Sarah Chilson

Thanks Sarah and Dave for all the hard work you do to make my fishing a little more exciting. To bad Iam like the Buffalo Bills so close to making it a winning season. But this year is our year!!!! Thanks again.

Thanks! And I feel ya. The Bills have been breaking my heart for years. I wish you a lot of luck this season!!!

Thank you to you and your father Sarah. I have been fishing the ESLO and now the LOC for many years. Lake Ontario salmon fishing and the LOC derby are practically synonymous with each other in my book. One suggestion may be to reduce the number of payouts from 20 to 10 and add that money back in to the top 10.  I understand the reason for 20 places is to probably provide more participation and share the winnings with more folks but I don't think anybody is too excited about a $50 or $100 payment. Just a suggestion.

 

I just can't get enthused about a lake trout division. Canada has lakes that produce many and much larger lake trout than LO and I don't see people flocking to that fishery. I do agree however that having the division would help take more of them out of the lake which I'm all for:) Regardless of what you do you won't hear complaints from me so long as you keep the derby going.

Thank you for being such a loyal participant! We are glad to hear you have been enjoying it! I see what you mean about the payouts, we do want to get as many people as possible getting a little cash, if possible, so that is always a tough call. Some people want more places to pay out, some people want less with higher payout amounts. And the lake trout debate is alive and well, whatever we do will have people on both sides of the issue! We do have the lake trout division in the Spring and Summer derbies so 2 out of 3 isn't bad....   We won't please 100% of the people 100% of the time, that is just the cost of doing business, we can only do our best! Thanks for the feedback and good luck on the water this Summer! 

Add Lake Trout back.  We need to harvest all we can at this point.  It is a matter of fishery management at this point. 

Heard! Thanks for your feedback! 

Hi Nick, I responded to your email but wanted to reach out here as well. Let me know how we can help, if you need some passes for the vets for LOC I am happy to work that out. You can email me back or message me on here. Thanks!

Sarah 

Welcome aboard Sarah.

My crew has fished LOC many years.

Just the chance to win the grand prize is good enough for my crew.

Thanks for a great LOC.

Dale

Thanks, Dale! Glad you enjoy it, good luck out there! 

Sarah thanks for taking the time

Prize structure and payouts need to be addressed.

A lake wide derby with the number of participants should do much better than paying out $50 for placing in the top 20 out of thousands of entrants,the cost to enter is $40 so a winning actual prize of $10 is ridiculous. I realize you know exactly how many entrants you average each derby and season but those numbers are never released because then people will do the math.

Dave should make money doing this after all it is a business and is time consuming,but a larger payout will yield you and he more entrants and a bigger profit in the long run.

You are at a point where many potential entrants are skipping the derby because they deem it not a good enough prize structure.

Thank you for your consideration

Good morning! So I will be honest with you...I don't release actual number because most people just multiply and think that they know what should be paid out based on those numbers. And that simple math is bad because it isn't an accurate reflection of reality. The reality is, with a derby this size, there are a lot more overhead costs than most people realize. We wanted people to be able to register online...just having that online shop and paying the processing fees for credit cards is an outrageous cost to us. We have to pay for a business line, have the ability to fax, email, etc. so we get real time results from weigh stations. Printing checks, awards, etc. Not to mention taxes, we all have to pay those. Those things cost money. The amount he spends on gas alone running back and forth to and from weigh/registration stations during the season is startling. He invested thousands in official scales for each weigh station and continues to invest more and more each year to replace and service them to make sure the playing field is even for you all, having them registered by county weights and measures.The reason we have been able to guarantee payouts and run a successful derby for so long, is that we have planned really well and budgeted wisely. And of course, Dave deserves a salary as does anyone else who works a job.  His salary is fair for a person that has been working hard for 20 years. And his job doesn't end in September, it is year round. So while the math may appear to be simple and the payouts less than what you think they should be, I urge you to look past the registration numbers and see the larger scope that is the business. I think then you will understand why we do what we do. We are always working to make sure payouts are as enticing as possible. We just want to make sure that we plan well so that we can come back each year and continue to do these great events for you all. Thanks for your feedback!

Hi Sarah, thank you for reaching out to this community! My wife and I have enjoyed fishing the LOCs for years!

One rule that I would like to see changed is having to weigh a fish in by 8pm and not being able to weigh it the next day. This rule only hurts the honest fisherman, as a cheater will just hold their fish and weigh it the next morning anyway.

Also, I've sent two emails to LOC about the Veterans tournament we are having at the end of July and have not heard back. Is there a better email I should use or if there is a phone number I should call, can you private message it to me please?

Hi there! Please email me directly at [email protected] and I apologize that your email was not addressed already. Thanks for your feedback!

If you want to show them EVERYTHING you have to offer, you would show them a world class lake trout fishery along with a World Class salmon fish

Touche! 

Maybe we can revisit this in a few years if we have participation growth rates that would financially support an additional division. For now, the salmon is a big draw and working well but I will keep this point in mind, thanks for the feedback! 

Bring back the lake trout division in the Fall derby.     People want more chances to win a prize.  By cutting the lake trout division out, we lost 20 chances to place! 

Hi Gambler! Thanks for bringing this up! So to address your point...We feel really strongly about supporting the locally owned, small businesses and the best way to draw in people from out of state is to highlight the salmon division. We get participants from over 40 states and many of them come during the fall derby and that is due, in part, to the fact that we increased the grand prize to $25,000. Attracting anglers to our Great Lake is a very important aspect of our business. People will come from out of state for salmon fishing specifically; it is a big draw. They will need hotel rooms, camp sites, charters, bait & tackle, supplies, food, ice, etc. so it is a great opportunity to get people fishing in the region to show them everything we have to offer. We have doubled the payouts for the salmon and award $15,300 in dailys. This is also the time of year when salmon are the largest, makes for some incredibly exciting fishing. Cutting the lake trout has allowed us to do all of this and it has proven to really have a positive effect on the local economy. I hear you though, of course we want people to place and win money...but we have other, more broad/long-term goals that will benefit everyone in the long run and we want to do our part as a small business to strengthen the local economy...tourism is a great way to do just that! 

I have to jump offline for a bit, I will pop back in tonight and answer any additional questions that come up. Just wanted to leave you with this that Dave sent me from on the road....

"Get ready for some huge kings to be weighed in the summer LOC Derby! How about this monster king salmon caught out of Wilson yesterday by Todd Garzarelli - a 32.5 pound shark! He was fishing with the Lone Wolf, Capt. Dan Evans."

Unless the witness is not a part of the regular crew, it won't be unbiased. If one cheats, all of the crew would be in on it, which makes a witness of that fishing team not a good one.

I agree on scraping the witness program.

Still, dave does a great job in keeping on top of things.

I understand that, BUT it does give us one additional person to polygraph and we feel that is a good way to weed out the bad apples! I agree, Dave does a great job, and I am not just saying that because he is my dad/boss! 

We fish all three every year and am always curious how many entries there are. My invoice number for the spring was over 21000. Are there that many people entered?

Sent from my SM-G930V using Lake Ontario United mobile app

Those are auto generated numbers on the invoices and do not reflect registrations though that would be an awesome number! We have a mix of season passes and day passes so it is hard to say exactly how many unique individuals register for each derby. Here is an article that outlines general participation numbers and from how many states they hail from. Thanks!

http://www.newyorkupstate.com/outdoors/2016/05/loc_derby_the_biggest_fishing_tournament_series_on_lake_ontario.html

Hi guys!

The rule that requires a witness is really to protect the participants in two ways. First, we want to make sure that it is a level playing field and that no one participant is doing anything that might hurt the integrity of the contest. I know 99.9% of our participants are honest and follow the rules...it is that .01% that we want to protect you guys from. We have been doing this long enough to have seen some really shady attempts to cheat; having a registered witness helps to prevent some of that. Second, we want to make sure people are safe out on the water and having a witness requirement promotes safe fishing practices. 

To address the boat registration comment...that would be easier to do if LOC was a short weekend tournament versus a month long derby. It certainly makes sense for the 2-3 day tournaments to have boat registrations; it just doesn't work with our format. It becomes difficult to set fair rates for boats for something that goes on for 30 days. It also then becomes impossible to know who was actually on board which goes back to the witness piece I mentioned above. 

Thanks for the questions!

Hi Sarah, our team has always been a fan of the LOC events! However, we have often wondered why the LOC hasn't put much effort into growing the event with sponsorships, like the Great Ontario Salmon Derby currently does? We'd also like to see a higher payment curve into the lower placements - while this would eat into the current profits from the events (which is significant), this would be offset by increased interest generating more entries as well sponsorship support that could be acquired (especially with an event of this size and sustainability given its history). Just some food for thought...

Hi there! I am glad you are a fan, it is the loyal participants like yourself that make this such a fun and successful event for the region. In regards to our sponsorship efforts we do have a number of sponsors currently but that is always something we are working on improving to make the event better for all of you. I am not sure of the behind the scenes at the GOSD but at LOC it is a true small family business. Dave has been running this event very successfully for many years (basically on his own), but there are only so many hours in a day when you are one man. Priority one has been to keep things running smoothly and put out a consistent, well run event, with guaranteed prizes...all of which he has done.  I recently moved back to NY and I am helping him (he is my dad) to make things even more exciting and rewarding for participants which is why your feedback is incredibly helpful! In regards to the prize structure we are always reviewing how we can make it the best for participants AND maintain the good reputation we have of publishing guaranteed prizes prior to the events. Not knowing exact participation levels each year prior to publishing the structure is always a gamble for us and keeping things running each year while keeping our word regarding payouts is always our goal. I really do appreciate you taking the time to comment and give me your feedback. We do this derby for you guys so knowing how we can improve the experience for you is important to us. 

Summer LOC has always been one of my favorites.

Awesome! Good luck out there!

Good evening!

I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself. I am a part of the family owned business that runs the LOC Derby each year. We are gearing up for the Summer Derby, which starts this Friday, and I wanted to remind anyone who might be interested that you can register online at our website, www.loc.org. Each derby has a guaranteed payout structure  (it isn't based on the number of entries) so you know what you are fishing for right from the start. We have weekly guaranteed prizes as well and reduced registration rates for youth participants, though they are eligible for the regular prize structure, which is a good way to get the kids involved! 

The rules and regulations are located on our website and I would encourage you to read those prior to registering. I am happy to answer questions regarding the rules & regs, participating weigh stations and current registration outlets. I look forward to meeting some of you on Lake Ontario and at the award ceremony in a few weeks!

Happy fishing,

Sarah Chilson

VP, LOC