Out of Monroe's harbors, the world's best walleye water

Ask a serious walleye angler where the best water in the world is and you’ll hear one answer: western Lake Erie. A run of record-breaking hatches in recent years pushed the lake’s walleye population into the tens of millions, and the shallow, warm, food-rich basin off Monroe County grows them fat and fast. Anglers unabashedly call it the Walleye Capital of the World, and the spring and early-summer bite here draws boats from across the Midwest.

For Monroe County residents, the front door is local: the DNR launch at Bolles Harbor in Monroe Township, Sterling State Park’s ramps in Frenchtown, and small harbors down the shore at LaSalle, Erie, and Luna Pier. Charter captains run daily in season, and you don’t need a big boat on a calm morning — Brest Bay’s walleye come within a couple miles of shore. Yellow perch fill in the fall calendar. If fishing is part of your idea of home, this stretch of shoreline competes with anywhere in America.