Monthly archives: September, 2021

The Grind of All Grinds

September 19, 2021 0 Comment

The Western Division wrapped up its first season yesterday with the grind of all grinds at Lake Garfield in the mountain town of Monterey.

We had a dozen anglers, a foggy start, and a tough bass bite. The juvenile Pickerel bite, however, was on fire.

Garfield has both largemouth and smallmouth, but by the midway point of the day, just over a handful of fish had been submitted. Nelson da Costa took an early lead with a 15.75 and a 17.75 (the eventual lunker), while myself, Jerry Howes, and Scott Rhodes stayed within striking distance.

There was a flurry of action after noon, when Nick Ringgard and Michael Williams both caught their second fish to join the leaders, but a third fish submitted by Scott with about fifteen minutes left in the day earned him the win. Huge congrats to him for outlasting the field!

Nelson, as mentioned above, took lunker with his 17.75 and finished in second for the day. Congrats to him!

Michael landed a 20.75 Pickerel to snag the lunker there. Nice job!

Finally, Nelson and I would like to thank everyone that participated in the trail this year. We weren’t quite sure what the turnout would be but were happy to have so many folks consistently make it to the events. Also HUGE thanks to Ken Wood, John Ferreira, Kevin Amaral, Donald Davis, and Bruce Levy for the support and help throughout the year! This was our first year doing this, and their experience made it much easier on us!

The list of championship qualifiers will be out soon, so hope to see you then!

Slow Day, No Limits

September 19, 2021 0 Comment

The Eastern Division closed out its regular season yesterday at Walkers Pond and Upper/Lower Mill Ponds, three connected bodies of water in Brewster.

Unfortunately I wasn’t at this one, so I don’t have all the details. I did, though, check the standings a few times throughout the day, so I knew it was a tough bite. I fished these ponds quite a bit back when my in-laws had a house in Chatham, so I know the numbers put up are not indicative of what those ponds can produce.

Despite the slow day, one that produced no limits, some good fish were caught. Three of the top four bass were smallies, including a monster 20.50 caught by Torrence Davis.

For a while, it looked like Torrence was going to win the smallmouth lunker pool and the overall lunker pool, but with a little over 30 minutes left in the event, Mike Morcone smoked a 20.75 fatty largemouth, which ultimately took the overall pool, leaving Torrence’s big sally at the top of the smallmouth leaderboard.

Mike also smashed a 22.25-inch pickerel to take home the pickerel lunker pool as well.

We paid out four spots for this event, and landing in fourth place was our resident hip-hop star Kelvin Nova. It wasn’t much, but his 40.50 was enough.

Kevin Amaral didn’t have much either, but his 46.50 bested sixteen others for third place. Can’t complain about that, right?

Like Kelvin and Kevin, Bruce Levy only had three fish, but he had two on the bigger end, which gave him 49.25 and second place—and pretty much locked him in for Angler of the Year. But we still have the Championship, so we shall see…

The angler of the day, however, was Mike Morcone, who sat on a grass line all day and waited for the bass to come to him. He only caught four, but three were good ones, including that 20.75-inch slob. His 71.75 was more than enough to take the win. Add in lunker and pickerel lunker, and that’s a pretty good payday. Congrats, man!

And congrats to everyone else! Seems that the bite was tough all across the state, with the Western Division closing out their season on a stingy bite as well.

Maybe we’ll put this one on the schedule again next year since it was an off day. Who knows?

You can check out the final results here.

Our next event is the championship on Webster Lake on October 23. I will post the list of qualified anglers soon!

In the Last Twenty…

September 10, 2021 0 Comment

The latest Thursday Night Throwdown took place last night on Snipatuit Pond. Six anglers showed up, two backed out last-minute, so we’re still paying out eight spots.

With the evening drop in temperature and rain all day, the bite was definitely tougher than expected out there.

For a while, Matthew Conant was the only one with a fish—a dinky 13.75. Nate Chagnon then moved into first with a 14.50, where he stayed for a while. Scott Rhodes then moved into first with two fish, and he later added a third to keep the top position for most of the night.

I wasn’t paying too much attention to the leaderboard, so I missed some other movements, I’m sure, but I know Matt tied Scott at one point, but Scott still had the lead with a bigger fish for the tie-breaker.

Derek Brundle lost a phone overboard, then had an 18.50 he couldn’t take a photo of because his other phone wasn’t working properly in the rain, so he left. Had he gotten a photo of that fish, he’d have won with a solid 52.75.

But in the end, it was Matt who pulled off the win, landing a 15.75 twenty minutes before the buzzer that put him ahead of Scott by two inches.

Great job, fellas! Congrats.

Results can be found here.

This may be the last Throwdown of the season. They’ve been fun, and we’ll undoubtedly do them again next year. But we’ll see. In two weeks, if the weather is looking good for a Thursday-nighter, we’ll set one up.

Kicker for the Win

September 5, 2021 0 Comment

On Saturday, twenty-one anglers hit Lake Rico for the eighth Eastern Division event of the season.

Lake Rico is an interesting spot. It has some monsters, but it’s also stocked with trout and has a lot of small bass, both of which make catching the big ones more difficult. But if you can find one or two above 16 inches, you’re very likely to win.

And that’s exactly how this one played out…

At the end of the event, there was a three-way tie for pickerel lunker. But one angler gave himself a quarter inch too much, while the other shorted himself a quarter inch. After correcting the lengths, Christopher Nardi came out on top with a 16.75.

Steve Hedges’s 17.75 largemouth was the hero of the day, as well as big bass of the event.

Valber Santos was a hair’s length away from a one-inch deduction, which would have put him in seventh place. Luckily the open mouth that almost cost him was open exactly a quarter inch—which is a deduction in KBF, but not one in MAKB per our rules addendum—so he landed in fifth place with 63.50 inches.

Also with 63.50, but winning the tie-breaker with a 14.25 big fish, was Anthony Campbell, who grabbed fourth place.

Chris LaCourse rolled into a spot Nate Chagnon had been fishing most of the day before moving to another area, and he was able to put together something decent. (Much to Nate’s regret, I’m sure.) His 64 inches was enough for third place.

Separating himself from the pack with two over 15 inches was Patrick Brown, giving him 68.25, second place, and his best finish of the season!

As I mentioned, the angler who finds a good kicker or a few fish upwards of 15 inches typically wins at Lake Rico. Steve Hedges nailed that 17.75 at 6:05 AM. Remove it from the equation, and he ends up with 63.25 and fifth place. But coupled with a 14.25 and three 12s, he was hard to beat on this day.

This is Steve’s second win of the season, having also taken down the Route 57 Run tournament over in the Western Division. Great job, man!

And congrats to everyone else!

If you want to see the full results, click here.

We have one regular-season event remaining in each division before the championship. The next Eastern Division event will be on September 18, down in Brewster on Walkers Pond and Upper/Lower Mill Ponds (they’re all connected). A great spot to end the season!

Then it’s on to the championship!