Photo by Robert Sloan.

In the Empire State, July is almost invariably the hottest month of the year -- and that alone is enough to make fishing an interesting challenge for bass anglers.

In most lakes and ponds, bright skies and warming water temperatures compel smallmouths and largemouths to swim deeper or hide in the midnight shade of thick weedbeds. But the weather has an even more drastic effect on human behavior.

Anglers who, a few weeks before, were inclined to sleep in now set their alarms for well before dawn.

Rising at oh-dark-thirty is the only way you can be sure of getting in a few casts along lake shorelines before summer vacationers churn the water with their water-bikes and cigar boats.

In this annual grudge match, we anglers can't claim any moral superiority. True, we wish only to hook a few fish in peace, but the pleasure-boaters merely wish to cool off.

In our state, fortunately, there's room for everyone. To get away from the wave-running hordes, fishermen can tow their boats to remote bodies of water -- or better yet, search out secluded bays on large lakes that teem with bass, but receive tolerable volumes of traffic on weekends.

The following lakes and bays are full of bass and big enough for the both of us, figuratively speaking:

LAKE ERIE
Overall, Lake Erie is the likeliest place in New York to catch monster smallmouth bass. Erie's the home of the current state-record 8-pound, 4-ounce bronzeback, boated by Pennsylvania resident Andrew Kartesz in 1995. And before that one, it also produced the three most recent state-best smallies. It's a prohibitive favorite to produce the next record, too.

In 2006, New York Department of Environmental Conservation biologists who lowered nets in Lake Erie collected two- and three-year-old smallmouths averaging 11.4 and 13.6 inches long, respectively.

Both lengths are about an inch better than the long-term average.

Another bit of very good news for Lake Erie fanatics is the DEC's assessment that in 2005 and '06, smallmouth spawning runs in the lake produced solid year-classes of baby bass. In other words, reinforcements are on the way.

Lake Erie smallmouths are thriving in the lake -- despite the recent proliferation of round gobies and the presence of the fish disease known as viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS).

Biologists were worried that the goby, an invasive Asian species that seldom exceeds 5 or 6 inches in length and offers little angling value, could have a catastrophic impact on the food chains of Lake Erie and many other waters. One major concern is the gobies' habit of wolfing down the eggs of other species during their spawning runs.

To date, however, the newcomers' major role seems to be filling the bellies of game fish. In particular, Lake Erie smallmouths have made gobies a staple part of their diet.

Ultimately, the VHS outbreaks seen across the state in the last three years may be more problematic. One of the notable fish die-offs traced to the disease impacted Lake Erie sheepshead, or freshwater drum.

Anglers and biologists alike have their fingers crossed that the virus won't hit smallmouth bass next.

Although Lake Erie is famous for its spring bass fishery, the smallmouth action is also furious during most of the summer and fall.