In 2008, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission tried stocking the lake with brown trout in an effort to build what's called a "put-grow-and-take" fishery. There was a report that charter boat fishing increased substantially on the American side, from 46 to 638 charter boats in operation in Ohio alone, during a period from 1975 to 1985 as pollution levels declined and after populations of walleye increased substantially in the lake. In 1984, Ohio sold 27,000 nonresident fishing permits, and sport fishing was described as big business. In 1992, there were accounts of fishermen regularly catching walleye weighing up to . It is possible to fish off piers in winter for burbot; the burbot make a midwinter spawning run and is reportedly one of Erie's glacial relics.