12 hours ago, J Francho said:

I've encountered this both down south and up here.  Believe it or not, there can be quite a bit of current in the Great Lakes (Erie especially near Buffalo) from wind and just the natural water flow from west to east.  That roiling wind against the current is pretty nasty sometimes.  I've seen it in salt where the wind is fight a tide.  It's pretty nuts. 

 

Like anything else, you pick your days.  This would be a pond/shore fishing day:

Grew up on that part of Lake Erie, Niagara River...(Tonawanda) Things can get ugly quick there! Even on a good day you best be on your toes. 

3 hours ago, Biglittle8 said:

Grew up on that part of Lake Erie, Niagara River...(Tonawanda) Things can get ugly quick there! Even on a good day you best be on your toes. 

I saw a video of a guy with 300 hp, where Erie heads into the river, put the boat into gear and give it a little gas. That held him still in the current, he wasn’t moving forward. I’m guessing that like a 5 mph current !

9 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I saw a video of a guy with 300 hp, where Erie heads into the river, put the boat into gear and give it a little gas. That held him still in the current, he wasn’t moving forward. I’m guessing that like a 5 mph current !

It is swift, to be sure. We used to get a ride up river and float down in inner tubes. It takes a different skill set to fish there. 

Safety on a large body of water has less to do with the size of a persons boat, and more to do with the size of a persons brain.

    A large boat will sink, when someone makes a stupid mistake.  A small boat will stay afloat as long as the boater exercises caution, equal to their skill and experience.  This old saying commonly referred to by pilots applies to boaters as well.  There are old pilots, and bold pilots, but no old bold pilots.

On 4/1/2021 at 10:41 AM, Alpster said:

My boat is 16' aluminum vee hull. Paid less than 2 grand for boat & trailer. My buddy and I got caught in a thunder storm in a huge lake in Canada. 3' swells that scared the crap out of us. That little V hull proved to be quite sea worthy. We ran about a mile with several big fast boats blowing past us. No problem getting back to shore safely. Motor was an 18HP rented outboard.

My Smoker Craft 16’ deep v with a 20” transom was the best little boat for everything. 20” transom meant I could fish skinny water. Deep V meant  I could close the walk thru window and fight big waves.

The only sacrifice and why I got rid of it was tackle storage.

if you can find a similar type boat that is what I believe your looking for. I had mine for 14 year. I sold mine in 2014 for $3000. Look on boats.com and other sites you will find lots of 16’ deep v’s.

If you want to not use a ramp the kayak is the way to go.