes Preview: Lake Erie and its tributaries are a year-round fishing bonanza

Lake Erie stands tall among the angling community. While it is the smallest of the Great Lakes in total water volume, its large number of fish populations help to accentuate its positives.

Erie’s maximum depth is 210 feet and its average depth across the basin is about 62 feet. It’s roughly 241 miles long and 57 miles across at its widest point. However, it’s still a “great” lake in every sense of the word, especially as it relates to fish and fishing.

Best known for its walleye fishery, New York is one of four states (including Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan) that surround the U.S. side of the lake. On the Canadian side, it’s the Province of Ontario that also shares this special resource.

Last year, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation projected there would be 72 million walleyes in Lake Erie. Following the 2024 assessment season, the total 2024 estimate was increased to 81 million walleyes. 

“In 2025, we project that there will be 77 million age-two and older walleye in the lake, representing just a slight decline,” Dr. Jason Robinson, Lake Erie Fisheries Research Unit Leader for DEC, said “However, this population estimate does not include the eastern basin walleye stocks, which are very important to our local fisheries. We have had a run of incredible lake-wide walleye hatching success over the last decade which bodes well for walleye fishing for years to come. Walleye fishing quality is expected to remain excellent in 2025.”

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Guided by the Walleye Management Plan and advice from Lake Erie Percid Management Advisory Group (LEPMAG), the Lake Erie Committee set a 2025 lake-wide walleye total allowable catch of 11.373 million fish, a 11.5% decrease from the 2024 TAC of 12.858 million fish.

“This decline is driven by the west basin 2023 year class being slightly less than the previous two years,” Robinson said. “However, this year class was still the seventh best in the 37-year time series.”

Overall, it was another super year on the lake for “yellows.”

“Walleye anglers dominated (69%) the fishing effort in 2024, followed by bass (17%),” DEC biologist Pascal Wilkins, who oversees the open lake angler survey, said. “The walleye catch rate (9 walleyes/trip) was the third best in the 37-year survey, with one-in-five walleye trips getting their six fish limit.”

If you are looking for some fish for the frying pan or looking to give walleye fishing a try, there isn’t a better time than now to give it a go.

Lake managers do not just rest on their laurels and enjoy the current successes of the present walleye fishery. They also must plan for the future through a Lake Erie Walleye Management Plan.

“The Lake Erie Committee is working closely with the Lake Erie Percid Management Advisory Group and the Quantitative Fisheries Center at Michigan State University on updating these plans and the stock assessment they are based on,” insists Robinson. “Several anglers from New York have been selected to represent the interests of state anglers on the LEPMAG. We expect this entire process to take about three years.”

Bass updates, recognition

Lake Erie and Upper Niagara River were named Top 10 for Bassmasters Top 100 lakes in the country again, jumping from eighth place to seventh place in 2024.

Yes, the area’s bass fishing quality is recognized around the world and last year was another good one based on the lake creel census.

“The smallmouth bass catch rate (14 bass/trip) was slightly above average,” Wilkins said. “Based on our warmwater gill net survey, age-seven and age-nine bass will dominate the catch in New York waters of Lake Erie in 2025. Predicting bass fishing quality is difficult compared to perch or walleye. Even though our warm-water survey indicates a below average bass population in Lake Erie, our angler survey continues to show high catch rates exceeding 1.0 fish per hour, among the best in the nation.”

A new bass tournament permit requirement for the state should provide DEC with a better understanding of how this valuable resource is being used, potentially capturing additional angling effort outside of our standard annual survey. Tournament organizers can find information on the tournament registry program online by visiting the DEC website.

Yellow perch prowess

Yellow perch fishing on Lake Erie is the perfect kick-off to the angling action when walleye season is closed, and colder water has limited bass activities.

“The early season perch fishery is becoming increasingly popular due to the poor ice cover lately,” Wilkins said. “In 2024, April accounted for 34% of the entire 2024 yellow perch harvest. For the past three years, DEC’s angler survey started in April instead of May to accommodate the early start. It will be interesting to see if this trend continues in 2025 after the relatively hard winter we experienced.

“Last year, the yellow perch catch rate (35 perch/trip) was fourth best in the 37-year survey. The average size for a New York harvested yellow perch was over 11 inches, which remains the highest in the lake.”

Heading into this year, perch fishing quality should remain above average reports DEC. The 2019–2021 year classes (8–12 inches) look to be at or above average and will likely dominate the catch in 2025. Anglers may still catch some perch from the strong 2016-year class (12-plus inches), but the frequency of encountering these jumbo perch is expected to dwindle as this year class ages out of the population.

“The lake-wide population of yellow perch is projected to be 155 million fish in 2025,” says Robinson. “In the east basin the population is estimated to be 6.6 million fish. The total 2025 harvest quota for the east basin is 482,000 pounds of yellow perch, with New York receiving 150,000 pounds. Based on last year’s average perch size harvested by New York anglers, the 2025 New York quota equals about 250,000 fish. In 2024, New York anglers harvested 48,000 yellow perch and we expect to stay well below our quota again in 2025. The Lake Erie Committee is prioritizing the lake’s Perch Management Plan for completion sometime in 2026.”

Steelhead and domestic rainbows

One fishery that helps to connect the fall with the spring is the steelhead and domestic rainbow trout fishing in the Lake Erie tributaries. Lake managers and biologists continue to work with the Salmon River Fish Hatchery to come up with the perfect mix of stocking numbers, size and plant locations to figure out what is best for the systems involved. Of course, Mother Nature must also cooperate to help pull everything together. 

“There is currently a creel survey underway to evaluate steelhead catch rates, harvest, and angler demographics for the 2024-25 tributary angling season,” said DEC biologist Jarrod Ludwig who took over for James Markham after he was promoted to Regional Fisheries Manager. “Fishing was slow in September until midway through October when precipitation created high enough flows to bring fish in. This winter was tough, many of the tributaries were frozen over from the end of January through February, limiting fishing opportunities. The spring season looks promising, with fish already running with the warm temperatures we’ve had.”

The 2024-25 creel survey will end May 15, and results will be provided in the 2025 Lake Erie Unit annual report.

Steelhead stocking densities were reduced in 2020 to accommodate an experimental rearing approach to growing larger fish at the Salmon River Fish Hatchery. Stocking size has increased but is variable from year to year due to infrastructure limitations like water availability and temperatures at the hatchery.

“In 2024, 165,000 steelhead and 50,000 domestic rainbow trout were stocked, which was above target,” reports Ludwig. “The 2025 stocking target will remain at 142,500 steelhead and 50,000 domestic rainbow trout.”

Lake Erie Unit staff and Region 9 fisheries staff are working on a revision of the New York Steelhead Management Plan and expect to begin consulting with anglers in Fall 2025 to get their thoughts on potential changes.

Lake trout successes

When anglers think about lake trout, they often think of the colder, deeper waters of Superior, Ontario, or Michigan. However, a Lake Erie lake trout success story is currently being written to the delight of lake managers.

“DEC documented lake trout fry again in 2024, collecting fry at four new reef locations,” reports Wilkins, who has been the point person for lake trout in Lake Erie.“We are planning on placing fry traps in additional areas this spring to examine the level of production occurring in these other locations.”

Managers are optimistic moving forward.

“There is currently an abundant and older population of lake trout in Lake Erie, with the average fish measuring over 29 inches and weighing 12.4 pounds. There is a real chance for anglers to encounter 20-plus-pound lake trout and fish approaching the state record are not out of the question.”

New York’s current state record lake trout is 41 pounds, 8 ounces from Lake Erie in 2003 – reeled in by Jesse Wykstra in August.

Hoping to build on the lake trout successes in the lake, DEC performed a stocking experiment in 2018-20 in Cattaraugus Creek to encourage possible spawning in the large tributary.

“There has not been documented success from the experimental lake trout stocking in Cattaraugus Creek,” Wilkins said. “We will continue monitoring to determine if any adults from this stocking return to the creek or are captured out in the Lake. Each fish has a small wire tag embedded in its snout so we can determine where it was stocked. We are also relying on anglers to let us know if they catch a lake trout in Cattaraugus Creek, or any other stream.”

With all these success stories for such a wide variety of fish species, concerned anglers must wonder about the lake’s forage base – the prey fish that serve as food for the larger predator fish. Can it continue to sustain this prolific resource?

“Alewife numbers increased to a record high in 2024 while other prey species like rainbow smelt decreased to a low level,” Ludwig said. “However, alewife made up a relatively small part of predator diets which continue to be dominated by rainbow smelt and round goby. It remains to be seen if the cold temperatures and ice cover we experienced this winter will result in a significant die off of alewife and gizzard shad as it has in the past. There has already been some evidence of dead gizzard shad in the harbors but no alewife thus far.”

Another program that DEC will be involved with is with the reintroduction of cisco, often called a lake herring.

“Historically, cisco were the primary target for commercial fishers in Lake Erie,” Ludwig said. “Operators harvested as much as 40 million pounds of fish a year in the late 1800s, peaking at 48 million pounds of cisco harvested in 1918. Cisco were finally extirpated from Lake Erie in the 1960 due to a combination of over-fishing and environmental changes. An experimental cisco stocking of about 73,000 spring yearlings will occur this May off Dunkirk. These fish are raised at the Allegheny National Fish Hatchery in Warren, Pennsylvania. The goal is to determine if stocked cisco will survive to adulthood in today’s Lake Erie.”

“Overall, New York Lake Erie anglers experienced an excellent year of fishing regardless of what species they were targeting in 2024,” Robinson said. We must agree, and 2025 is shaping up to be another superlative fishing year on this increasingly popular Great Lake.

If you have never fished in the lake before, you owe it to yourself to give it a try. Try starting out with one of the professional guides involved with the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association.