Enter the one that didn’t get away in the GoErie.com Trout of the Year Contest.

Trout fishing season in most of Pennsylvania starts April 13, and from that day through April 30 you can upload a photo of you and your best trout. The public will vote on their favorites, and we’ll announce the public vote winner and an editor’s choice winner May 19 on the NWPA Outdoors page in the Erie Times-News.

Winners will receive a fish platter from Allen Stoneware Gallery.

The contest is open only to licensed anglers who are 16 or older at the time of entry, as well as to anglers 16 and under whose parents or guardians enter their photos. Participants must have either caught their trout in Erie, Crawford, Mercer, Venango, Forest or Warren counties, or reside in one of those counties and have caught their trout in Pennsylvania.

Good luck.

Presque Isle State Park and S.O.N.S. of Lake Erie will offer a free day of fishing for children April 13 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the floating platform in the East Basin near Waterworks Pavilion.

Bait and equipment will be provided by the DCNR, S.O.N.S. and BAC Bait & Tackle for the event taking place on the opening day of the statewide trout season

The platform will be available only to children, their non-fishing adult supervisors and individuals with handicaps. Children 16 and older must have a valid fishing license.

Registration is not required. Call the park office at 833-7424 for information.

Pennsylvania’s limit for Lake Erie yellow perch will remain at 30 per day and the creel limit for walleye will still be six per day, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission said today.

If you ever wanted to learn to fly fish, there’s an opportunity for you this spring in northwestern Pennsylvania.

1. Lake Erie Ultimate Angler’s Trout 101 class is scheduled for April 6 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the shop, 3737 W. 12th St.  The free, beginner-oriented course will cover tackle, flies, basic knots, technique and more. Sign up in advance by e-mailing Sales@ShopUltimateAngler.com or calling (814) 833-4040.

Lake Erie Ultimate Angler also has a Trout 201 course scheduled for May 6. Registration is $100.

2. The Fly Fishing Coach is offering world of fly fishing courses April 6 and May 4 in Warren, nymph fishing strategies April 28 and on-stream fly-fishing strategies May 5 and May 8. Cost is $125 for each session.

To register, call (814) 706-2506 or Allegheny Outfitters at (814) 723-3030.

3. Kinzua Fly Fishing’s two-day session is May 4-5 and its three-day session is May 17-19 at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford campus. Students must be at least 12 years old; experienced and inexperienced students are invited.

(Full disclosure: My wife and I learned to fly fish from these folks.)

Fly-fishing legend Joe Humphreys is scheduled to instruct on two days of the three-day session, which costs $420 for commuters and $445 for those who elect to stay in campus housing. The two-day seminar runs $285 for commuters and $305 for resident students. Meals are included.

Morning sessions are dedicated to classroom learning and casting, while afternoon are spent on stream, especially West Branch Tunungwant Creek that runs right through campus. Evening elective sessions go as late as midnight and include fishing, knot-tying, fly-tying, leader development, entomology and more. Loaner equipment is available.

For information, visit the school’s website. For a registration form, call Steve Skvarka at (814) 368-5814 or e-mail him at skvarka@penn.com.

4. Neshannock Creek Fly Shop in Volant, Lawrence County, is putting on a female anglers fly fishing school May 4-5. Day One runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Day Two from 8 a.m. to noon.

Instruction will include knot tying, leader and tippet selection and all the mechanics of successful fly-fishing, as well as basic entomology.

Cost is $175 per person on a first-come, first-served basis. Contact the fly shop at info@ncflyshop.com or (724) 533-3212 to reserve a spot or for information.

5. Neshannock Creek Fly Shop also is putting on a youth anglers fly fishing school in June. Daytime classes run June 10 thru June 14, and students must provide their own equipment.

Professional instructors will teach students abouut tying knots, wading, hooking and landing fish and more.

Cost is $195. Reservations are open now; contact the fly shop at info@ncflyshop.com or (724) 533-3212 to reserve a spot or for information.

Anglers can win prizes in the BoatUS Angler Catch of the Month photo contest that started April 1 and runs through Oct. 31.

Monthly winners, one freshwater and one saltwater, will receive a one-year BoatUS Angler membership with basic on-water towing and Trailer Assist, a $50 Visa gift card and a prize pack filled with fishing and BoatUS Angler gear. Winning photos also will appear in BoatUS Angler Magazine and Tacklebox monthly fishing e-newsletter.

Monthly winners will be automatically entered to win the grand prize in November: an upgrade of their BoatUS Angler membership to include unlimited on-water towing and on-road towing assistance from Trailer Assist, a replica of their winning catch from FishReplicas.com and a $50 gift certificate from Boat Name Gear.

Check out all of the photos submitted to the contest here.

The allowable catch for walleye and yellow perch in Lake Erie has been set at lower totals than in 2012.

The Lake Erie Committee announced the total allowable catch after its meeting Thursday in Niagara Falls, N.Y. The committee includes fishery managers from Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Michigan and Ontario.

The recommended total allowable catch is 3.356 million walleye and 12.237 million pounds of yellow perch. Fishery managers said they decreased the TAC to “reflect fish hatches in recent years that have been weak.”

Total allowable catch represents the number or weight of fish recommended to be caught by sport and commercial fishers without putting the fisheries at risk.

The 2012 total allowable catch for walley was 3.487 million.

Ohio will be entitled to 1.715 million fish, Ontario to 1.445 million fish and Michigan 0.196 million fish. Limits in Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario are set separately by those jurisdictions because the majority of the walleye harvest occurs in western Lake Erie.

“Due to a series of poor year classes, the population in 2014 is expected to decliine, potentially leading to lower TACs in future years as the fish from the strong year classes age and the total size of the walleye stock decreases,” the Lake Erie Committee said in a news release. “The decreased TAC recommendation for 2013 reflects the committee’s goal to manage the lakewide fish stocks sustainably, recognizing stakeholder input.”

The yellow perch TAC is a 10 percent decrease from the 13.637 allocated in 2012. The committee said it believes “harvestable stocks are lower than last year; the TAC for 2013 reflects the committee’s consideration of the importance of relative stability of harvest.”

Pennsylvania will receive .949 million pounds of the allocation. Ontario will receive 5.969 million pounds, Ohio 4.896 million pounds, Michigan 0.164 million pounds and New York 0.259 million pounds.

The Lake Erie Committee works with the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, a Canadian and U.S. agency.

Lake Erie Ultimate Angler will offer a Trout 201 class May 4 focusing on streamside technique.

The class typically takes place on Oil Creek, in Venango County, and includes casting, presentation, using indicators and more. It’s largely intended for those who have taken a Trout 101 class or have some fly-fishing experience.

Lunch, a fly assortment, and a tackle assortment are provided with class. Cost is $100, which must be paid by April 27.

Class size is limited; early registration is recommended.

For information, call (814) 833-4040.

The inaugural Great Lakes Tackle Summer Invitational Fishing Tournament is scheduled for Aug 24-25.

The invitational will feature as many as 40 teams or between two and five anglers who will target walleye, steelhead, brown trout and lake trout. Most fish will earn 10 points plus their weight, and lake trout will only provide the weight value and not the points. Teams may weigh only two lake trout

The invitational, which will launch out of Presque Isle Bay, also will include a Triple Fish Challenge in whichi anglers compare their best three fish of either day of fishing.

Founder Pete Alex, of the Great Lakes Tackle Shop, will direct the tournament. The Erie Sports Commission is assisting.

For information call Alex at (814) 602-8432 or visit the website.

Lake Erie Ultimate Angler will put on a beginner fly-tying class each Thursday from today through April 4 at the shop, 3737 W. 12th St.

Classes will run from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Cost for the three sessions is $20. Class size is limited; please sign up online, by calling 833-4040 or by e-mail at sales@shopultimateangler.com.

Have your own tools and vice? Please take them to the class. Otherwise, Ultimate Angler will provide equipment. All other materials will be provided.

Adult trout stockings in Erie County will start in earnest March 28 on French Creek.

The majority of stockings will take place in the days before April 13, the statewide opening day. East Basin and West Basin ponds at Presque Isle State Park and Upper Gravel Pit in Fairview were stocked in early February and will be stocked again in the preseason and after the opener.

Crawford County stockings started this past week in Little Sugar and continue this week in North Deer Creek and East Oil Creek.

To check stocking dates and times for all northwestern Pennsylvania counties and streams, visit the Pennsyvania Fish and Boat Commission’s adult trout stockings page. Select a county, then select start and end dates and press “Go.”