This first weekend of the summer could be the busiest two days on the fishermen’s calendar.

All fishing seasons are open and set to go come Saturday. Bass season opens in Ontario waters at midnight Friday, allowing all anglers creel limits on all game fish caught in all area waters.

Everyone interested in angling can fish for free this weekend during the annual Free Fishing Days Saturday and Sunday in all waters of New York State.

Lake Erie

Boaters must carefully check international waters designations, but bass season will be open this weekend in all eastern-basin waters of Lake Erie.

Charter captains and entrants in the 11th Annual Cystic Fibrosis Foundation BassEye Challenge are out scouting for the good bass bite. Drop-offs at 10-to 20-foot depths have been hot from Buffalo Harbor (along the breakwater ripraps) to Sturgeon Point and westward.

The walleye bite has been spotty, with better numbers of smaller fish showing close to Buffalo and the “hog class" stuff coming from around Barcelona Harbor.

Perch seekers need a break from the winds and sometimes have to make a few moves to get over schools of biters. Nonetheless, some nice numbers of bigger ringbacks have come in from 52-foot depths west of Sturgeon and 48-62 feet west of Cattaraugus Creek. Shallower waters do well at sunrise and the deeper drops produce at mid day.

Niagara River

Crayfish and nightcrawler sales are up at Big Catch Bait & Tackle and the upper Niagara River fishery-aboard boats and along shore-keys on yellow perch and smallmouth bass.

Bait still holds fairly well in the upper river, but a minnow drifted or dropped close to bottom still draws strikes.

Lower river action has slowed; perch schooling has been slight along shore.

Lake Ontario

Trollers have to dig deeper, but the trout and salmon bite has been good at and to either side of Olcott Harbor, said Wes Walker at Slipper Sinker Bait & Tackle.

King salmon schools have moved down to depths of 85-100 feet over waters 150 deep and deeper. Warm hefty breezes from the south and west pushed warmer waters out and moved bait, trout and salmon deeper daily. Either a flasher-and-fly rig or cut bait cuts into the kings.

Steelies and coho salmon hold higher, hitting at 50- to 60-foot depths and seem to seek out spoons with either a brightly colored orange or red spoon. Green/chartreuse often will work as well.

Shore anglers have a nice mix of game and panfish. Smallmouths have moved to deeper waters with shoreline and feeder creek temperatures at and above 70 degrees. But largemouth bass lurk in warming waters and hit well around weed edges and dock pilings.

Along with perch, many shore casters have found good-sized rock bass schooling in close at Wilson Harbor, Olcott Harbor and near the mouth of Oak Orchard Creek. Bait preferences vary daily between minnows, crayfish, nightcrawler/worms and grubs.