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LOTSA 2020 Salmon School

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LOTSA 2020 Salmon School
The Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) is proud to (once again) host its well-known in-depth Salmon School on Saturday January 18, 2020. This highly acclaimed school, now in its 13th year, has become the premier Salmon School anywhere in the Great Lakes. What started out as a local event 12 years ago now sees many diehard salmon anglers from across the Great Lakes and Canada attending.
New for this year will be a “State of Lake Ontario” session put on by the DEC on Friday evening. This will offer the opportunity for Anglers who aren’t able to attend this session held on week nights during the winter, to receive this valuable information. It will be held just prior to the Salmon School “Meet & Greet” 7 pm Friday session where the Salmon School presenters along with the top DEC Fishery managers including Fishery Bureau Chief Steve Hurst will be available to discuss fishing in a casual setting. On Saturday, during the Salmon School lunch break. The DEC will be hosting an “Open House” providing the opportunity for additional 1 on 1 time with the key DEC Fishery decision makers and DEC Law Enforcement officers. Additional free Salmon seminars by well-known Salmon anglers including Bob Songin and Vince Pierleoni among others will be offered on Sunday. The School, coupled with all of the trout and salmon exhibitors, $69 Hotel rooms and additional education offerings at the Greater Niagara Fishing and Outdoor Expo (January 17 – 19), makes this a “must attend” three-day winter event for many.
Each year the class is enhanced based upon the survey input provided by those that attended the previous School. Based upon that input, Pete Alex, Andy Bliss and Matt Yablonsky will return to take the class to the next level. They will do a much deeper dive into the specific tools and techniques they utilize that they didn’t have time to cover in their previous school. The focus will be on the 3 main Lake Ontario Salmon fishing months (May, July and August) and dive into the more technical aspects for each of these months relating to location, the “right” water, deep king tactics, locating and catching offshore Kings and on fishing “meat” among many others. The presentation will be geared toward experienced Salmon Recreational Anglers fishing from a 20 – 24 ft boat. The instruction will include some detailed video footage taken during the 2019 season which should help the learning process. Pete will cover the West End and North Shore fisheries, Andy will focus on the Eastern End fishery and Matt will focus on the Niagara Bar fishery. In addition, guest instructors Karl Chmilnitzky, who is a well-known highly successful recreational Canadian tournament fisherman, will cover north and south shore Canadian locations and King catching techniques for the “weekend warriors. Marine Electronics guru, Lance Valentine, will also make a guest appearance focusing on using your Sonar/GPS to put more kings in the boat. For those that attended the school in 2019, consider this the next step. For those desiring a deeper detailed presentation, you will want to be with us in 2020.
Salmon School Details
The School consists of six hours of detailed Salmon catching instruction. The registration price of $85 includes free admission to the Greater Niagara Fishing and Outdoor Expo for all 3 days, your 2020 LOTSA Membership, a hot buffet lunch (or alternative for dietary needs) on Saturday with beverages available throughout the class, a “goodie” bag consisting of the “go to” baits of the instructors and free door prizes. Also included this year is a Friday night “Meet & Greet” with the instructors that includes free drinks and food. The class (and Expo) is held at the Conference and Event Center Niagara Falls 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, coupled with the lunch, “goodie bag”, door prizes and free Show admissions, it is a terrific value and a great way to start your 2020 season. Doors open at 7 a.m. for check in and the class runs from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Additional time will be available at 9am Sunday morning with the instructors for any questions that you have that weren’t answered during the class.
The Salmon School is not meant for novices to the Lake Ontario fishery. It is a “hard core” salmon class targeted toward providing the “experienced weekend warrior” 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 when they register, 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 particular 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 from this annual day-long instruction.
The School sells 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. To sign up for the class and submit your questions go to the LOTSA web site www.LOTSA1.Org. Early signups are encouraged to give the instructors enough time to build the curriculum for the desired topics
Captain Pete Alex
Captain Pete is a 54 year old salmon and trout fishing addict and reached his 31st year as a licensed charter captain in 2019. Pete has always had a passion for fishing and especially tournament fishing which helps feed his competitive side. He has accumulated fishing experience on Lakes Ontario, Erie, Michigan and Huron.
Captain Pete and his Vision Quest Fishing Teams have won over 20 events on Lake Ontario and Lake Erie and have amassed over 100 Top 10 finishes since 2006. He ended the 2017 and 2018 seasons by winning the 2017 Fall King of The Lake event, then both the FishUSA Overall Championship and the annual Lake Ontario Championship Series back to back. He feels that tournament fishing helps him fish harder and think outside the box.
Pete enjoys doing seminars, educating and helping other anglers improve their fish catching ability. He believes he is a very diverse angler and can consistently catch both salmon and trout species by applying what he has learned over the years.
He regularly fishes Lake Ontario from the end of April to third week of June then returns occasionally to fish throughout the remainder of the season. He really considers himself a part time angler on Lake Ontario because of that and must figure things out each time he returns. He believes that there are reasons some anglers locate and catch fish consistently, while some do not. He hopes he can provide some of that knowledge to you at this year’s Salmon School.
Pete represents these companies: FishUSA, Team Dreamweaver, Shark Cannonballs, Silver Horde, Fish Hawk, A-TOM-MIK Trolling Flies, Costa Sunglasses, Big Jon Sports, GAMMA Fishing Line, Pautzke and Atlas Mike’s, AFTCO and Shimano.
Captain Andy Bliss
Capt. Andy first fished Lake Ontario in 1987 at the age of 7. He was hooked salmon fishing ever since! Since his early start he was able to work on many charters from Sodus Bay and Oswego learning many different styles and techniques from a variety of Captains. In ‘99 he started fishing full time aboard the Cold Steel out of Oswego with Capt. Tom Burke. Since then they have competed in many tournaments from the East end to the West end of the lake.
With over 20 first place finishes and numerous Top Ten finishes, they know what it takes to be the best! They have won the Lake Ontario Challenge Cup 5 times and they were runner up another 5 times! This experience has taught them how to fish in many different conditions and produce results.
Capt. Andy love fishing the open waters of Lake Ontario and typically compares it to a chess match. He enjoys teaching the techniques to become successful at catching these special fish to anyone who is willing to learn.
Capt. Andy represents these companies: Michigan Stinger, A-TOM-MIK, Pautzke Bait Co., Atlas Mikes , Pro-Troll, Cannon Downriggers, Humminbird electronics, BayRats Lures, Shark Cannonballs
Captain Matt Yablonsky
Captain Matt has been a charter captain for 12 years and has have been fishing the Niagara Region for 18 years. He has been a full time charter captain for the last 6 years. On average he’s on the water 250 days a year. He runs charters on Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the Lower Niagara River. A lot of people refer to him as “the small boat guy.” He has been operating his business out of a 21-foot Lund boat since he started chartering. It has allowed him to operate charters on both lakes and the Niagara River comfortably and safely. On Lake Erie he fishes for smallmouth bass, walleye and perch. On Lake Ontario he trolls for all species of trout and salmon. He also fishes the Lower Niagara River from September through May for trout and salmon.
Captain Matt fishes many tournaments and derbies throughout the year including the Lake Ontario Pro-Am series, LOC Derby, Lower Niagara Sport Fishing Challenge, Niagara Basseye and Reeling for a Cure. In the LOC Derby alone he has 40 top 20 places since 2009, of which 2 are grand prize, 6 are first place and 4 are second place. He was on the winning team for the Niagara Pro-Am in 2006 and won the Trophy division of the Niagara Pro-Am in 2012 as a captain. He has had the grand champion team 3 times and grand champion angler 4 times in the as had multiple articles written about his derby wins and techniques of fishing the various bodies of water in the Erie-Niagara region. You can find these articles in the Great Lakes Angler, Lake Ontario Outdoors, The Fisherman magazine, Salmon-Trout-Steelheader magazine and New York Outdoor News.
Captain Matt has provided footage for various television shows. One of the shows was filmed on the Lower Niagara River for Illinois Outdoors. Other television shows were filmed on Lake Ontario for CRCS OUTDOORS. So far he has filmed 6 episodes for CRCS Outdoors.
Matt represents these companies: Yakima Bait Co., A-TOM-MIK Trolling flies Silver Streak spoons, Torpedo, Tuf-Line and Shimano.
So, signup early so that you are guaranteed a seat to avoid being left out in the cold. If you love to fish the Great Lakes for Kings, this is a great way to “Kick Off” your 2020 Season. Where else would you want to be in the Great Lakes on a Saturday in January than learning how to increase your catch from 3 expert Captains along with Karl and Lance, sitting in a comfortable venue talking salmon fishing with a room full of individuals with the same common interest that you have? Tickets are pre-sale only and have sold out every year (early December sellout for the 2019 School).
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Instigator

Instigator

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As of today October 22, the salmon school is half full.  Don't wait too long to get your tickets, when they are gone, they are gone.  

MikeyP

MikeyP

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7 hours ago, Instigator said:

MikeyP, do you mean for the Salmon School, or for the main show?

The Salmon School tickets can be purchased here,

https://lotsa1.org/sign-up-lotsa/

Tickets for the show itself can be purchased at the door.

Sent from my VS995 using Lake Ontario United mobile app
 

We already signed up for the salmon school and paid through paypal. Was wondering what we use to get into the show and the salmon school? Just show paypal receipt for both or are some kind of tickets being sent to us?

MikeyP

MikeyP

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30 minutes ago, Instigator said:

They will have a list of registrants at the door, but it's always a good idea to have that receipt just in case.

Sent from my VS995 using Lake Ontario United mobile app
 

Ok thanks for all your help in answering some questions.

  • 2 weeks later...
MikeyP

MikeyP

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On 10/22/2019 at 10:50 PM, Instigator said:

The Sheraton is offering group rates.

https://niagarafishingexpo.com/lodging



Sent from my VS995 using Lake Ontario United mobile app
 

The rates are 69 dollars per night at the Marriott (Sheraton). Can you explain to me why they are also charging 29.95 extra per night for a so called destination charge or whatever they call it? That's almost 1/2 the price of the room rate each night? That's an extra 90 dollars for 3 days! Makes the rate 99 dollars per night? Kind of misleading by Marriott in my opinion.

nickihoyboy

nickihoyboy

Posted
Posted

Yeah, I ran into the same thing with the Sheraton when I tried to book a room. WTF?  Ended up booking at Quality Hotel instead. Doesn't have a great rating but was about $70 a night total, and I don't plan on spending a lot of time in the room anyway. Don't forget to add the taxes to that price from Sheraton too.

Fat Trout

Fat Trout

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, nickihoyboy said:

Yeah, I ran into the same thing with the Sheraton when I tried to book a room. WTF?  Ended up booking at Quality Hotel instead. Doesn't have a great rating but was about $70 a night total, and I don't plan on spending a lot of time in the room anyway. Don't forget to add the taxes to that price from Sheraton too.

Ive stayed at the quality inn on first street before and will again this year.  it was just fine, as you said, I'm not there to stay in the room anyway. 

Instigator

Instigator

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Ok, we did some checking in to the issues stated above.  There is now a statement on the https://niagarafishingexpo.com/lodging page that reads 

 

"ONLY THE ABOVE PRICING APPLIES WHEN YOU BOOK THROUGH THE MARRIOTT SYSTEM. IT WILL SHOW SOME STANDARD FEES WHICH WILL NOT APPLY TO YOUR DISCOUNTED RATE. ONLY THOSE FEE'S CLEARLY OUTLINED ABOVE WILL BE CHARGED TO YOU. ALSO, YOU WILL NOT MAKE ANY PAYMENT UNTIL ARRIVAL, SO YOU CAN REVIEW THAT ONLY THOSE FEES OUTLINED ABOVE WILL BE CHARGED. THANK YOU"

 

I agree that this is kind of confusing.  When you check in, make sure that  you are only being charged what is stated on the https://niagarafishingexpo.com/lodging page.  That price should only be $96.54 per night.  These prices are negotiated by the Greater Niagara Fishing & Outdoor Expo, Not LOTSA.  

 

Thank you.

  • 4 weeks later...

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