Aquatic Visitors Center

Learn more about Lake Erie by exploring its rich history and experiencing science up close at the Aquatic Visitors Center on Lake Erie’s South Bass Island near Put-in-Bay, Ohio. A lifelong love of fishing can be sparked on the Aquatic Visitors Center fishing pier, where children under age 16 can fish for free! Children can borrow fishing gear and snag some bait, provided by the ODNR Division of Wildlife. They often reel in bluegill, pumpkinseed, bass, or yellow perch, but you never know what might bite! Kids can even learn about the food web as their freshly caught round gobies, an invasive species, are fed to the hungry fish in the Aquatic Visitors Center’s aquaria.