Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA)

LOTSA is a Not-For-Profit group of mainly weekend recreational fishermen who are dedicated to the enhancement and promotion of the Lake Ontario Sport-Fishery. 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. 

LOTSA meetings are held on the 2nd Thursday of certain months (see events below) at 7:00 p.m. at the Cornell Cooperative Extension, 4487 Lake Ave. (Route 78, two miles north of Lockport), Lockport, NY and usually feature an informational seminar on a particular topic relating to the Lake Ontario fishery. Each meeting also features a sharing of information on the current fishing conditions.  Get Directions >>

2017 LOTSA Events

SEMINAR SERIES:
The dates of our meetings are listed below. They begin at 7pm at the 4H Cornell Cooperative Extension, 4487 Lake Avenue (Rt 78 two miles north of Lockport), Lockport, NY 14094

Thursday April 13     – Tournament Spring Kings Techniques With Captain Matt Dunn
Thursday May 11      – LOC Derby Round Table With multiple LOTSA Captains
Thursday June 8       – How to Catch Big Walleyes With Captain Marty Polovick
Thursday July 13       – Summer Kings Small Boat Tactics With Captain Matt Yablonsky
Thursday Sep 14      – Season Wrap Up Roundtable  With multiple LOTSA Captains
Thursday Dec 14      – Annual Christmas Party

14th Annual LOTSA King Salmon Tournament & Free Picnic:
Saturday July 22nd at Olcott.  8th Annual Curt Meddaugh Memorial Tournament Friday July 21.

LOTSA “Tournaments within a Tournament, free for LOTSA Members” 

Spring LOC Derby            $1000 Cash Largest Salmon           5/05 – 5/14
Summer LOC Derby         $500   Cash Largest Salmon           7/01 – 7/31
Fish Odyssey                    $700   Cash Largest Salmon           8/19 – 8/27
Fall LOC Derby                 $500   Cash Largest Salmon           8/18 – 9/04

Latest Club News & Happenings

Seminar by Capt Marty Polovick – Catching Big Walleyes
On Thursday  June 8th  at 7pm the Lake Ontario Trout & Salmon Association (LOTSA) will be hosting a seminar by Captain Marty Polovick on catching big Walleyes. Captain Marty has been fishing and catching big Walleyes for 33 years on Lake Erie. He is currently fishing out of his 20 ft Starcraft  rightly named  4 Poles. Marty fishes out of various ports such as  The Small Boat Harbor, Barcelona, Dunkirk and Cattaraugus creek. He has placed many times in the Southtowns Walleye Tournament using his years of experience to consistently land big Walleyes. He will be sharing some of his tactics along with answering any questions you may have to increase your chances of putting more Walleyes in your boat.  This is one seminar 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 the current fishing conditions. So come join us and become more successful at fishing Lake Ontario!

The meeting will be held at the Cornell Cooperative Extension, 4487 Lake Avenue (Route 78 two miles north of Lockport), Lockport, NY 14094. The Seminar is open to the public and free to attend. See WWW.LOTSA1.ORG for any questions.

LOTSA Spring LOC Derby Results

LOTSA would like to congratulate Mark Kephart who won the LOTSA prize money for catching the biggest salmon weighed by a club member in the Spring LOC Derby.

Mark and his father in law Gene Johnson launched their 19 foot Quintrex center console boat named “Music Maker” from Fort Niagara May 10th and headed west out of the thick muddy water that the Niagara River was pumping into Lake Ontario. While trolling in 80 feet of water just east of the Welland Canal the 23.12 lb king salmon was fooled by a flasher/fly combo on a wire diver rig. The initial run was in excess of 300 feet. Once brought to the boat, the fish tried to weave through the downrigger cables and wrap the other diver, it finally made its way to the net after a 20 minute battle.

Congratulations Mark and Gene!

2017 LOTSA Pen Rearing Program:

LOTSA had another successful Pen Rearing year despite the late arrival of our fish from the DEC and the high water problems. We want to thank all of the volunteers who gave up their time to help with this project. We had enough volunteers for every task of the project that allowed us to complete them in a timely manner. I want to thank Bob Fishlock for the great job he has done managing this project over the past 5 years. It’s due to his leadership and hard work that our pen project has been so successful. Bob will be transitioning his role to Alan Sauerland for our 2018 project. I encourage you all to thank both Bob and Alan when you see them for doing this project as we all enjoy catching many of the Kings & Steelhead from our Pen Project.  

We also want to  extend a warm “thank you” to Niagara County Legislature Chairman Keith McNall and Legislators Will Collins and John Syracuse for their recent contributions to the LOTSA net pen project in Olcott, assisting with the purchase of automatic feeders to the Olcott and Wilson projects. Syracuse reached out to his colleagues to come up with $1,000 in Casino Funds. In addition, like last year, $500 from the Buffalo Sabres Alumni Charity Fishing Contest held May 17 will also be given to LOTSA. An agreement was made with Syracuse and Bill Hilts, Jr. that if LOTSA helped with the weigh in and other tasks for the day, a minimum of $500 would be contributed to the pen efforts. Thank you for being important community partners and helping to enhance our Lake Ontario fishery.

    LOTSA Membership

    Register or Renew your LOTSA membership as well as view the current LOTSA Membership list.

    Salmon School

    The well-known, in-depth salmon school of detailed instruction taught by top captains.

    LOTSA Tournament

    A fun tournament with simple rules that encourages family participation & promotion of the fishery.

    LOTSA Picnic

    A free family picnic with great food and company held along side the LOTSA Tournament.

    Curt Meddaugh Tournament

    Tournament to catch and weight three largest fish; the combined weight determining the winner.

    323 Tournament

    Fishing tournament with 3 fish weighed in over 2 days with 3 winners!

    Quick Links

    Below you will find a collection of links that the members of LOTSA have found useful, educational and entertaining over the years.

    If you would like to see additional links added to this section, please let us know.  We will be happy to review the suggested link with the board for inclusion.

    Hot Topics

    Today’s hot topics from around Lake Ontario brought to directly by Lake Ontario United.

     

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    "Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers... "

    – Herbert Hoover

    Local Weather

    Lockport, NY

    Thunderstorm
    Friday
    06/23 90%
    Thunderstorm
    Thunderstorms. High 76F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
    Chance of a Thunderstorm
    Saturday
    06/24 40%
    Chance of a Thunderstorm
    Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 74F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.
    Chance of a Thunderstorm
    Sunday
    06/25 60%
    Chance of a Thunderstorm
    Partly cloudy in the morning followed by scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. High around 70F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
    Chance of Rain
    Monday
    06/26 60%
    Chance of Rain
    Overcast with rain showers at times. Thunder possible. High near 65F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
    Chance of Rain
    Tuesday
    06/27 60%
    Chance of Rain
    Rain showers early with some sunshine later in the day. Thunder possible. High 69F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
    Partly Cloudy
    Wednesday
    06/28 10%
    Partly Cloudy
    Partly cloudy. High near 75F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph.
    Partly Cloudy
    Thursday
    06/29 20%
    Partly Cloudy
    Partly to mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 80F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph.
    Wunderground.com

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