Dinkathon 2019

April 20, 2019 0 Comment

We had a great turnout for the first MAKB event of the year (aka Dinkathon 2019). I was afraid the weather forecast would have scared a lot of anglers away, but 37—18 on Lake Rico, 19 on Neponset Res—showed up to battle the wind and the rain.

And despite the forecast, it wasn’t bad. The wind was awful—that was accurate—but it didn’t rain nearly as much as I expected.

The fishing forecast, however, was dead on. Dinks, dinks, and more dinks. Only three big fish were caught and, unfortunately, one was disqualified (more on that in another post).

We paid out five spots, lunker, and pickerel lunker (one pool for each pond).

Not a whole lot to write about when everyone is catching dinks, but five of those put Lee Kennon into the winner’s circle with 62 inches even (more on Lee’s day in another post as well).

One inch ahead of Lee, Joshua Jackson took fourth place. I think this is his first time placing in the money with us. Congrats, man!

A last-minute, 3.25-inch upgrade bumped Nick Booth up into third place with 64.75.

A big fish, even a 15-incher, would have made a big difference for a lot anglers today. That’s how tight things were.

Many thought Neponset Reservoir would put out bigger limits, but of the top ten, only one angler—Kevin Amaral Jr.—fished Neponset. Kevin put up a respectable (for these ponds) 65 inches for second place.

I lucked out today. My first two fish went 10.25 and 9.50, while my third went 12.50. Shortly after catching the latter, I just happened to find an area and a bait that both bass and pickerel were keying on: chatterbait slow rolled through partially dead, holdover lily pads. I first caught a pickerel, then another, and then one more, one of which was 18 inches—and I was pumped because I figured out a damn pickerel pattern and decided I’d shoot for winning the pickerel lunker pool.

In my excitement to catch pickerel, I laid into an absolute cow. When it rolled on me and I saw its belly, I thought it was a 10-pounder. Sadly, it was too short to be a 10, but it was fat. She went 20 inches and weighed 6.54 pounds. Full of eggs and food, ready to burst. That fish and a handful of others I caught later were enough to take lunker and first place. Though it is a bittersweet victory, which I’ll discuss later.

Because we had over 30 anglers, Nick, Josh, Kevin, and I also qualified for the 2020 KBF National Championship on Guntersville Lake in Alabama!

As mentioned, we held two separate pickerel lunker pools. I wasn’t sure how each lake compared when it came to pickerel, so I thought it was best to separate them. That said, Valber Santos took home the Neponset pool with a 23-something, and Gabe Portes nabbed the Rico pool with a giant over 25 inches!

Anyway, congrats to everyone who placed. And thank you to all who showed up under what promised to be an awful day. We appreciate you!

Check out the full results here

Our next event is two weeks from now: Johns Pond in Mashpee on May 4. We’re looking to make this another split-location event to accommodate the demand, but we’re still trying to figure out if Ashumet is comparable to Johns.

The event pages will go up soon.

Thanks for all the help today Donald and Troy! And Sarah!

Hard-Earned and Well-Earned

November 10, 2018 0 Comment

With the weather forecast, it wasn’t surprising that we had a low turnout today at Lake Maspenock. Just seven of us were crazy enough to show up.

The morning started drizzly, but relatively calm. The wind didn’t pick up for a few hours, but when it did, it blew pretty hard. Billington Sea last year was far worse, but it still wasn’t all that fun out there today.

Worse, the bite was off. Nonexistent for most. I caught a pickerel and had a few nibbles from perch or sunfish on a dropshot, and that was it. I usually fish hard right till the end, but not today.

As I contemplated heading in early, around 1 PM, I saw three other anglers at the ramp, one of whom was in second place, just a small fish behind the leader. That should tell you all you need to know about how awful it was.

That second-place angler was John Ferreira. He had three fish for 42.25.

Shortly after I got out, two more anglers showed up, leaving just one out there on the lake: Chris Diranian. He was in the lead with four fish and 55.50 inches, so I texted him to come on in.

John got his fish on the ned rig, while Chris junk fished up in the northern section of the lake—which, ironically, was much calmer than the narrower section south of that. I did not expect that.

Chris also got took home lunker largemouth, a 15-incher; while Gerard, the only other angler to catch a fish, landed lunker smallie for the day, also 15-inches.

Check out the standings here: here.

Congrats, fellas! Hard-earned and well-earned!

Thanks for coming out! This will probably be it for the year. We’re looking to have a get-together (part potluck, part pig roast) mid-March, a kind of pre-season gathering and a KBF National Championship sendoff. We’ll also hand out trophies to the tournament winners from this year and Angler of the Year.

Should be a good time! Spouses and children will be welcome. Hope to see you there!

Big Win on a Tough Day

October 21, 2018 0 Comment

Yesterday concluded our official 2018 season!

Twenty-three anglers braved a very windy day on the notoriously stingy Singletary Lake. And it lived up to its reputation: the fishing was tough.

Only seven limits were caught!

With a talented field of anglers, even on tough days there are usually a few good fish caught. Chris Diranian and Chris LaCourse caught the two biggest bass of the tournament, both of which were largemouth and clocked in at 18.25 inches. The tie-breaker went to Diranian, whose second biggest fish went 16.50 to LaCourse’s 15.25. Tough break, but both deserve a tip of the hat.

We ran an optional smallmouth pool and 20 anglers opted in. Ari Stonehill took home that prize with a solid 15.50 smallie, which bested my 14.50 that had been the biggest for most of the day. So rude! Haha.

One thing I love (and hate) about our tournaments is turning off the standings two hours before the end of the tournament. It’s great being able to see where you stand throughout the day, but at the same time leaving the last few hours a mystery adds a bit more excitement to the day because everything changes in those last two hours.

Prior to 1 PM, I was sitting in third place and just two inches or so separated me from second. Right before I turned off the standings, though, I’d been bumped down to fourth. Ultimately, I landed in fifth with 61.75. Not great, not going to pay for my Toledo Bend trip this week, but I did manage to catch a limit, which was my minimum goal for the day. I caught a limit in all but the Neponset Reservoir tournament this year, which I didn’t fish. I think that’s pretty cool!

John Ferreira was having a good day right from the start, sitting in first, then second for most of the day. But in those last two hours he was booted down two spots to fourth place. He had a very respectable 67.50.

The person who initially bumped me down to fourth was Bruce Levy, courtesy of a 17.75 largie. Well, karma is real, folks, and in the final two hours he was bumped down to third. He had a pathetic 68.75 inches.

I kid! I kid! Good job, man.

Hot off his victory at Neponset Reservoir, out of nowhere Donald Davis sprinted into the top five in the last two hours with a few key bass. Not enough for the win, but 70 inches was enough for second place!

Besting the field by six inches is quite a feat on a good day of fishing, but even more so when the fish aren’t in the mood to chew. Chris Diranian did just that with a hefty 76 inches of Singletary bass, a spinnerbait being the unlikely hero of the day. Congrats, sir! Excellent win!

And everyone else, great job, and thanks for coming out on a less-than-pleasant day. Much appreciated!

Check out the full results here

We had a great season this year! It started off on a sour note, but we rose above the childish nonsense and exemplified what a fishing group, a community, SHOULD be about: respect, honesty, camaraderie, and fun, among other things. So thank you all for that!

A huge thank-you to everyone who chipped in for the gifts! Unnecessary, but Sarah and I appreciated it all very much.

Speaking of Sarah, I have failed to thank her so much this year it’s kind of a running joke at this point. Haha. But Sarah has saved us so much time by judging the majority of the fish we have submitted to TourneyX—over 16,000 inches of bass. Her contribution to this group may happen behind the scenes, but the impact is immeasurable. So THANK YOU, Sarah! Finally.

Anyway, I’ll put up a year-end stats threads, like I did last year, soon. Some pretty impressive numbers overall.

In the meantime, be on the lookout for an upcoming tournament notification. We’d like to run another one or two before it gets too cold, all depending on the weather. So it’ll probably be a last-minute kind of deal, but we should be able to get at least one more in. We’ll do a team format for the first one, random draw for teams. Something different. Hopefully we can do another after that. We’ll see.

Again, thanks for another kick-ass year! Already looking forward to 2019. We have some cool things planned.

Back on Top!

October 7, 2018 0 Comment

Our twelfth tournament of the season was held this past Saturday at Neponset Reservoir. Twenty-two anglers showed up and we submitted 80 fish on the day.

The weather started off cool and cloudy with a slight breeze that constantly changed directions. The sun came out for a couple hours, then the clouds came back. I don’t think anyone had a great day, myself included. The bite was just plain tough.

Bob Pierce caught a nice one early—20.50 inches—and took home lunker, while Troy Brown caught a five-fish limit of 62.75 inches for fifth place.

Chris Diranian had a five-fish limit of 64.75 inches for fourth place. Gerard Elias also had 64.75 inches, but his next biggest was a 19.75, bumping him to third place.

Gabe Portes hauled in 65.75 inches for second place, and my five fish went 68.50, good enough for 1st place—my first MAKB victory since 2016!

Full standings can be found here.

Thanks for coming out!

—Don Davis

Throwin’ Down

September 30, 2018 0 Comment

Today, thirty anglers threw down at the Three Lake Throwdown!


Honey, I shrunk the photographer.

The Three Lake Throwdown was an idea Donald Davis suggested while we were all up in Maine fishing the KBF Trail event on Lake Messalonskee. We needed to change locations for one of our dates, so he suggested we fish three lakes—Oldham Pond, Robbins/Stump Pond, and West/East Monponsett—on the same day. What lake you fish would be a random draw the morning of the event. We thought it was a great, unique idea.

So yesterday we all met at a central location—the Walmart parking lot in Halifax—paid our entry fee and then picked our location from a hat.

The day almost got off to a very bad start with me sleeping through my alarm clock. Luckily my wife’s alarm went off at 3:15 AM and I was out the door about 5 minutes later. Can’t say I smelled too good, but I got there on time.

For those of us who drew Stump Pond, the day started slightly foggy and chilly…and then the fog grew thicker, the wind kicked up, and it got cooooooooooold! The forecast certainly did not mention 20 mph winds. Luckily it died down around 8 AM or so.

The bite was very tough at Stump and Monponsett today. Those who drew Oldham were the lucky ones, I think.

I hear Jay Sebastian caught a smallie at Oldham, but he didn’t take a photo. (What the heck, Jay?) So everyone in the smallie lunker pool got their money back.

Jay made up for that, though, by hauling in the day’s biggest largemouth—a 21-inch tank! Congrats!

Bob Pierce also had a 21, but Jay had the next biggest for the tiebreaker.

We paid out five spots today, and fifth place went to John Ferreira, who sore-lipped 77.50 inches of largemouth.

Fourth place and the Best Dressed Angler award went to newcomer Gabriel Portes, who coaxed into his canoe 82.50 inches of stubborn Stump Pond bass.

The day started slow for me, but I was able to work a spinnerbait pattern for a short period of time when it was windy, then work a similar pattern with a chatterbait at the end of the day when the wind picked up again. I ended up with 83.25, good enough for third place.

Coming in just a quarter inch a head of me was Jay Sebastian, adding a nice chunk of change to his already big lunker winnings.

First place went to MAKB first-timer and Knockout Series runner-up Nick Booth, who flipped jigs to Oldham docks all day and pulled in a hefty 88 inches, adding a bold 4.50-inch exclamation point to his victory. Great job, man!

And congrats to everyone else. We’ll do this again next year!

Click here for the full results.

Our next tournament is just a week away, Oct 6, at Neponset Reservoir, 7 AM to 3 PM. It’s already full, but I will create an alternates list in case anyone backs out.

Thanks for coming out, guys!

Last Minute, No Limit

September 10, 2018 0 Comment

Yesterday Kevin P Amaral and I fished our round-four Knockout Series match at Cook Pond. I was lucky enough to narrowly take the win with 47.75 to his 45.50. Pleasure fishing against you, sir!

The last match of this round takes place today between Steve Scott and Jason Gardner. The winner will be meet me and Nick Booth in the finale. Good luck, guys!

Anyway, on Thursday I checked to see if there were any tournaments scheduled at Cook yesterday, and there weren’t. So I asked Kevin if he wanted us to put together a last-minute no-limit tournament and invite others. He said, “Sure why not.” So we did…

And everyone was like, “Pffft! Screw that. Losers.”

We had seven people show up, including Tyler Lehane, fishing his first-ever tournament. It was chilly and windy. Not the best combination, but there was a decent bite early in the morning. Not great, but we put fish on the board.

In the past, our no-limits events have been pointless because the fishing sucked. It wasn’t great yesterday, but seven people put up 39 fish compared to last year at Lake Rico where 21 could only manage 61 fish. Slight improvement.

Though we had just seven anglers, we paid out three spots and lunker for largemouth and smallmouth.

Peter Arruda nabbed lunker largemouth with a 17.75, and I landed the biggest smallmouth, a 16.75, my biggest to date there, caught on the smallest lure I’ve ever thrown there. Go figure.

Kevin Amaral took third place with six fish coming in at 87.25 inches.

Rob Harnish put seven fish on the board for a total of 104.25 and second place.

Despite the cool temps and cloudy day, I kept going back to an area of dying lily pads, tossing the frog. I managed to catch five fish in there throughout the day, which allowed me to pull ahead of the pack with 11 fish and a total of 156.50 inches, which was good enough for the win.

Great day on the water despite the cool breeze and tough bite for most of the day. Always a good time, no matter how many people show up.

Congrats, fellas! Great meeting you, Tyler. Hope to see you at another one.

Our next tourney is on September 29, our first ever Three Lake Throwdown. It’s gonna be a fun one!

Beware of Rats!

August 19, 2018 0 Comment

Okay, I am definitely keeping it short this time. I have another tournament in five hours.

Tonight was pretty awful weather-wise. There was a short delay to the start of the tournament, fifteen minutes or so, due to a storm rolling through. The rest of the night was pretty much wet and windy. No fun at all.

We had 18 anglers and paid out four spots.

We also did a side pool for pickerel lunker, which I won with an 18-incher. I also placed fourth with 67.25. I had one good bass and a bunch of dinks.

Third went to John Ferreira, who had 67.50.

With 69.50, Bruce Levy nabbed second place.

As for first…well, Peter Arruda almost went home after a 19.25 was DQ’d for facing the wrong way on the board. (Rookie mistake for a MAKB veteran! Shame shame shame.) Before leaving, though, he decided to tie on the Spro Rat 50, and within about 20 minutes hauled in two giants—a 20.50 and a 21.50!

Even with three dinks rounding out his limit, those two beastly bass were plenty to give him the win by nearly six inches! And lunker, of course.

Congrats, man! And everyone else. Great job.

Find the full standings here.

Gotta give a nod to Normand LaChapelle and Ryan Demers, who were both fishing their first ever tournament and stayed until the end! Hope to see you guys at another one.

Our next tournament is the Three Lake Throwdown on September 29. Before that, though, is the KBF TRAIL event we’re hosting on the Charles River.

Congrats again, fellas!

(Thanks for the tomatoes, Donald!)

Tight Lines & Tornadoes

August 5, 2018 0 Comment

Another one down!

Today was interesting. Things started out relatively calm, partly cloudy. Later, the rain started, light at first, then it stopped, then it picked up again. Torrential downpours followed, thunder, lightning, and a fun tornado warning.

The weather was all over the place today. Luckily we only had to pause for a short period of time.

Twenty-three anglers came out for this one. We paid out five spots, lunker largemouth and lunker pickerel.

Normally we’d rather not catch pickerel, but many of us were hunting them today. No one found a giant, but Allan Seniuk hauled in a 21-incher and took home a good chunk of change for his efforts.

A lot of solid bass were caught as well (out of 127 total), and the biggest was a 19.50 that Lee Kennon put on the board late in the afternoon.

Allan and Lee also fished their way into fifth and fourth places, each with 79.25, respectively. Congrats, fellas.

Last year’s A-1 champion, Bruce Levy, didn’t quite reach those heights again this year, but a respectable 82.75 landed him in third place. In fact, that’s 1.25 inches more than he won with last year.

After holding onto first for much of the day, I was bumped down to second sometime after noon, when I shut off the standings. I had an even 86 inches.

And the man who bumped me out of first place? Kevin Amaral! Kevin had a solid 87.25, which was more than enough for the victory! Congratulations, sir. Well deserved!

You can find the full standing here

Thanks for coming out, everyone, and thanks to those who rode out the storm! It was wet, but it was fun!

That sounds dirty. Haha.

Our next event is on August 18, our annual night tournament. This year it’s at Whitehall Reservoir in Hopkinton. You can register on TourneyX now.

Oldham All-Nighter

July 28, 2018 0 Comment

This past Friday night was my first time running an MAKB tournament, and I feel like it went fairly smooth!

We fished Oldham Pond in Pembroke, and had 14 anglers fish this impromptu night event. We paid out three spots and offered an optional lunker pool in three categories: largemouth, smallmouth, and crappie. Unfortunately, not one of us was able to pluck from the lake any of the rare but present smallies or the monster crappie.


Anglers…or coal miners?

This is how the rest played out: John Ferreira took home lunker largemouth with a 19.25, while Matt Morais narrowly edged out Donald Davis for third place with 77.25! Second also went to John with a solid 79.50, but the biggest bag of the evening—and continuing an epic month—went to Mr. July himself, Ken Wood, with an impressive 87.25.

Thanks to everyone who came out and fished this impromptu event!

—Steve Scott

Last-Minute Surge to the Top

July 22, 2018 0 Comment

Eight down, five to go. Depressing, huh?

Twenty-four of us hit the Charles River in Waltham this morning. The day started a bit chilly, but quickly heated up with the sun glaring down on us and not even a whisper of wind to be found until later in the day. And of course it was too windy at that point.

The first bass hit the scoreboard at 6:06 AM today. Two of them, in fact. They kept coming after that. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few fish, most were small.

The biggest of the day went 20 inches, which I caught just after 8 AM on a Rocky Ledge Tackle Spin Shad with a Dakota blade. Second cast after tying it on. My chatterbait was getting hung up in the weeds, but the Spin Shad slipped through and over it all with ease.

When I turned the standings off at noon, John Ferreira was in the lead, Edmar Junior was second, I was third or fourth, and…I can’t remember who rounded out the top five. By the end of the day, however, four of those five were booted from the top of the leader board.

Two late-afternoon upgrades bumped Valber Santos into the fifth spot with 73.75 inches, while Jesse Phipps put up 74.25 and got his first taste of MAKB cash and a fourth-place finish.

Donald Davis stayed upriver all day and it paid off in the amount of 75.75 inches and third place.

Sean McDonagh had a rough start to the day (car trouble) and got on the water late. But that didn’t stop him from wacky-rigging his way into second place with 78.50 inches. I believe this is also his first time ever in the money.

I caught my first fish at 6:03 AM, on a chatterbait slow-rolled over a small laydown. The fish went 14.75, and I thought it was a great start. Never got another bite on the chatterbait, but I did manage to catch an 8.25, then a 10.00, followed by an 11.00 shortly after. Not, in fact, a great start, but the 20-incher to come later boosted my morale. Sadly, I didn’t catch another fish for FIVE hours!

At noon I was about five inches out of first. With three small fish on the board, I had Gerard help me remove my Power Pole (after he landed a nice 17-incher) so I could paddle under the road and into Purgatory Cove. I fished there once before and caught some dinks, so I was hoping I could catch a few more and cull up. With an 8.25, I thought, a 16 would give me the lead (if nothing else changed, which of course it did).

I managed to catch two 14’s and an 11.25 in there. On the way back to the ramp, I stopped by the tree Gerard caught that 17 off of (and also an 18.75 right after I went into Purgatory Cove). Earlier in the day a nice bass rolled on my chatterbait but missed it, so I tossed a little finesse bait right into that spot next to a laydown…and out came an 18.25. This was 1:55 PM. That bass bumped me up to the top of the leaderboard with 81 inches. Without it, I don’t think I’d have even been in the top five! Pure luck, but I can’t complain.

Congrats to everyone in the top five, and also to those who managed to catch fish on a tough day.

Check out the full results here

Special shoutout to Mike Furness, who drove all the way down from NH to fish with us. Great seeing you again, sir!

Our next tournament is on August 4 at A-1 in Westboro. The event page is already up on TourneyX, with 19 registered so far.