Swimming in lake erie - Any good places?

[reenigne313]

Hello all,

I'm a bit new to boating and Lake Erie, are there any decent/safe places to swim in Erie. Or am I likely to grow a seventh toe?

I live in Michigan. I still got to figure out the whole contacting the Canadian coast guard so I can travel over there legally. Would love to go pop by boblo. Any tips on this subject would be much appreciated

 

[reenigne313]

Re: Swimming in lake erie - Any good places?

Gonna take that as a big no. How about the Detroit River, there's some real nice sandy beaches there! Yeah figured I wasn't gonna get much of a response. Well if anyone reading this has any good information on either the Detroit river or Lake Erie let me know. Maybe my depth finder is off but it tells me when i'm out quite a ways that i'm in 3 feet of water, seems hard to believe but I wasn't about to jump in and find out.

 

[Zeeter]

Re: Swimming in lake erie - Any good places?

Erie is actually very clean. A real success story. Erie has one of the best Walleye fisheries in the world. Walleyes do not live in polluted waters.

Don't know of any particular spots.

Erie is very shallow but 3 feet seems a bit extreme. Check your equipment.

 

[reenigne313]

Re: Swimming in lake erie - Any good places?

That's good to hear about the cleanliness. Can't wait to catch my first walleye as well. The equipment I got is pretty old, I have heard from other locals that there are some very shallow spots. When I hit the Detroit river it seems to be much deeper. roughly 100 ft or more in most places. Gonna have to get myself a newer gps and see if I can find the maps.

As for swimming, around sugar island it doesn't seem to bad except there are alot of boats often. I see alot of people camping there. What a great idea, gonna have to try that out sometime.

 

[RickJ6956]

Re: Swimming in lake erie - Any good places?

Depending on where you are, the western end of Lake Erie can be shallow for hundreds of yards from shore. The Eastern Basin near Buffalo also has some shallow reefs and shoals. Some are miles from shore. Charts, GPS, and a good depth sounder will keep you safe.

Lake Erie is one of the cleanest lakes thanks to its shallowness. Its water is changed every 2.5 years. (Compare that to Lake Ontario, which takes more than 200 years, or Superior which takes 500 or more.) Erie's water is almost clean enough to drink raw. We can see bottom at 35 feet these days about three miles off Buffalo Harbor, which rivals the Georgian Bay.