A 20-Pound Brown Trout From "The Condos"

On August 8, 2020, an angler trolling a spoon off Walnut Creek on Lake Erie hooked a brown trout that weighed 20 pounds 9 ounces. It became Pennsylvania’s state-record brown trout. This is the catch, drawn from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) announcement.

The catch

Robert Ferraro, 68, of Erie, left Walnut Creek Marina and trolled an area called “the Condos,” east of Walnut Creek and west of the peninsula, in 74 feet of water. Around 8:30 a.m. a brown trout took a small spoon on a downrigger at 56 feet. He was fishing a 9-foot rod with 14-pound copolymer line.

The fish weighed 20 pounds 9 ounces and measured 33.75 inches long with a 21.125-inch girth. A Waterways Conservation Officer and a deputy witnessed the weigh-in on a certified scale, and a PFBC biologist identified the fish. The PFBC announced the record on August 31, 2020.

Why it is remarkable

It topped the previous brown trout record, set by another Erie angler in 2000, by 11 ounces.

Connection to the waterway

The catch shows the open-lake trolling approach near Walnut Creek, the same creek mouth that draws steelhead in the fall. The lake and its tributaries are covered in the Lake Erie and Presque Isle guide and the Erie steelhead tributaries guide.

The lake behind the record

Pennsylvania’s Lake Erie waters are in Erie County, around Presque Isle State Park, a peninsula that encloses Presque Isle Bay. DCNR lists perch, bass, walleye, trout and steelhead in the lake. PFBC reports about 1.5 million fish are caught each year across the lake, bay and tributaries. Ferraro’s brown trout came from open water, in an area called “the Condos,” east of Walnut Creek and west of the peninsula, in 74 feet of water.

Current rules for the lake include a Lake Erie permit. Trout and salmon are limited to five a day, or three a day after Labor Day. Walleye must be 15 inches with a limit of six, and yellow perch have a limit of 30. Bass tournaments are prohibited from the second Saturday in April to the second Saturday in June.

A consumption advisory

DEP’s 2026 advisory lists Lake Erie open-water walleye, coho, steelhead and brown trout at one meal a month because of PCBs. Check the current advisory before you eat any fish from the lake.

What anglers can take from it

A record fish does not predict future catches. The method is a boat-based one, and a trolling rig is a different setup from the rods used for pier or tributary fishing. More stories from Pennsylvania waters are in the Dock Tales index.

Sources and caveats

This tale uses the PFBC release on the new state-record brown trout and the PFBC state record list, which agree on the weight, angler and year. A newspaper report was seen by headline only. Photos exist in news coverage, but we have not cleared any rights.