Ohio is rich in water! That means excellent boating facilities and a wide variety of boating opportunities for every Ohioan. Magnificent Lake Erie is the jewel in Ohio's crown. Its 220-plus mile of Ohio shoreline boasts boat launching sites, marinas, and resorts unsurpassed by any of the other Great Lakes. The boating lifestyle flourishes all along the shore from Toledo to Conneaut but nowhere is boating more evident than in the Lake Erie Islands. This incredible chain of American and Canadian islands is a hub of boating activity from early spring until late fall. The famous town of Put-In-Bay on South Bass Island, often dubbed the islands "capitol," is the subject of song and is visited by thousands of boating families annually. Many family vacations are spent boating, fishing and touring around these islands.		Labeled "dead" by the national media in the 1960s, Lake Erie is now a thriving inland sea thanks to positive environmental policies implemented over the years. Today, that same media hails Lake Erie for the greatest Walleye sportfishing in the world, lauds its small-mouth bass fishery as America's best, and talks about the rapidly growing scuba-diving activities in the Lake's clear waters. As big as it is, Lake Erie is only a small part of Ohio's boating boom. The Buckeye State lays claim to more than 7,000 miles of shoreline along a variety of rivers, including the mighty Ohio River which makes up the state's southern border, as well as many inland lakes. And some of the largest and best boating inland lakes and rivers are

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© 1998 LEMTA Photos courtesy: (upper right) Beneteau USA Inc.; (lower) Lakeland Boating