Bass opener

Bass and muskellunge anglers can start to enjoy New York’s statewide season opener at midnight Friday. The special Lake Erie trophy season for bass continues, but inland bass angling is confined to catch-and-release runs until the season starts Saturday morning. Boaters out of Buffalo Harbor and the near-Canada shoreline are cautioned to remain in U. S. waters when catching and keeping bass. Province of Ontario waters will not open to bass catching and keeping until June 27.

Lake Erie

Walleye wanderers work hard during the Southtowns Walleye Association tourney, and both entrants and non-entrants report slow going for ’eye popping this past week. Perch prospects have been much more productive from Sturgeon Point to well west of Dunkirk Harbor. Ringback numbers dropped for shoal edges around Seneca Shoals and Myers Reef. But schooling has been in directly off Cattaraugus Creek —and either side of the Catt—at depths of 44-52 feet, according to Rick Miller at Miller’s Bait and Tackle in Irving. Smallmouth bass have begun moving off spawning beds lakewide, with a fair number of big mamas whacking bottom-bumping baits at depths of 20-30 feet. Goby imitations (gray-green-brown jigs, spoons, and plugs) work well at these depths around Seneca Shoals, Myers Reef, Evans- Angola Bar and most rocky drop-offs farther west.

Niagara River

Suspended moss makes things messy and suspended many a lower river drift. Upper river perch schooling holds close to many access sites around Grand Island and along the Buffalo shoreline.

Lake Ontario

“They seem to be going for spoons now,” says Jim Evarts at the Boat Doctor in Olcott Harbor of open-water runs for trout and salmon. The Spin Doctor-and-fly rig has been productive through early-spring outings, but spoons seem to scoop up trout and salmon right now.

Fair to good numbers of coho salmon show among runs of steelies and brown trout at depths of 50-250 feet. Evarts notes boaters do well trolling either side of Olcott Harbor from the power plant west to the “red barn” a long mile west of the harbor.

Chautauqua Lake

Walleye numbers and sizes improved in the South Basin around weed beds and edges. Trollers still dodge weeds with worm harnesses, but the better bet is casting a jig with live or “fake” leeches, says Brian Green at Happy Hooker Bait and Tackle in Ashville. Bass bites burgeon for the catch-and-release of largemouth and smallmouth seekers lakewide, but the north end of the North Basin, close to Mayville, has been perch-catcher’s paradise. With the loss of certified emerald shiners, perch anglers have no problem bulking up with fathead minnows for a nice bucket of ringbacks in the 9-to 12-inch range. Anchor just off weed edges and keep the bait close to bottom for the perch packs.

Photogenic fish

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