- Bass, Walleye, Lake Trout, Musky…Imagine
- All-you-can-eat Crab Legs
- Sandy Beaches for kids and family fun
- More than 20 Wine Tasting Vineyards within 20 minutes drive
By Tyler Frantz
DUNKIRK, New York- As the 150 Mercury engine on Buffalo-native Ken Christie’s Triton bass boat sliced across choppy roller waves, sending a chilling spray of Erie lake water onto our exposed faces with each downward smack of the bow, I felt the nervous excitement of a daredevil kid preparing for his first BMX stunt in unchartered territory.
It was my first time fishing lake Erie, and though the skies looked a bit ominous, my outlook was bright for the incredible angling opportunities I’d been told exist there.
Just the afternoon before, Pennsylvania Outdoor Writers Association’s newly retired Executive Director Dennis Scharadin and I had arrived at Sunset Bay Beach – home base for Chautauqua County Fish Camp – surprised to find a bustling Jersey Shore-like beach scene with sand, lakefront condos and upbeat tiki bars just a few miles down the road from the rural backwoods territory owned by the historic Seneca nation.
It had been a welcoming reception into camp, featuring a colorful dinner discussion with fellow writers at Cabana Sam’s Restaurant, where crab legs came “all you can eat” and Schuylkill County-folk would be happy to learn there was Yuengling Gold Pilsner on tap.
But the light-hearted banter of the previous evening now shifted to a serious focus on fishing, the real reason for making the 5-plus hour drive north- to sample some of what northwestern New York has to offer the traveling outdoorsman.
It took scant convincing, for with the first cast of a drop-shot tube into 27-feet of water, my rod tip was pulsing under the weight of a six-pound smallmouth- my very best bass to date.
Moments later….(Click the picture below to learn the other exciting details of this incredible trip.)
