Lake Chataqua is situated in NW NY State near the borders of Ohio and PA. It's pretty big, almost 20 miles in length.

At one time in the 1900's it was a premier vacation destination. Things have changed up there, and the Jamestown area S of it can be said to be economically depressed. I found an old building with property an acre in size that was listed for $25,000, just to give you an idea of how bad things are in some parts up there.

It's still a beautiful lake. The lake itself commands a premium in vacation rentals by the people who flock to its shores for recreation/fishing, and the Chataqua Institute situated on the high hills there.

Pebbles and I recently took a low budget 2-day trip there. As usual, we stayed in a cheaper area (Jamestown suburbs), and drove to the lake and activities around it.
(I should title it Nomad Budget Travelling, as to fit our budget we try to travel as cheaply as possible.) More of those suggestions in another thread if I get the time....

We didn't do any fishing, but ran into some people who were kicking Azz!
They fished all day and had 2 coolers full of fish (only retaining their limits). Most of the fish they kept to eat would be considered trash fish by a lot of us, yet these guys were happy to catch them.

The coolest thing was, they did it with a canoe and paddles they brought with them on their horse and buggy.

I have pics of that action in a separate thread, "How good are the Amish fishermen" and will link it here.
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...mish-fishermen

Enjoy...