A great many of my friends enjoy fishing on the Great Lakes and on the Atlantic Ocean.

To do so, you can either fish from the shore and beaches or on a boat out in the deeper water. The distance to Lake Erie is around 100 miles and the distance to the Atlantic Ocean shores is around 400 miles.

The choice of fresh water fishing or salt water fishing is entirely up to the individual, but speaking for myself, I would choose the fresh water Great Lakes. The closest Great Lake to Butler County is Lake Erie, which is the fourth largest lake with 9,900 square miles of surface water. That’s a lot of fishing area to choose from!

Lake Erie is 241 miles long and 57 miles wide at its widest point. Four states border the lake, including New York, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The northern portion of Lake Erie is part of the province of Ontario, Canada and splits the lake in two lengthwise.

Many jobs and recreational opportunities are afforded by the Great Lakes, including recreational fishing. You have the choice of running your own crafts on the lake or seeking the services of the many charter service captains that are licensed by the states that they call their home port.

Enlisting a charter service takes a little homework and some knowledge of the fisheries and areas of the Great Lakes. I would start right off by deciding what fish species that you would like to target. Charters are available for many species and will seek that species as you request. I have fished for salmon, steelhead, walleye, perch and small mouth bass. The locations, habtitat, water depth and time of year vary for each species.

Once you decide what you want to fish for, you need to find out when the fish are most cooperative to fish for in your chosen waters. Believe it or not, fish cooperate and congregate more during certain times of the year.

Once you pick out your species, you can find out which times are best and what charter boats specialize in that fish. For example, if I wanted to go out for brown trout or salmon, I would likely not head for Lake Erie and go further north and east to Lake Ontario on the New York border, but then again, I would choose Lake Erie for walleye, smallmouth and yellow perch.

There are many established charter services along all the Great Lake towns and cities that are professional fishermen. You do need to do a little homework and check out their reputations and results and affiliations. I know that in most states, charter boats and captains need to be licensed to operate for both safety and proficiency of the rules of the lakes.

Once you make decisions around getting a charter, you need to know the costs and availabilities of the services. Charters generally run from 500 to 700 dollars for a day trip of eight hours or a species limit.

Capacity of anglers fishing can be one to six anglers, depending on the boat and species. You can drift fish more anglers for perch than you can for steelhead or salmon. Figure on four anglers being the best arrangement for most trips.

You also need to consider purchasing licenses for the state that you are fishing out of from home port. A one-day license out of Ohio costs $14 while a license from NY for one day is $10 and a PA one day license starts at $26.97. On top of the license fees, you need to consider things such as fish cleaning services, tips for the mates helping you on the charter and packing the fish for transport back home. The service that we use for our walleye trip charges $3 per walleye to fillet and bag the fish.

Once you get home, you will need to prepare the fish for consumption by checking over your fish fillets and cleaning the fish up to your personal standards and re-packaging the fish into smaller portion control sizes. Leave some of your fish out for dinner fresh from the lake waters and carefully seal the other fish fillets for later meals. Air is the enemy of fish and will result in a freezer burn and wasted fish.

The experience shared with family and friends is exceptional and with us is an annual event that is rescheduled each year at the same time and marked on the calendar. We share the charter expenses and the trips adventures each year and look forward to see who will have the biggest fish, the first landed and the first lost each year.

The cost of that experience with people you love is priceless!

Until we meet again, keep the pressure on and keep on reeling!

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle