A canoe or johnboat is ideal for fishing either the Cassadaga Lakes or the creek. The state maintains a small launch area with parking for 20 cars at the end of Dale Drive, which is between the two lakes, off Route 60. Cartoppers can also be eased into the creek at several points including County Road 71 north of South Stockton and Knight Road, off Route 380 near Ross Mills.

The Chautauqua tourism folks mentioned above can help Cassadaga visitors find accommodations near Jamestown or Fredonia.

NIAGARA RIVER
When the season opens in June, Buffalo-area anglers enjoy some of the hottest muskie fishing in the world, especially in the harbors in Lake Erie's northeast corner and in the stretch of the Niagara River upstream from the falls. The Erie action slows considerably in the summer, but tight-lipped locals continue to connect with 50-inchers in the river, often by trolling after dark.

I can't recommend night-fishing to uninitiated visitors. But traveling anglers willing to line up a guide with the help of the Erie Area Convention and Visitors Bureau at (814) 454-7191, or Niagara County Tourism at 1-800-338-7890, could be in for one of the more memorable evenings of their fishing careers.

In the upper Niagara, big muskies are the rule rather than the exception with fish in the 48- to 52-inch range a daily possibility. The large average size of fish above the falls is at least partly attributable to the staunch catch-and-release ethic promoted by the Niagara Musky Association.

The association pushed for the 54-inch minimum keeper size -- which has been in effect on the river since October 2002 -- knowing that it would protect 99 percent of the muskies available to anglers. Given these circumstances, it wouldn't be surprising if some old female, caught and released a couple of times, eventually lived long enough to break the 60-inch mark.

While the best summer fishing is after dark, daytime trollers take some Niagara muskies in August around the southwest end of Grand Island, between the Peace Bridge in Buffalo and Tonawanda Island; and over Sunken Island, a hump off the north side of Grand Island.

Numerous launch areas are available above the falls. A complete list is available by calling the Erie and Niagara county offices mentioned previously.

OTISCO LAKE
Its fishing has been slightly off for the last couple of summers, but little Otisco Lake in southern Onondaga County is still the best place in New York to catch a tiger muskellunge or "norlunge" -- the sterile hybrid produced by crossing a male northern pike with a female muskie.

Otisco is stocked with about 7,500 tigers annually, and quite a few of them have grown into 20-pounders by the time they're caught. I know of one specimen that weighed 30 pounds and change, and another, a bit lighter than that fish, which measured 50 inches. The presence of such brutes suggests that Otisco Lake is a strong candidate to produce the next state-record tiger muskie, one even bigger than the 35 1/2-pounder pulled from the Tioughnioga River back in 1990.