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Home › Waters › New York › Cattaraugus Creek
Creek · Western New York south of Buffalo, running from the Zoar Valley gorge through Gowanda and the Seneca Nation lands to Lake Erie at Irving · New York

Cattaraugus Creek Fishing Guides

The largest and longest-fishing steelhead tributary on New York's Lake Erie shore, with a long run of holding water from Zoar Valley down through Gowanda to the lake.

A quiet river reach walled by hardwood forest in the Appalachians

Map of the Cattaraugus Creek

21 numbered points: 8 access points, 6 bridges, 4 parks and conservation areas, 1 regulation section limit, 1 hazard, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 22, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (8)
  • Bridge crossing (6)
  • Park / conservation area (4)
  • Regulation section limit (1)
  • Dam / hazard (1)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

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All 21 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1Public fishing rights parking, State Highway 98
NYSDEC · Town of Arcade		Access / boat ramp42.54805, -78.40081State-owned public-fishing-rights lot on NY 98 above Arcade, line-km 1.1, 0.03 km off the water. DEC publishes the location and no name; the road is from a reverse geocode.
2Public fishing rights parking, Hurdville Road
NYSDEC · Arcade		Access / boat ramp42.53640, -78.45767PFR lot on Hurdville Road, line-km 7.9, 0.07 km off the water. Upper-creek trout and smallmouth water, well above the steelhead barrier.
3Public fishing rights parking, State Highway 16
NYSDEC · Town of Sardinia		Access / boat ramp42.53468, -78.47824PFR lot where NY 16 / NY 39 crosses the creek at line-km 10.0, 0.10 km off the water; the highway bridge is at the same point and is folded in here.
4Cattaraugus Creek Fishing Access Parking
NYSDEC · Springville-Sardinia Hwy (NY 39)		Access / boat ramp42.51637, -78.55235The one access on this creek that OSM names outright, and a DEC public-fishing-rights lot at the same spot (0.18 km apart, folded). Line-km 19.1.
5South Vaughan Street bridge (NY 240)
NY 240 · Springville		Bridge crossing42.49538, -78.64095NY 240 crossing at line-km 29.7, 0.01 km off the line. Shipped because it is the only landmark in the 10.6 km between the NY 39 access and Springville village.
6Mill Street bridge
Springville		Bridge crossing42.48042, -78.68339Last village crossing above the dam, line-km 35.2, 0.02 km off the line.
7Scoby Dam (Springville Dam)
Line-km 38.3 · portage / hard barrier		Dam / hazard42.48102, -78.70022The barrier. DEC calls it Springville Dam and makes it the upstream limit of the seasonal reach (up from the Aldrich Street Extension Bridge, Gowanda) and of the 34-mile steelhead section. OSM names the same structure Scoby Dam.
8Scoby Dam Park
Erie County · parking at the dam		Park / conservation area42.48221, -78.69976County park land at the dam, line-km 38.4. A municipal public-fishing parking lot sits 0.2 km downstream on Scoby Hill Road and is folded in here. DEC lists 0.5 mi of county park land at the dam.
9Hammond Hill Road bridge
Town of Concord		Bridge crossing42.47387, -78.74476Line-km 44.4, 0.08 km off the line, and the only mapped feature of any kind in the 16 km between the dam and the North Otto Road access as the creek enters the gorge.
10North Otto Road Access
NYSDEC · North Otto Road bridge		Access / boat ramp42.45638, -78.81198OSM carries this as both Cattaraugus Creek Waterway Access and North Otto Road Access and DEC's PFR layer has a lot at the same point (all three within 0.10 km, folded). Line-km 54.6, at the road bridge.
11Public fishing rights parking, Valentine Flats Road
NYSDEC · Zoar Valley Multiple Use Area		Access / boat ramp42.44368, -78.90393PFR lot on Valentine Flats Road at line-km 65.4, 0.28 km off the water - the usual way into the Zoar Valley gorge reach, which DEC gives as 6 mi of state land. Steep, unmaintained descent; DEC posts a warning sign nearby.
12Gateway Park
Village of Gowanda		Park / conservation area42.45656, -78.92475Village park on the left bank at line-km 69.3, 0.16 km off the water, at the head of the Gowanda reach.
13USGS 04213500 - Cattaraugus Creek at Gowanda
Real-time stage and discharge		USGS gauge42.46344, -78.93453The gauge every flow call on this creek is made against; it sits at line-km 70.4, 0.12 km off the chained line, and OSM maps a monitoring station at the same coordinate.
14Gowanda Veterans Memorial Bridge (US 62 / NY 39)
Gowanda · main crossing		Bridge crossing42.46339, -78.93479The main road crossing in Gowanda, line-km 70.4, beside the USGS gauge.
15Creekside Park
Village of Gowanda		Park / conservation area42.46657, -78.93681Village park on the water at line-km 70.7, 0.04 km off the line.
16Aldrich Street Extension Bridge - seasonal reach limit
Downstream limit · Gowanda		Regulation section limit42.46832, -78.94161DEC's seasonal reach runs from this bridge upstream to Springville Dam. OSM names the span Aldrich Street; it is the only Aldrich Street crossing of the creek in Gowanda, at line-km 71.2, 0.03 km off the line.
17New York State Thruway bridge (I-90)
Line-km 92.7		Bridge crossing42.56282, -79.09404The only mapped crossing in the 21 km below Gowanda, through the Seneca Nation Cattaraugus Territory. A landmark, not an access - see the Seneca licence note.
18Main Road bridge (US 20 / NY 5)
Irving		Bridge crossing42.56795, -79.10439Last road crossing above tidewater, line-km 94.6, 0.05 km off the line. Two carriageway segments 50 m apart, one crossing.
19Hanover Boat Launch
Town of Hanover · line-km 96.8		Access / boat ramp42.56436, -79.12874Ramp on the lower creek 1.3 km above the mouth; OSM carries a named node and an unnamed slipway way 0.05 km apart, folded here.
20Sunset Bay State Marine Park Boat Launch
Sunset Bay · line-km 97.5		Access / boat ramp42.56778, -79.13508The launch at the mouth, 0.07 km off the line - the access steelhead anglers use to reach the lower creek and the lake shoreline.
21Sunset Bay State Marine Park
Marina and park at the mouth		Park / conservation area42.56749, -79.13500Park and marina where Cattaraugus Creek enters Lake Erie, line-km 97.5.

Guides on the Cattaraugus Creek

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

Order on this page: premium and outfitter plans first (labelled Premium placement), then claimed free profiles, then unclaimed — one published price, no bidding for position. How placement works

About the Cattaraugus Creek

Cattaraugus Creek is the anchor of the Lake Erie steelhead fishery in New York. It is by a wide margin the biggest of the state’s Erie tributaries, and because it is big it holds fishable water when the smaller creeks along the shore are either blown out or bone dry. Steelhead enter from the lake at Irving and run upstream through the Seneca Nation reservation lands, past Gowanda where this gauge sits, and on into the deep shale walls of the Zoar Valley gorge, giving the river far more holding water and a far longer season than its neighbors.

Steelhead are the reason almost everyone fishes it. The run builds with autumn rain from October, peaks through November and December, and the fish hold over through the winter into a strong spring push, so the practical season stretches across six months or more. Brown trout are stocked and mixed in, coho and chinook show in the fall, and in the warmer months the creek turns into a respectable smallmouth stream that almost nobody fishes. The gorge water is scenic, remote in feel and physically demanding to reach.

Two things govern a trip here. The first is water: the Cattaraugus is a shale-bottomed creek that clouds heavily after rain and takes longer to drop than the small tributaries, and there is a real window between too muddy and too low when the fishing is exceptional. Watching the gauge trend is essential. The second is access. Substantial reaches run through Seneca Nation of Indians territory, where a separate tribal license and separate rules apply, and other stretches are private. Anglers should confirm which reach they are fishing and carry the correct license for it before starting the day.

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Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

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  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
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  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Cattaraugus Creek cfs

Now: 120 cfs, read 6:15 am CST, Mon Nov 2, 2026 (USGS 04213500, CATTARAUGUS CREEK AT GOWANDA NY).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Gowanda town access near the gauge - the standard reference point and popular upstream access.
Zoar Valley Multiple Use Area - gorge access upstream of Gowanda with steep trails.
Scoby Dam Park near Springville - upper access at the top of the steelhead run.
Versailles access on the lower creek - reach requiring a Seneca Nation license.
Irving and the Route 5 crossing - lower creek access near the Lake Erie mouth.
Cattaraugus Creek Boat Launch at the harbor - lake access and the bottom of the run.
Point Peter Road and Forty Road pull-offs - informal middle creek access points.

Seasons

Spring: a strong late steelhead push through March and April as the creek drops and warms.
Summer: steelhead gone, the creek low and clear, and a quiet, uncrowded smallmouth fishery in its place.
Fall: the run builds from October with autumn rain, bringing steelhead plus coho and chinook.
Winter: peak numbers of holdover steelhead with cold, low, clear water and slow technical presentations.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Cattaraugus Creek?

As of Nov 2, 6:15 am, the USGS gauge CATTARAUGUS CREEK AT GOWANDA NY reads 120 cfs, with water temperature 46.6 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Cattaraugus Creek?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Chinook Salmon, Coho Salmon, Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass, Steelhead on the Cattaraugus Creek in New York.

Are there fishing guides on the Cattaraugus Creek?

GuidedFloats lists 2 guides and outfitters on the Cattaraugus Creek. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Cattaraugus Creek?

Gowanda town access near the gauge - the standard reference point and popular upstream access. Zoar Valley Multiple Use Area - gorge access upstream of Gowanda with steep trails. Scoby Dam Park near Springville - upper access at the top of the steelhead run. Versailles access on the lower creek - reach requiring a Seneca Nation license. Irving and the Route 5 crossing - lower creek access near the Lake Erie mouth. Cattaraugus Creek Boat Launch at the harbor - lake access and the bottom of the run. Point Peter Road and Forty Road pull-offs - informal middle creek access points.

When is the best time to fish the Cattaraugus Creek?

Spring: a strong late steelhead push through March and April as the creek drops and warms. Summer: steelhead gone, the creek low and clear, and a quiet, uncrowded smallmouth fishery in its place. Fall: the run builds from October with autumn rain, bringing steelhead plus coho and chinook. Winter: peak numbers of holdover steelhead with cold, low, clear water and slow technical presentations.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Cattaraugus Creek?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the New York agency site: https://dec.ny.gov/things-to-do/freshwater-fishing/regulations