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Click here to register Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association | Lake Ontario (lotsa1.org) LOTSA 2025 Salmon School The Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) is proud to (once again) host its well-known in-depth Salmon School on Saturday, February 15, 2025. This highly acclaimed school, now in its 15th year, has become the premier Salmon School anywhere in the Great Lakes. What started out as a local event now attracts many diehard salmon anglers from around the Great Lakes and Canada to attend. The School, coupled with all the Trout and Salmon exhibitors at the Greater Niagara Fishing Expo (February 13 - 16), makes this a "must attend" winter event for many. Each year the intense class is enhanced based upon the input from those who attended the previous School. Based upon this input, we have decided to bring the same instructors back for the 2025 School. The attendees thought they did an excellent job and recommend that they return. The instructors wanted to return as they felt that they have so much more knowledge to provide. Over the fishing season this year, the decision to bring them back was reaffirmed by the fact that the 2024 Grand Prize Spring LOC Derby Salmon and the 2024 Grand Prize along with the first place Summer LOC Derby Salmon were caught by attendees of the 2024 Salmon School! Capt. Pete Alex (Lake Ontario west end and north shore), Capt. Rob Westcott (Lake Ontario central & west ends) and Capt. Casey Prisco (Lake Ontario east & west ends) are instructors for the 2025 School. New for this year will be a guest Instructor (Captain Roy Letcher). Roy will provide a presentation on his specialty and what he is well known around the lake for, catching some of the biggest Kings caught in the lake year after year. The school again will be targeted for the experienced Lake Ontario Salmon Angler. Pete, Rob and Casey will provide a thorough walkthrough of each of their most important skills including the mental component Before, During and After their time on the water; along with the specific tools and techniques they utilize to make them consistently successful chasing Kings. The focus will be on the 3 main (open lake) Lake Ontario Salmon fishing periods (May, June/July, and August) and dive into the more technical aspects for each of these months relating to location, the "right" water, deep-water King tactics, locating and catching offshore Kings and on fishing "meat" among many other tactics. A significant amount of time will be spent on how each of them maximize the use of their Electronics to consistently be successful. Included throughout the day will be detailed video footage that will facilitate the learning process. SALMON SCHOOL DETAILS The overall School consists of seven hours of detailed Salmon catching instruction on Saturday along with an additional two hours for the Salmon School Social on Friday and one hour of Q&A with the Instructors on Sunday. The registration price of $110 includes: Free admission to the Greater Niagara Fishing Expo for all 4 days Your 2025 LOTSA Membership A light Dinner and Drinks at the Salmon School Social on Friday A hot buffet lunch (or alternative for dietary needs) plus beverages on Saturday A significant "Captains Bag" consisting of the "go to" baits of the instructors A Door Prize ticket for thousands of dollars of Salmon Tackle/Gear given away The School begins on Friday Evening (5pm to 7:00 pm.) with the Salmon School Social. A unique casual environment featuring short presentation from the instructors highlighting their 2024 season and the DEC focusing on the State of Lake Ontario Salmon. DEC “Decision Makers” along with the instructors and key Lake Ontario oriented manufacturers will be available throughout the event to meet and talk with. This is also a great opportunity to meet fellow anglers with the same passion that you have for fishing for Lake Ontario Kings. This event provides attendees the opportunity to meet the instructors and network with fellow anglers. Food Stations and Drinks will be provided throughout the event. On Saturday, check in begins at 7 a.m. with the instruction starting at 8 a.m. and completing at 4:30 p.m. The School wraps up on Sunday morning (8:30 to 9:30 a.m.) with an hour-long open Q&A session with the Instructors covering any remaining questions that you may have. The class (and Expo) is held at the Niagara Falls Convention Center in a "state of the art" conference room with a large screen, stage, good seating with tables and a good sound system that all make for a comfortable venue throughout the day for everyone attending. Given the quality of what you will be taught, the hot buffet lunch, the Friday night "Social", Door Prizes, "Captains Bag", LOTSA 2025 Membership and free pass to the show for 4 days, it is a terrific value and a great way to start your 2025 season. The Salmon School is not meant for novices of the Lake Ontario fishery. It is a "hard core" salmon class targeted toward providing the "experienced weekend warrior" / Tournament Angler with additional insights and details to improve their catch in the limited time they have on the water. As the Great Lakes continue to change and become a much more challenging fishery, knowledge is often the difference between having a couple of bites or having steady bites throughout the day. This is a custom class built from the input from the attendees on what is most important to them to cover. It is not an "off the shelf" class for the masses. Each attendee will have the opportunity to submit their most important questions/topics that they want covered in the class. The instructors will then use this input to customize the curriculum to cover these areas. This will allow the instructors to limit the questions during the School and make sure that they cover all of the details that they have prepared. The instructors have a huge amount of on-the-water experience trolling for trout and salmon along with a proven tournament track record of high placement in the most prestigious tournaments over many years. They are a much-diversified set of instructors and will provide a class full of insights and details that no one single instructor would be able to provide. They are all skilled communicators and very well known for sharing their fishing knowledge and daily fishing trips with anglers to help them to be more successful fishing the lake. Each brings their own unique set of trolling skills, techniques, and knowledge to the class. Given the depth of the knowledge base of these instructors and their proven ability to educate anglers, we expect this school to be another high quality, comprehensive, in-depth, information-packed event that our attendees have come to expect year after year. The School has sold out every year as many of the attendees come back year after year - which is the ultimate testimony to the value of attending the school. CAPTAIN PETE ALEX Captain Pete Alex has been a charter captain since 1988 and began chartering on Lake Ontario in 1990. His home port is Wilson, NY but travels to various ports on Lake Ontario to fish tournaments. He loves to fish tournaments as well as entertain clients from all over the U.S. He has well over 150 top 10 finishes and numerous big fish and team tournament wins on both Lake Erie and Ontario. Pete started the 2024 tourney season off by winning 3 events (Big Boys May, Orleans Co Open, Salmon and Trout Slam, then a 2nd place at the Niagara Pro-AM) and concluded with winning the West End Cup and the G.L.S.E. Lake-wide series. He is a Pro-Staffer for several companies and loves to help educate anglers by doing seminars and posting educational videos on his YouTube site. He also believes we should never stop being willing to learn new techniques or patterns as fish habits and lakes evolve. Some of the topics he's going to deliver will be the mental processes he uses while on the water to make the right decisions for the constantly changing conditions and how to maximize the use of all of your electronics to be successful throughout your trip. Pete is looking forward to this year's school and feels it will be both entertaining and very educational. You will not want to miss this year's event in 2025! CAPTAIN ROB WESTCOTT Captain Rob Westcott is the owner of Legacy Sportfishing and fishes mainly from the port of Bald Eagle in Kendall, NY. However, throughout the year, he chases the bite and fishes the tournament scene in every port west of Rochester. Captain Rob grew up along the shores of Sandy Creek and Lake Ontario and was introduced to the Lake Ontario fishery at a very young age by his father. Captain Rob loves the spirit of competition and has been very active in the Lake Ontario tournament scene for almost 20 years. With numerous wins and tons of top 10 finishes, the captain has enjoyed success with not only Team Legacy but with multiple tournament teams on Lake Ontario. His proven tournament tactics, tournament mindset, and big fish strategy will certainly be something that he will be sharing at this year's salmon school. He will share his belief that adhering to often overlooked fundamentals, as well as having “on-the-water OCD,” simply puts more fish in the boat. At this year's Salmon School, a big topic will be the seasonal progression of the salmon bite, and he will share the tactics that will catch more kings throughout the entire lake season from April through September. Rob is known by his peers as “Mr. Consistency” which was reinforced again this year with several top 5 Tournament finishes. Consistently good is goal we all strive for each time we are on the water. The knowledge Rob will share at the School will help all of us achieve our goal. Captain Rob is a Pro-Staffer for Okuma, Blood Run Tackle, Dreamweaver Lures, Pro-Cure Scents, Fish Hawk Electronics, and Rigged Cut Bait. CAPTAIN CASEY PRISCO Casey has been fishing Lake Ontario since the age of 4. Over the years he has seen many of different ways to target king salmon come and go. One of his favorite ways is running cut bait. On an average Casey will use around 2500 pieces of herring a season. He believes that it is the absolute best way to target salmon. During this salmon school he will show you how, where, why and when he runs it. After leaving the school your meat game will be much improved. Casey follows the Salmon bite as it progresses down the lake, from Wilson Ny in May to Pulaski Ny in Sept. Casey owns multiple lake boats and has other captains running Charters on them every day. This gives him a unique perspective on what is happening in the lake as they all share detailed information to be as productive on their trips as possible. He also keeps one permanent boat Wilson / Olcott so he has that information also throughout the year. While many of the same tactics will work from end to end of the lake there are a few different things that change. What you will learn from Casey will help you become a better Angler from one end of the lake to the other. Casey enjoys helping other anglers catch fish as evidenced from the regular podcasts he does during the fishing season detailing everything about his trips and other information that he has. He is looking forward to seeing a sold out Salmon School and sharing his knowledge with each of you to put more fish in your cooler. Click here to register Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association | Lake Ontario (lotsa1.org) We encourage you to secure your seat early and enjoy a great start to your 2025 Salmon Season! LOTSA President – Joe Yaeger

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

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

On Thursday July 6th at 7pm, the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be sponsoring a Seminar on Summer Tournament Winning Techniques with Captain Jonathan Ross of Tomahawk Sport Fishing. Jonathan has 40 years experience on Lake Ontario. He will be talking about and taking questions on techniques he has developed through the years that has made him a successful Lake Ontario Charter Captain With the LOTSA Tournament and Summer LOC just around the corner you will want to attend this seminar. Hopefully you’ll be able to pick up some great pointers to help you become a more successful angler. 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

On Thursday June 8th at 7pm, the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be sponsoring a Seminar on Lake Erie Walleye Trolling Techniques with Captains Gary Katta of Kongo Sportfishing Charters and John Forbes of Times Two Charters. Captain John Forbes has over 38 years of Great Lakes fishing experience. In 2004 he started his charter business Times Two Charters fishing on Lake Erie. Through the years he has developed many successful techniques to consistently put many Walleyes in the box for his happy clients. His successful philosophy has been ’We are fishing with you, not for you.” Captain Gary Katta has over 35 years of Lake Erie Walleye fishing experience with over 15 years running Kongo Sportfishing Charters. Captain Gary over the years has developed the skills necessary to be a very productive Charter Captain on Lake Erie with many happy and returning customers. Both Captains will be discussing their proven techniques and taking questions that have put them at the top of their profession. If you are currently a Walleye fisherman looking to improve your skills or are thinking of getting into fishing for Walleyes this is one information seminar that you don’t 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 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

It has been another successful Pen Rearing project with completion of the final major task being the removal and cleaning of the Pens this past Saturday. As written in previous updates, the chinook salmon and steelhead were received on April 4th at a size of 104/lb. for the chinook and 30/lb. for steelhead. On April 25th when released the steelhead averaged 16/lb. and on the 26th the chinook averaged 52 to 54/lb. This project, and many others, has been consistently putting out quality product since they started nearly 20 years ago. The success of these projects along the Lake Ontario coast of NY is due to the many volunteers and cooperation with NYDEC. The DEC knows the value of the pen rearing projects and has been extremely helpful with the supplies that are needed to keep these projects running. The future of these projects relies on the cooperation between anglers and DEC whether its ECON Officers, Biologists or the Fish and Wildlife Technicians conducting the Angler Surveys. So, when you see someone from the DEC, please thank them for the job that they are doing and help them do their job by cooperating with them. The key to managing this incredible fishery starts with you. The biggest thing that you can do to help other than volunteering is to provide accurate information to the Creel survey teams when you see them. The new DNA tracing that DEC is using is crucial to manage the fishery more effectively in the future. Cooperation is key. Back to Pen Rearing, these projects take a tremendous amount of work, effort, and money. I would like to thank all the volunteers who donated time and money to the project this year, the weather forecasts were terrible for the days that we picked but somehow, we had perfect days for almost all the evolutions. Thanks to NYSDEC, Town of Newfane and the Town of Newfane Marina, The Greater Niagara Fishing Expo, Eastside Market, the Boat operators (Capt. Vince Pierleoni, Capt. Andrew Bartlett and Joe Derda) and the individuals who load the automatic feeders every day (Vince Pierleoni, Dennis Stabler, Jim Hoffman and Anthony Ellis). We also had some monetary donations that will remain nameless, you know who you are, Thank you! With some luck and a whole lot of hard work, these projects will continue to provide quality King Salmon and Steelhead for us all to enjoy well into the future! Thanks again to all that have made this project a success. Alan Sauerland LOTSA Pen Rearing Coordinator & VP.

On Thursday May 4th at 7pm the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be sponsoring a Seminar titled “At the Dock Talking Kings” with Captain Pete Alex of Vision Quest Sport Fishing. The seminar will be held at Bootleggers Cove at the Port of Wilson N.Y. Captain Pete will be giving the seminar from the back of his boat Vision Quest VI. 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 beginning at 6:00 pm. The food and drinks are compliments of the Greater Niagara Fishing Expo in appreciation for all of the support LOTSA provides to the Expo each year. Pete has logged over 36 years of open trolling on the Great Lakes and has been chartering customers since 1988. He has also been very successful on the tournament trail with his Team Vision Quest. Since 2006 Team Vision Quest has placed in the top 10 in over 120 events with 40 being either 1st or 2nd place finishes. Pete will be talking about and also taking questions on his techniques that has made him successful fishing for King Salmon on Lake Ontario. Pete is associated with many of the top companies in the Great Lakes fishing industry, Dreamweaver Lures, A-TOM-MIK Trolling Flies, Fish Hawk Electronics, Shimano Fishing Products and Fish USA just to name a few. Pete’s motto is “Leave No Fish Behind”. With the LOC Derby starting May 5th 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 from the back of Vision Quest VI 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

The fish are in the pens and feeding aggressively. We received the baby chinook salmon from DEC on April 4th at a weight of 104 fish to the pound which is larger than we typically receive them. We should have no problem reaching the goal weight of 90 fish to the pound and will probably crush that number. With the chocolate milk colored water from all of the rain they weren’t very active and didn’t noticeably feed till the water cleared and hit 48 degrees F, but now at 50+ degrees in the harbor, they are getting pretty active and they are hungry. We feed the fish every morning by filling automatic feeders that sprinkle feed into the pens continuously through the day. The next step is releasing the fish. Our 15,000 steelhead will be released at sundown on April 25th and the chinooks will be released at sundown on the 26th. The pens will then be moved back to the north launch ramp and removed Saturday April 29th around 9am. As the pens are removed from the water we will be pressure washing them and preparing them for storage till next year. We will need a lot of help on the 29th to make this work. We need 2 more pressure washers and lots of people with side cutters to remove the almighty zip ties. If you can help out, please let me know and plan to be at the Town of Newfane Marina at 9am April 29th. Email [email protected] or text/call 716-504-7789. Thank you, Alan Sauerland Pen Rearing Coordinator

On Thursday April 20 at 7pm, the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be sponsoring a Seminar by Capt. Joe Oakes on spring King Salmon fishing on the west end of Lake Ontario. Joe has been fishing the lake for 30 plus years with the last 6 years chartering clients aboard his 29ft Blackfin named Salmon Boy out of the Port of Wilson. Joe has competed in many tournaments through the years. Some of his wins are first place in the amateur division in the Niagara Pro Am and winning the 2021 Reeling For A Cure Tournament. He has also placed numerous times in the LOC winning first place in the Salmon division and also winning the Fish Odyssey. Joe will be sharing his knowledge and techniques while also taking your questions on what has made him successful fishing the west end of the lake in the spring season. This should be a great meeting to kick off the 2023 fishing season 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 on 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. Article written by John Suttell LOTSA

Pen Rearing Update Today we were notified that our fish in Olcott will be delivered next Tuesday, April 4th at 1:30pm. Once the fish are in the pens, we need to move the pens to their regular docks upstream of the boat launch. We were able to secure a second boat (Thank you Andrew) to work with Captain Vince making the move easier. We will need 10 or 12 people to help with this evolution so if you have some time Tuesday afternoon, please come out and lend a hand. Remember that Penn Assembly Day is this Saturday, April 1st at 9:30am at The Town of Newfane Marina. The pens will be placed in the water after assembly, so stick around and help with that if you can. Please dress according to the weather and bring your side cutters. Hot coffee, tea and hot chocolate will be provided as well as packaged pastries.

Spring is almost here! With that brings the LOTSA Pen Rearing events. This years Pen assembly day is Saturday, April 1st. We will be meeting at the Town of Newfane Marina at 9:30am to begin assembling the net/pens. Refreshments will be provided from East Side Market in Olcott. Good news, we will be getting about 13,000 more Chinook salmon which takes the total to 126,000 Chinook and 15,000 Steelhead. Come out and see old friends or make new friends and support this fishery that we all love. Please remember to dress warm and bring side cutters to trim zip ties. LOTSA places a heavy emphasis on Education including recruiting new Anglers to the Lake Ontario Fishery and providing continual Education opportunities for the experienced Anglers. If you haven’t renewed your membership this would be a great time to do that. At only $10 membership fee this is a great way to support the local fishery and learn from some of the most experienced fishermen and women on Lake Ontario. We will have membership sheets available.