Overview

Great News! DEC has increased our stocking allotment in Olcott this year! Once again, we will have a total of nine fish pens—150,000 Chinook salmon in six pens and 15,000 steelhead in three pens. We need all the help we can get to assemble the pens and prepare for fish delivery in early April. 📍 Location: Town of Newfane Marina, Olcott 📅 Date: Saturday, March 28 🕘 Time: 9:00 AM The pens will be placed in the water immediately after assembly. This is a rain-or-shine event, so please dress accordingly and bring side cutters to remove zip ties. Come join us, make new friends, and reconnect with old ones—while helping sustain this fishery for years to come! ☕ Pastries and hot drinks will be provided.

Only 12 seats left for the 2026 Salmon School. Get them while you can.

If one of your goals for 2026 was to increase your catch of mature Kings on Lake Ontario, you will not find a better way in the off season to help accomplish this than by attending the LOTSA Salmon School this coming February. What you will learn from the instructors on how they each prepare for every trip, how they target mature Kings, mastering the “Art” of trolling and their on the water decision making process are just some of the key topics that will help you accomplish your goal. The Salmon School is more than 80% full which is historically the point where the remaining seats move quickly and it sells out. If you have not made your decision or are planning on it but have not signed up yet, now is the time to secure your seat to take advantage of the opportunity to help accomplish your goal this season. Click here for all of the details about the School and to secure your seat: LOTSA-2026-Salmon-School-LOTSA-WEB.pdf

The LOTSA Salmon School held at the Greater Niagara Fishing Expo this coming February 20th is less than 2 months away. If you have already signed up, Thank You! The School is a great way for you to gain some additional Lake Ontario Salmon Fishing knowledge that will allow you to significantly up your Salmon Trolling “game” in 2026! The School is almost 70% full. It has sold out every year since its inception 16 years ago we expect the same again to happen soon. If you are planning on attending but have put it off, please do not wait long as our history has shown that once the Hunting season is over the remaining seats usually go very fast. The School continues to sell out every year because it is enhanced every year with the input we receive for our attendees in their survey at the end of the School. From the 358 surveys turned in over the past 3 year, 100% told us they received good value for their admission fee and 90% said they planned to return again in the future! If you have not made your decision yet to attend or have not even considered attending, below are some things that you should know about the LOTSA Salmon School: What will I Learn? This is a custom class built from the questions/topics submitted by each of the attendees. The instruction level is geared for the experienced troller and will be kept that way throughout. It will not spend covering the basics of the tackle, gear, riggers, divers, junk lines, electronics, boat rigging etc. which experienced Anglers already know. There are plenty of seminars at the Expo on that including the LOTSA Basic Salmon School on Sunday morning. Some of the topics that each Instructor will provide their input on include: Fishing where the Mature Kings are Deep dive on how they use their Electronics Mastering the “Art” of Trolling Big King Tactics Efficiency on the Water Who are the Instructors? The team of Captains consists of Bob Songin, Brian Garrett and Nick Glosser. They all are not only great fishermen with thousands of hours of experience fishing for Lake Ontario Kings but experienced educators. They know what to expect and how to deliver it most effectively to the attendees. They know how to manage the questions and stay on schedule to deliver everything that they have prepared. When & Where is it? The school runs as part of the Greater Niagara Fishing Expo February 19 – 22, 2025 in Niagara Falls, NY. The school provides 11 hours of learning opportunity spread over 3 days with the main School on Saturday 2/20 from 8 – 4:30 pm. The event takes place in a large Ballroom with tables to sit at, a good sound system and a large screen that everyone can see the material. The Expo secures excellent Hotels within a very short walk from the show at show negotiated prices. These rates are also available to Salmon School attendees. What in addition to education will I get? Each attendee will receive a “Captains Bag” including some of the instructors “Go To” baits. The value of this bag for the 2025 School alone exceeded the cost of admission to the school. We expect the bag to be very impressive again for 2026. In addition to the “Captains Bags”, attendees of the 2025 school left with over $5,000 in “Lake Ontario Fishing” door prizes (each attendee gets a free door prize ticket in their Captains Bag). We expect similar for 2026. Do I need to attend the Friday evening and Sunday sessions? The “School” is on Saturday. The Friday night pre–School Social will feature a short presentation from the DEC Lake Ontario Managers showing their latest data including the DNA results that is used to manage the lake for Kings in 2026. The Social will also provide dinner thru food stations (by the Chef at the Convention Center) along with Beer, Wine, Soft Drinks and water throughout the event. There will be plenty of time to socialize also and build up your network of fellow anglers. The Sunday Q&A session has proven very popular as it gives attendees time to think about everything that they have heard and get one more chance to ask questions to clarify any of it. Both sessions are designed to enhance the learning process but are not necessary to attend the school. They are also free with your admission to the Salmon School. Are Food and Drinks included? A hot Turkey Buffet lunch prepared by the Chef will be provided on Saturday along with coffee and drinks throughout the day. Do I have access to the Greater Niagara Fishing Expo? Unlimited access to all 4 days of the Greater Niagara Fishing Expo is provided with your admission to the school. This provides the opportunity to attend any of the other seminars of your choosing besides the Salmon School. More Importantly it provides you access to all the 170+ Exhibitors including those most important to you for fishing Lake Ontario. The Exhibitor list isn’t finalized yet but here is a list of some attending that are relevant to what we do in the Lake: 3L Flies, Accutroll, Angling Industries, Atommik, Boss Fabrication, Chinook Divers, Church Tackle, Daiwa, Cisco, Dreamweaver, Fishhawk, FishUSA, Gambler Rigs, Garmin, Gibbs Delta, GRC Trolling Flies, Ice Strong Outdoors, Innovative Outdoors, Iron Decoy, ITO Flys, LOCBA, LOC Derbies, LOTSA, Moonshine Lures, Muddy Creek, Musslehead Tackle, NYSDEC, Okuma, Pirate Lures, Relentless Knives, Route 18 Tackle, Scotty, Silver Streak, Sirius XM, Soco Baits, Sonnys, Shark, Strike Assist, Summit Fishing Equipment, TLC Tackle, Torpedo Diver, Town of Newfane, Traxstech and Yeck Lures. Does this benefit LOTSA? One of the reasons the Salmon School was created is because LOTSA needed a stable source of funding for Pen Rearing, Education, and all the other things LOTSA does to support the Lake Ontario Fishery. This is even more important today as the school is the primary source of funding for LOTSA’s Pen Rearing project. In addition, every attendee receives a free 2026 membership to LOTSA which includes among many other things the opportunity to fish the “LOTSA Tournaments within a Tournament” events for the LOC Derbies along with the LOTSA Tournaments in July. Is the Cost of $120 for the Salmon School worth it? Only you can decide this. Previous attendees have told us that it’s the best value for their “Fishing” dollars that they make every year! Here is the Link to register for the School: Sign Up – LOTSA Membership | Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association

2026 LOTSA EVENTS WWW.LOTSA1.ORG Find Us on Facebook – Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Association SEMINARS & GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETINGS: The dates of our meetings are listed below. They begin at 7pm at the North Amherst Fire Company, 2200 Tonawanda Creek Rd, Amherst, NY 14228. Please note April 30th meeting is in Wilson at Bootleggers Cove Marina. 🎣 Membership Meetings: Thursday April 4th ………….Increased Spoon Success with Calvin Vanderboon Thursday April 30th...........“At the Dock’ Talking Spring Kings with Captain Tom Pearse Thursday June 11th………Summer Transition Fishing with Captain Jonathan Forder Thursday July 9th ………..TBD with Captain TBD Thursday Aug 13th……….TBD with Captain TBD Thursday Dec 10th ………Annual Christmas Party 🏆 Member Tournaments and Family Picnic – July 24th & 25th v LOTSA King Salmon Tournament July 25th v Curt Meddaugh Memorial Free Tournament July 24th v LOTSA 323 (2-day) Tournament - July 24th and 25th v LOTSA Free Family Picnic (Compliments of LOTSA): July 25th Visit www.lotsa1.org to sign up and for details. 💰 LOTSA “Tournaments within a Tournament” FREE for LOTSA Members v Spring LOC Derby $1000 Cash Largest Salmon 5/1 - 5/10 v Summer LOC Derby $ 1000 Cash Largest Salmon 6/27 - 7/26 v Fall LOC Derby Wk #1 $ 500 Cash Largest Salmon 8/21 - 8/29 v Fall LOC Derby Wk #2 $ 500 Cash Largest Salmon 8/30 - 9/7 *see tournament websites for applicable rules & dates * Salmon Pen Rearing Program: April at Olcott (Newfane Marina). Details shared on our website and on Facebook. *Join the 5400+ followers of the Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Association page on Facebook*

Welcome to another 2025 LOTSA Newsflash targeted to keep everyone informed of Club happenings. We hope that you were able to join us the last weekend of July to enjoy a great time fishing the LOTSA Tournaments along with attending the LOTSA Picnic. This is the 22nd year of these events. The Fishing for Kings has continued to be slower than we experienced last year but we saw just about all the boats fishing our Tournaments catch a few kings in the upper teens to low 20s. Again, our members were well represented on the Summer LOC Board including the 3rd largest King at 29- pound, 12-ounces that also won our Tournament. A special thanks goes out to Paul DeAngelo (Great Lakes Fish Art Studio) for mounting this giant for free for the winner. This fish can be seen at the LOTSA Booth at the Greater Niagara Fishing Expo next February 19-22, 2026. We had 56 boats entered and over 220 people attended the Picnic. The DEC took measurements and DNA samples from over 75 Kings on Friday which should help them greatly in their future management of the Fishery. Our Tournament Director, Matt Dunn, and his team of volunteers did another great job this year. Year after year it just keeps getting better! When you see Matt, please take the time to thank him as without the year around effort he puts in, this event would not be possible. We run these events as FUN learning experience for us all and hope to become better anglers in the future from what we learned. A special thanks goes out to the 10 volunteers who filleted and packaged up every one of the Kings that our members donated for the Sister Helen's Food Pantry, a local pantry who was thrilled to get these fish and distribute them to those in need. Thanks also to Relentless Knives for their donation of 10 knives which were given to the volunteers to clean the fish and then keep! Below is more detail written by long time LOTSA member Bill Hilts Jr.: LOTSA Tournament Results The Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Association held its three in-club fishing contests last weekend – the Curt Meddaugh Memorial Tournament that was the best three fish for one day, the LOTSA King Salmon Tournament for the biggest fish overall on Saturday, and the 323 contest that allows teams to enter three fish over two days of fishing. A total of 56 teams competed in the events. For the “Curt” contest, the Mutiny team led by Capt. Jason Monkelbaan of Wheatfield won on Friday, weighing in over 62 pounds of salmon. Also on the team were Gary Monkelbaan of Tonawanda (Jason’s dad) and Jackson Monkelbaan of North Tonawanda (Jason’s nephew, fishing in his first tournament). They focused on the Niagara Bar in 120 to 200 feet of water using meat rigs, Pro Troll flashers, and A-Tom-Mik Pro-Am flies. Second place went to Capt. Craig Heitzenrater’s Crank That team with 59.44 pounds of salmon. Third place was Chris Petrucci of Beallsville, Pa. with the D-Day team that scored 59.22 pounds. Big Fish for the day went to Roy Leising of East Amherst with the Sportcraft 232 team, a 23.33-pound king salmon. In the LOTSA King Salmon contest, Gerald Bielicki, Jr. of Corfu hauled in a 29-pound, 12-ounce Wilson fish that gave them the win for his Bad Habit team. He was fishing with his father, Gerald, Sr. of Akron and Joe Yuhnke of Tonawanda and they caught the big fish on a Warrior yellowtail spoon behind 10 colors of lead core line in 170 feet of water. It was also the third largest salmon in the Lake Ontario Counties derby and the largest caught by a LOTSA member. The lucky salmon was big enough to give his team the win in the LOTSA 323 event, three fish that weighed in at 68.86 pounds. Second place in the King Salmon contest was Nate Stephenson of Wilson with the Triple J team, weighing in a 25.23-pound salmon. Third place went to Wildcat led by Arthur O’Mara, Jr. of Moravia with a 23.27-pound king. Second place in the 323 competition was Reel Blessing led by Scott Kelly of Kittanning, Pa. with 63.93 pounds of salmonids. O’Mara and his Wildcat squad came in third with 62.93 pounds of fish. After the contests were over, several hundred pounds of Pacific salmon, cleaned by LOTSA volunteers, were donated to Sister Helen’s Food Pantry in Lockport. From LOTSA Tournament Director – Matt Dunn: The LOTSA Picnic was held after the weigh in on Saturday Olcott Firehall. It was very well attended and the air conditioning a much-appreciated relief from the heat! The dinner, compliments of LOTSA, was catered by One Eye Jacks BBQ and we heard nothing but compliments on the food. Over $5,000 worth of “fishing” gear was raffled off as door prizes during the event. This tournament would not be possible without our great tournament sponsors!! The following are the sponsors for this tournament, Dreamweaver, ITO Flies, Traxstech, Town of Newfane, Musselhead Tackle, Scotty, Salmon Candy, GRC Trolling, Gibbs Delta, Fish USA, Great Lakes Fish Art Studios , Fish Hawk, Chinook Divers, Sonny's Fishing Center, Torpedo Divers, Finn Tackle, Fish Thief Snubbers, 3L Flies, Relentless Knives, Atommik, Wolverine Tackle, Route 18 Tackle, Fish Hunter/ Fish Grip, and NK Spoons. As you can see, it takes a lot of sponsor support to make this tournament happen. We are very thankful for all of them and I ask everyone to support these companies whenever possible! Check out the www.lotsa1.org or our Facebook page for more information and pictures of these events. The last two LOTSA Tournaments for the year are the Greater Niagara Fish Odyssey and the Fall LOC which has two LOTSA winners (1 for each week). Let’s see if a LOTSA member can win the Fall LOC and the Greater Niagara Fish Odyssey. If you have never fished the Greater Niagara Fish Odyssey, I encourage you to support this event by signing up and encouraging your friends to do the same. It is a fun tournament with some great competition among LOTSA members for the Salmon Division. You check it out and signup at https://bit.ly/fishodyssey2025. I hope we get to enjoy a great end of the Lake Ontario open water season and you can enjoy this world class fishery that Lake Ontario provides for us! LOTSA President – Joe Yaeger

On Thursday August 14th at 7pm, the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be sponsoring a Seminar on “Fishing August Staging Kings” with Captain Nick Glosser of Synergy Sportfishing. Captain Nick has been fishing on Lake Ontario for 19 years. For the first 8 years he was mating for Captain Vince Pierleoni of Thrillseeker Sportfishing Charters. Then for the last 10 years he was chartering for Captain Vince on Vinces 2 nd boat. With all those years of experience under his belt, he went out on his own this year chartering aboard his 40 ft Jersey Dawn named Synergy. Nick still fishes on Vinces Tournament Team as he has since 2007, which through the years has proven to be one of the top tournament teams on Lake Ontario. Nick will be going over and taking questions on the many techniques he has learned over the years to consistently catch staging Kings as they are getting ready to start their fall run-up stream. With the Fall LOC just around the corner this will be a great time to gain some very valuable information on improving your “Staging King Salmon” fishing skills. LOTSA is a group of mainly weekend recreational fishermen who are dedicated to the enhancement of the Lake Ontario Sport-Fishery including the pen rearing project at Olcott. Each meeting also features a sharing of information on the current fishing conditions. So come join us and become more successful at fishing Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. The meeting will be held at The North Amherst Fire Company, 2200 Tonawanda Creek Rd. Amherst, N.Y. The Seminar is open to the public and free to attend. See WWW.LOTSA1.ORG for any questions. Article written by John Suttell LOTSA Board Member

LOTSA Members, a quick reminder that we are 10 days away from the tournament registration deadline. On June 22nd at midnight the registration will be closed for all tournament and picnic registration. Please get signed up now!! https://lotsa1.org/sign-up-lotsa-tournament/

Now that we are in the month of July, it's time to start talking about our LOTSA Tournament. With the weather starting to get more stable, the lake should start setting up and bring on great fishing. We have been seeing bigger kings this year so far which is exciting. This years tournament is July 25th for the Curt, July 26th for the Salmon Tournament and both days for the 323 with July 27th as a bad weather day if needed. The format is the same for all 3 Tournaments as previous years. The Friday FREE Curt Tournament is payouts this year (1st- $400, 2nd- $300, 3rd $200 and Big Fish $150). A free cookout and drinks will be provided at the Town of Newfane Marina. The DEC will be there to take DNA samples from the Kings we bring in. This data will be added to the database that will be used to determine the amount of wild versus hatchery raised kings in the lake. It will also be compared against the data collect the previous years at our tournaments and is extremely important in helping the DEC make management decisions. The Saturday Salmon Tournament is limited to 60 boats and will pay out 15 places (25%) with a full field of 60 boats. This is a ONE Salmon Tournament so that anyone can win it with just that one special bite! This has a $70 entry fee per boat. The 323 (3 Fish over 2 days and pays out 3 places) returns for the more competitive members with a $50 entry fee per boat. Again for this year a free Salmon replica mount donated by world class artist Paul DeAngelo (Home | DeAngelo Fish Art Replicas) who has opened a location in Olcott. This will be awarded to the member who catches the largest Salmon fishing in either the 323 or Salmon Tournament and is valued at over $800! On Saturday we will be providing our Annual LOTSA Picnic which is a great BBQ meal catered by One Eye Jacks right after the weigh in at the Olcott Fire Hall (inside and air conditioned) just a 5-minute drive from the Town of Newfane Marina. This will happen whether we fish that day or not. There will be thousands of dollars in door prizes that will be raffled off. The picnic is free and available to all LOTSA members and their families. You must sign up to attend and it is limited to 300 people. The Summer LOC Derby will also be ending this weekend. LOTSA will be providing $750 in cash to the LOTSA member for this LOTSA Tournament within a Tournament event. LOTSA members have won and placed very high with Kings caught during are above events in the past years, Numerous times the winning Summer LOC Kings are caught the final weekend so there is some extra incentive to be on the water fishing our events and the Summer LOC at the same time. Your fish can be weighed into both events. Once again, LOTSA did an early bird entry/drawing for a free entry for the LOTSA Tournament. We took all the boats that signed up by the end of the February and pulled out a boat name. We are excited to announce the winner for the free tournament entry is Reel Therapy! Team Reel Therapy is led by Earl Vining. Earl is from Newfane and has been fishing the lake for 12 years. He has also been fishing the LOTSA tournament for the last 7 years. Good luck Earl! Click below for all the details and to get signed up for the 3 Tournaments and Picnic including LOTSA membership if needed. Please remember to sign up your spouse / significant other and kids under 16 years old on the 2025LOTSA Family membership list so that they are eligible to be on your boat with you. They are all free however you do need to add them to the 2025 list. Let's make this year's tournament the best yet! Click here: Sign Up – LOTSA Tournament | Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (lotsa1.org)

On Thursday June 12th at 7pm, the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be sponsoring a Seminar on “Adapting to Changing Conditions on Lake Ontario” with Captain Larry Hammond of Bullseye Sportfishing Charters. Captain Larry has been fishing on Lake Ontario for over 30 years and has been chartering since 2017 aboard his 10-meter Trojan “Bullseye”. During the season he will be out chartering on the weekends but during the summer months, when he is not teaching, he is out every day as a full time charter. He will be discussing and taking questions on how the changing conditions on the lake affects the fishing and how you can adapt your fishing techniques not only day to day but also the morning to the afternoon to put more fish in your box. Some of the topics he will be covering are lure and bait choices during the day and how the changing water affects your presentation and what you can to do to be successful on a consistent basis. LOTSA is a group of mainly weekend recreational fishermen who are dedicated to the enhancement of the Lake Ontario Sport-Fishery including the pen rearing project at Olcott. Each meeting also features a sharing of information on the current fishing conditions. So come join us and become more successful at fishing Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. The meeting will be held at The North Amherst Fire Company, 2200 Tonawanda Creek Rd. Amherst, N.Y. The Seminar is open to the public and free to attend. See WWW.LOTSA1.ORG for any questions. Article written by John Suttell LOTSA Board Member

We are closing out another successful Pen Rearing Season. Monday evening, April 28th we released the salmon and steelhead to 18 Mile Creek in Olcott. Growth rates were good as expected, the salmon averaged 67 fish to the pound and the steelhead averaged 14 fish to the pound. Hazing efforts by USGS/APHIS and a couple of volunteers attributed very few cormorants in the area at the time of release and the following day. With any luck the wind and stained water will give these fish a great chance for survival. The pens were removed and cleaned on Wednesday morning and are ready for the 2026 season. Thank you to all the volunteers that showed up to make this project a success. Thanks to the Town of Newfane and the Town of Newfane Marina for hosting the project

On Thursday May 1st at 7pm the Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be sponsoring a Seminar titled “Talking Spring Kings” with Capt. Matt Yablonsky of Wet Net Charters at Bootleggers Cove Marina at the Port of Wilson. Capt. Matt fishes out of the Port of Wilson aboard his 29ft Blackfin Combi as well as his Lund Tyee Magnum. As an added bonus for those who arrive early you will be treated to hot dogs and drinks prepared by LOTSA’s one and only Capt. Marty Polovick beginning at 6:00 pm. The food and drinks are compliments of LOTSA. The meeting will be held rain or shine as we have a place to get out weather compliments of Bootleggers Marina. Capt. Matt is a full-time Charter Captain on Lake Ontario with this being his 20 th year. Some of his accomplishments include winning The Niagara Pro Am (Pro Division) in 2006, 2112, and 2018, plus placing 2 nd in 2023. He has won the Grand Prize in the LOC Spring Derby 2 times and has had 41 top 20 finishes overall in the Spring, Summer and Fall LOC Derbies. Capt. Matt will be going over his techniques that he uses to consistently put King Salmon in the box. For many years Capt. Matt has been known as the premier “Small Boat Charter” showing that you don’t need a big boat to be a successful angler on the lake. This is a great opportunity for those with any boat-size to learn and ask questions about what has made Capt. Matt a top charter captain on the west end of the lake. With the LOC Derby starting May 2nd this is a good time to pick up a few tips and techniques that could help you out on the lake. This will be a very informative seminar that you will not want to miss. LOTSA is a group of mainly weekend recreational fishermen who are dedicated to the enhancement of the Lake Ontario Sport Fishery including the pen rearing project at Olcott. Each meeting also features a sharing of information about the current fishing conditions. So come join us and become more successful at fishing Lake Ontario! Just a reminder this special meeting and seminar will be held at the Bootleggers Cove Marina at the Port of Wilson and not at the Amherst Fire Company in Amherst. The Seminar is open to the public and free to attend. See WWW.LOTSA1.ORG for any questions. Article written by John Suttell LOTSA Board Member

It is that time of year again! LOTSA Pen Rearing Assembly Day is March 29th this year. We will be meeting at 9am on Saturday 3/29 at the Town of Newfane Marina in Olcott, NY. This year we are planning to assemble the pens and have them placed in the water all on the same day. Fish are expected to be delivered during the first or second week of April. That information will be passed along as soon as it is received. Please dress warm and bring side cutters to cut zip ties. We will provide hot coffee/chocolate and pastries from the East Side Market in Olcott. Come out and help support the incredible fishery that we all enjoy!

On Thursday December 12th at 7pm, the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be having our annual end of year meeting. Special guests for this meeting will be Christopher Legard, Lake Ontario Unit Leader, Mike Connerton, Aquatic Biologist, Jessica Goretzke, Aquatic Biologist, and Jim Markham, Region 9 Fisheries Manager. One of the ways that the DEC is managing the Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Fishery is by participating in meetings where a significant number of Lake Ontario anglers will be in attendance. They want to hear directly from those anglers who heavily use the Fishery and their input about the 2024 season along with answering any questions they might have. This is the only meeting with the DEC on the west end of the lake this year. Some of the topics they will be covering include, 1. 2024 Lake Ontario creel survey results for both the Lake and the Tributaries 2. Age structure and weight of Chinook Salmon 3. 2024 prey fish survey results 4. DNA assessment of wild versus Hatchery raised Chinook Update 5. 2025 Stocking Plans We highly encourage those anglers who are interested in the constant improvement of the fishery to attend and provide their input. Pizza and drinks will be available starting at 6:30pm compliments of LOTSA. Hope to see everyone there as it should be a very informative meeting to end the year out. The meeting will be held at The North Amherst Fire Company, 2200 Tonawanda Creek Rd. Amherst, N.Y. The Seminar is open to the public and free to attend. See WWW.LOTSA1.ORG for any questions. Article written by John Suttell LOTSA

LOTSA Members, The tournament sign up deadline is July 23rd and almost here. I want to quickly highlight a few things for the tournaments. Friday July 26th is a 3 salmon box with total box weight winning it. The entry is Free but you still have to register for it. The payouts are $400, $300, $200 and $150 for biggest salmon. Compliments of LOTSA, their will be hot dogs, chips, pop and water at the weigh in. The main tournament in Saturday July 27 and it's $70 to enter. This is just the biggest one salmon weighed in will win. We are paying back at least 7spots with more spots added with more boats signing up. We also have an optional side tournament called the 323. That tournament is $50 and payouts are 50/30/20. After the weigh in we will have a BBQ cartered dinner for all participants. You must register online to attend the dinner but their is no cost for registration. After the dinner we will have a large raffle with thousands of dollars worth of tackle. In the raffle will be the NEW Fish Hawk lithium probe! Also new for this year is a FREE SALMON MOUNT(over $800 value) for the biggest salmon caught! You must be entered in the main Saturday tournament or 323 to be eligible to win the mount. Please get signed up ASAP before you miss out! Matt Dunn

Hi LOTSA members, As we are approaching the LOTSA Tournaments and Picnic, I want to highlight a few things. First, if you haven't signed up yet, please do ASAP with the deadline being Tuesday July 23. This deadline also includes the picnic sign up. You MUST sign up for the picnic to attend. The Picnic is our Club’s largest expense, so please only sign up if you're going to attend and be accurate with the sign up number. Let's talk about some times and location for the LOTSA Tournament weekend. Friday July 26th is the FREE Curt Tournament and located at The Newfane Marina. The weigh in at 3 pm. This year we have Sister Helen's Food Pantry, a local food bank that's coming to take fillets for the Friday tournament. The LOTSA Main Tournament is Saturday July 27th with the weigh in at the Olcott Firehall at 3 pm. We will have our delicious One Eye Jacks BBQ dinner following the weigh in. This is included for participates and their family members. We will have Sunday as a blow day if necessary but still will have the BBQ dinner and raffle on Saturday. Now a quick overview of the tournaments and payouts we have for this year. The Curt Tournament features FREE entry with 4 payouts. It's a 3 salmon total weight that we pay back the top 3 boxes. We have increased the payouts to 1st $400, 2nd $300, 3rd $200 and $150 for big fish for that day. You can't have the big fish and place in the top 3. This guarantees 4 separate winners. Complimentary hot dogs, chips, water and pop from LOTSA at the weigh in. The DEC will be at the weigh in to take DNA samples from the Salmon we have in our coolers. These samples play a significant role in the overall management of the Fishery so please do your part to help with acquiring this critical information. The Saturday tournament entry is $70 which includes the BBQ dinner. This is a 1 Big Salmon tournament which gives anyone a chance to get that one big fish and win! We will be paying back 7 places with 45 boats and adding 1 payout per 2 boat entries after that. With a full field of 60 boats , the payout is 15 spots (25% of the boats get a check)! We also are giving out a trophy for the winner to keep this year! We also run a fun 323 side tournament. It's 3 fish weighed in over 2 days with 3 winners. Any fish weighed on the 1st day cannot be replaced by a bigger fish on day 2. The fish must be weighed in the day it is caught. You are not required to fish both days to fish this tournament. All the fish can be salmon with or 1 of the fish can be a trout. It's a fun tourney with some strategy involved! You must fish the Main Saturday tournament to fish the 323 tourney. We have a couple other very exciting things for this tournament. THE BIGGEST SALMON CAUGHT WILL RECEIVE A FREE FISH MOUNT courtesy of DeAngelo Fish Art! This is over an $800 value!! You MUST fish the Main Saturday tournament or 323 to be eligible to win this. We also have our huge tackle raffle after the BBQ dinner on Saturday. We have OVER $4,500 in prizes including the New FISH HAWK LITHIUM PROBE!! As always, a 50/50 on Friday and Saturday will be happening. Now with all this information, please sign up and tell your friends to get in on this tournament and see all the great things we offer. With all these things going on, how can't you fish this very affordable and fun tournament?! Click below for all the details and to get signed up for the July LOTSA Tournaments and Picnic. Please remember to sign up your spouse / significant other and kids under 16 years old on the 2024 LOTSA Family membership list so that they are eligible to be on your boat with you. They are all free however you do need to add them to the 2024 list. Let's enjoy the great fishing that LO is providing for us this year and make this year's tournament the best yet! LOTSA President – Joe Yaeger Click here: Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association | Lake Ontario (lotsa1.org)

On Thursday July 11th at 7pm, the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be sponsoring a Seminar by Captain John Oravec (Troutman) on Summer Tournament Winning Techniques and fishing for the “Big Ones”. Captain John has been chartering on Lake Ontario for 47 years. He is well known as one of the early pioneers fishing back in the days when not much was known of the lake’s vast fishery. Through the years he spent many hours learning the lake and developing tackle that is still used today to become a successful fisherman on the big lake. For 35 years he has written articles for the In Fisherman magazine. He has also been a contributor for Great Lakes Angler and has even been featured on the cover of the magazine passing on his years of knowledge to help anglers improve their fishing skills. Captain John will be discussing how to target and catch “The Big One “and how to learn the lake and what it takes to land trophy fish consistently. He wanted me to tell you to be sure to bring a notebook and take notes as he will be going over a lot of proven techniques he has learned for almost a half a century becoming one of the most successful “Big Fish” Captains on Lake Ontario. LOTSA is a group of mainly weekend recreational fishermen who are dedicated to the enhancement of the Lake Ontario Sport-Fishery including the pen rearing project at Olcott. Each meeting also features a sharing of information the current fishing conditions. So come join us and become more successful at fishing Lake Ontario! The meeting will be held at the North Amherst Fire Company, 2200 Tonawanda Creek Rd. Amherst, N.Y. The Seminar is open to the public and free to attend. See WWW.LOTSA1.ORG for any questions. Article written by John Suttell LOTSA Board member

On Thursday June 13th at 7pm, the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be sponsoring a Seminar on Offshore Summer Kings and Steelhead with Captain Tim Sylvester of Tough Duty Sport Fishing. Captain Tim has been fishing on Lake Ontario since 2007. He has been running his chartering business for the past eleven years out of the Port at Olcott aboard his 43ft Tiara Open the Tough Duty III. Tim prides himself on giving his customers the best experience on the lake catching Salmon and Trout. Through the years he has built a steady business with many repeat customers along with new ones that keep coming back to him year after year. Tim will be talking about, and taking questions on, his successful techniques he uses while out on the water to consistently put fish in the box. One of the topics he will be discussing is his use of long lines, copper and lead core, and how he runs them to increase his catch rate. This will be a very informative seminar for those wanting to be more successful while out fishing on Lake Ontario during the summer season. LOTSA is a group of mainly weekend recreational fishermen who are dedicated to the enhancement of the Lake Ontario Sport-Fishery including the pen rearing project at Olcott. Each meeting also features a sharing of information on the current fishing conditions. So come join us and become more successful at fishing Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. The meeting will be held at the new location for our LOTSA meetings, The North Amherst Fire Company, 2200 Tonawanda Creek Rd. Amherst, N.Y. The Seminar is open to the public and free to attend. See WWW.LOTSA1.ORG for any questions. Article written by John Suttell LOTSA

Hurry and get signed up! Deadline to mail checks are Monday May 13th or pay cash and delivered to Penny by May 17th! A lot of great prizes, payouts and a FREE Catered dinner for all team members! If you are looking to get into tournament fishing, this is a great one to start with! 2024 LOTSA Sponsorship: Niagara County Pro/AM Walter “Skip” Hartman Memorial LOTSA is proud to announce its involvement and sponsorship in the 2024 Niagara County Pro/AM, Walter “Skip” Hartman Memorial to take place May 31St and June 1st, with a blow day on June 2nd. LOTSA will be donating the use of the Club’s tournament scale along with cash-prizes for the Amateur Division. This is a great tournament for the recreational/amateur angular looking to get experience fishing tournament formats. LOTSA highly encourages its members to participate to support LOTSA and the Niagara County Pro/AM. The Niagara County Pro/AM has many excellent sponsors that enhance the prize-structure for all participants, the payout is 100%. LOTSA is proud to partner with the Niagara County Pro/Am to help promote an excellent tournament and the Niagara County fishing community. LOTSA Amateur Big Fish Payout: Day 1 Big Fish Amateur Division: $200 Day 2 Big Fish Amateur Division: $200 For more information/registration visit: https://lakeontarioproam.net/

If you weren't at the LOTSA meeting last night, along with a lot of other really good information that the DEC put out, They announced that in 2024 Lake Ontario will be receiving an additional 137,660 chinook salmon bringing the total New York stocking of chinook to 1,122,840. This finally exceeds the 1,000,000 fish mark for the first time in quite a few years. LET'S GO FISHIN!

LOTSA End of Year Meeting 12/14/23 On Thursday December 14th at 7pm, the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be having our annual end of year meeting. Special guests for this meeting will be Steve Hurst, DECs Chief of the Bureau of Fisheries and Christopher Legard, Lake Ontario Unit Leader and Aquatic Biologist. One of the ways that the DEC is managing the Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Fishery is by participating in meetings where a significant number of Lake Ontario anglers will be in attendance. They want to hear directly from those anglers who heavily use the Fishery and their input about the 2023 season along with answering any questions they might have. This is the only meeting with the DEC on the west end of the lake this year. Some of the topics they will be covering include, 1. 2023 Lake Ontario creel survey results 2.Age structure and weight of Chinook Salmon 3.2023 prey fish survey results 4.Status of sea lamprey control We highly encourage those anglers who are interested in the constant improvement of the fishery to attend and provide their input. Pizza and drinks will be available starting at 6:30pm compliments of LOTSA. Hope to see everyone there as it should be a very informative meeting to end the year out. Article written by John Suttell LOTSA LOTSA is a group of mainly weekend recreational fishermen who are dedicated to the enhancement of the Lake Ontario Sport-Fishery including the pen rearing project at Olcott. Each meeting also features a sharing of information the current fishing conditions. So come join us and become more successful at fishing Lake Ontario! The meeting will be held at the new location for our LOTSA meetings, The North Amherst Fire Company, 2200 Tonawanda Creek Rd. Amherst, N.Y. The Seminar is open to the public and free to attend. See WWW.LOTSA1.ORG for any questions.

On Thursday October 12th at 7pm, the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be having our end of the 2023 fishing season wrap-up meeting. The meeting will be a round table format with LOTSA members discussing the 2023 season on Lake Ontario. The meeting will also cover the results of the Lake Ontario Fisheries Advisory Panel that was held on October 4th. One of the main topics will be the 2023 Lake Onterio spring prey fish assessment report that was recently released. This report is what the DEC uses to come up with the stocking numbers for the next year. LOTSA is a group of mainly weekend recreational fishermen who are dedicated to the enhancement of the Lake Ontario Sport-Fishery including the pen rearing project at Olcott. Each meeting also features a sharing of information on the current fishing conditions. So come join us and become more successful at fishing on Lake Ontario. The meeting will be held at the new location for our LOTSA meetings, The North Amherst Fire Company, 2200 Tonawanda Creek Rd. Amherst, N.Y. The Seminar is open to the public and free to attend. See WWW.LOTSA1.ORG for any questions. Article written by John Suttell LOTSA

LOTSA Tournament Participants, I would like to thank all the members that came out and fished in the tournaments this weekend. I can't say enough about the people that fish this tournament and how great they are. It's always a reminder on how all the hard work that goes into the tournament is worth it. With all that work comes many volunteers to put on a tournament like this. I would like to thank the following people: Alan Sauerland, Anthony Ellis, Kyle Hovak, Marty Polovick, Scott Rohe, Joe Jaeger, Gregg Wiacek, Steve Willms, Steve Olay, Doug Parker, Doug Parker Jr, Marc Dunn, Hunter Swoope, Mike Knoll, Kevin Zimmerman, Jen Willms, Mary Dunn, Rose Polovick, and Cathy Sheldon. All these people contributed to the tournament and I thank you. As I hope everyone can see, it takes a lot of volunteers to make this tournament happen. One of the biggest ways we can run this tournament is through the continued support from our sponsors. They are the following: Dreamweaver, Fish Hawk, Chinook Divers, ITO Flies, A-Tom-Mik, Sonny's, Musselhead, Torpedo, Scotty, FishUSA, Cisco, Fish Thief, Okuma, Offshore Tackle, FINN Tackle, Northern King, Plinker Targets, Jim Gallagher (Garmin Graph), TLC Tackle, Smart Troll, 3L Flies and CMe Trolling Flies. I hope I didn't miss anyone but thanks to all that donated product to allow us the chance to provide this level of a tournament to our members. The fishing and weather was good for the most part and allowed all boat sizes to fish the water they preferred. The Friday Curt Tournament showed that the fishing was very good for many teams. With 9 kings coming to the scales over 20#! Saturday proved to be tougher fishing but some teams still got it done. A full recap of the tournament fishing and winner information will come out soon. Thanks again LOTSA Members and I can't wait to see everyone at the scales next year!! Matt Dunn

Hi LOTSA Members, you have 5 DAYS to get signed up for the tournament and picnic! The deadline to register is Tuesday at midnight. Get signed up now so you don't miss out on this great, affordable and fun tournament!