Sponsor Announcement: Mountain Road Trading Post

January 11, 2025 0 Comment

We are very excited to announce Mountain Road Trading Post, one of the longest-running and best outfitters in the Northeast, as a new sponsor this season!!

Troy and MRTP have graciously donated a $50 gift card to all 24 of our 2025 divisional events and a $100 gift to our championship. In addition, our members will receive $100 off any boat priced $1,000 or more, plus 10% off everything else (excluding gift cards, motors, and electronics).

MRTP will also host a gathering after the Northern Division’s Pawtuckaway Lake event on August 30!

We happy to have them on board! Please give them a like and follow on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

2025 Schedule Announcement

January 2, 2025 0 Comment

For those who missed the live stream (or just don’t want to watch it), here is the current 2024 schedule!

Remember, most of these are members-only events. You can find all of the event pages and become a member here on Fishing Chaos!

In chronological order…

DIVISIONAL EVENTS

Apr 12 – Long Pond Harwich (Eastern)
Apr 12 – Richmond Pond (Western)
Apr 19 – A-1 (Central)
Apr 26 – Charles River Boston (Northern)
May 3 – Lake Cochituate (Central)
May 10 – Otis Reservoir (Western)
May 17 – Lake Attitash (Northern)
May 24 – South Watuppa Pond (Eastern)
Jun 8 – Whitehall Reservoir (Central) *
Jun 14 – Johns Pond (Eastern)
Jun 21 – Connecticut River (Western)
Jun 29 – Sudbury River (Northern) *
Jul 5 – Lake Nippenicket (Eastern)
Jul 12 – Sudbury River (Central)
Jul 19 – Pontoosuc Lake (Western)
Jul 19 – Merrimach River New Hampshire (Northern)
Aug 2 – Barton Cove (Western)
Aug 3 – Charles River (Eastern) *
Aug 9 – Singletary Lake (Central)
Aug 30 – Pawtuckaway Lake New Hampshire (Northern)
Sep 6 – Knops Pond (Central)
Sep 13 – Mashpee-Wakeby Pond (Eastern)
Sep 14 – Chebacco Lake (Northern) *
Sep 20 – Littleville Reservoir (Western)
Sep 27 – Merrimack River (Championship)

* Sunday events

ONLINE EVENTS

Mar 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Apr 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
May 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Jun 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Jun 15 – River Rumble: Spring Team Series *
Jul 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Jun 30 – The Catch ‘Em All Summer Brawl
Aug 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Aug 17 – River Rumble: Summer Team Series *
Sep 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Oct 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Oct 19 – River Rumble: Fall Team Series *

* Sunday events

KNOCKOUT SERIES

Apr 1–Oct 28

Like last year, we were able to de-conflict most divisional events, giving everyone plenty of opportunity to go for the 2025 MAKB Angler of the Year title. We’re also trying a new series called the River Rumble Team Series, which takes the place of our Catch ‘Em All Brawl Series. And of course, we’ll have plenty of Tuesday and Thursday Night Throwdowns, plus some Cold Water Series events in the first few and last few months of the year.

We’re also hosting a pre-season event on Webster Lake on March 29. No qualifications, no Angler of the Year points, just fishing, food, and fellowship!

And don’t forget our annual potluck gathering and awards banquet, which will be held at the Bristol Lodge in North Attleboro, 2–6 PM. Everyone is welcome!

It’s gonna be a great season. JOIN NOW!

2024 Season Stats

December 20, 2024 0 Comment

Winter is hitting a bit different this year, and with Christmas just around the corner, it seems we’ve wrapped up tournaments for the season.

For those interested in some stats, here you go…

In 2023, we hosted a total of 51 events, including 24 divisional events, one championship, 10 Tuesday/Thursday Night Throwdowns, four Cold Water Series events, eight monthly online challenges, three Catch ‘Em All Brawls, and the Knockout Series.

We awarded $49,893 in payouts throughout the year! Here’s the breakdown:

Eastern Division: $8,784
Western Division: $6,020
Central Division: $9,094
Northern Division: $9,024
Championship: $3,960
Monthly Challenges: $3,936
Catch ‘Em All Brawls: $2,441
Thursday Night Throwdowns: $2,574
Knockout Series: $2,400
Cold Water Series: $2,094

In total, 955 competitors participated across these events (with many competing in multiple events, of course), and 4,397 fish were submitted (excluding the Knockout Series).

The highest number of fish submitted during a divisional event was 225, recorded at the Eastern Division’s Mashpee-Wakeby event. On the other hand, the fewest submissions for a single event were 48, during the Central Division opener at Webster Lake. Ironically, just a week later in 2023, Webster Lake set the record for the year with the highest number of fish submitted in a single event—252!

Collectively, we submitted a total of 18,948.75 inches of bass in 2024 (also excluding the Knockout Series).

The biggest limits of the year:

Northern Division: Patrick Brown – 96.00 (Lake Attitash)
Eastern Division: Ken Wood – 95.00 (Upper/Lower Mill Pond)
Western Division: Ryan Stager – 94.25 (Quaboag Pond)
Central Division: Lee Kennon – 92.75 (Sudbury River)
Monthly Challenge: Benjamin Hallowell – 101.25 (July)
Thursday Night Throwdown: Jerry Howes – 56.50 (Buckley Dunton Reservoir)
Cold Water Series: Matthew Conant – 91.00 (Santuit Pond)

The biggest largemouth of the year:

Northern Division: Patrick Brown – 22.25 (Lake Attitash)
Eastern Division: Domenic Eno – 22.00 (Snipatuit Pond)
Western Division: Noah Fahmy – 21.75 (Congamond Lake/Connecticut River)
Central Division: Lee Kennon and Cory Walker – 21.00 (Sudbury River and Flint Pond)
Monthly Challenge: Gregg Fritchey – 21.50 (July and August)
Thursday Night Throwdown: Ken Wood – 20.50 (Winnecunnet Pond)
Cold Water Series: Nate Chagnon – 21.25 (Santuit Pond)

The biggest smallmouth of the year:

Western Division: Justin Gallo – 20.50 (Ashmere Lake)
Eastern Division: John Ferreira and Jim Silva – 19.75 (Mashpee-Wakeby Pond and Upper/Lower Mill Pond)
Northern Division: Adam Rourke – 16.75 (Lake Attitash)
Central Division: Carl Hartwick – 15.75 (Webster Lake)

Some other stats:

Lee Kennon, Matthew Conant, and Ken Wood each secured the most divisional wins, with three victories apiece.

Steve Petkevitch led the pack with the most top-five finishes across all divisions, with 11 overall. Close behind were Matthew Conant and Ken Wood, each with 10 top-five finishes, followed by Mike Morcone with nine.

Benjamin Hallowell dominated the online division, with six wins out of 11 events. He also secured a win in the Cold Water Series, earning him the most overall wins across all events.

All in all, it was an incredible year! Fifty-one events—a bit fewer than last year, but still more than enough opportunities for anglers to get out on the water and compete. And now, we’re gearing up for something special: our tenth season next year—the big 1-0!

Thanks to everyone who continues to fish with us; and an even bigger thank-you goes to Kevin Amaral, Jeremey Andrews, Donald Davis, Bruce Levy, Michael Williams, Anthony Campbell, Jonathan Medina, and Patrick Brown, all of whom have played their part in transforming this little trail into something far beyond what we ever imagined.

Enjoy the holidays! We’ll be announcing our 2025 schedules and more very soon.

Todd Brothers Wins Big at Mashpee-Wakeby

June 30, 2024 0 Comment

Yesterday, the Eastern Division hit Mashpee-Wakeby for its third event of the season! Thirty anglers were met with pretty good conditions, even after the wind kicked up.

The bass in Mashpee-Wakeby see a lot of pressure from tournament anglers, so early on it was shaping up to be a grind, which is common there. Around midday, though, the fish became more active and anglers started making moves up (and down for some) the leaderboard.

It wasn’t an epic day of fishing that sometimes happens there, but it was a good day.

We paid out five spots, three lunker side-pots, and the Double Down…

Pickerel lunker came from the aptly-named Pickerel Cove, a 24.50-incher caught by Chip Dufault; while John Ferreira’s 19.75-inch smallmouth nabbed the smallmouth lunker prize.

There was a tie between Valber Santos and Mike Morcone for overall lunker, with each catching a mondo 20.25 largemouth. Mike’s bass was physically longer on the board, though, so he won the tie-breaker.

Chip got off to a fast start, holding down the lead for a good part of the day. But while the bite picked up for others, Chip struggled to find upgrades. He finished in fifth with 79.50, which was enough to take home the Double Down prize as well.

Mike Morcone’s late-day surge—which included that 20.25 and a smallmouth upgrade caught with about three and a half minutes to go—earned him a fourth-place finish to go along with lunker.

Between 11:24 and 11:58 AM, Neal Rapoza upgraded five times, culling out four of his five bass. Then he topped it off with another upgrade with less than twenty minutes to go. What would have been a seventeenth-place finish with 68.50 turned into 81.75 and third place!

Matthew Conant is always a threat. Like Neal, Matt had a small limit of 61.25, then upgraded twice in six minutes. An hour later, he upgraded two more times in thirteen minutes, moving him up from not even the top ten to second place. But when Neal caught his final bass at 1:40:51, this bumped him up into second place.

For less than two minutes!

Because Matt caught his final upgrade at 1:42.29, which pushed him back up into second place with 82.50. Crazy!

Todd Brothers came all the way from western Massachusetts, and it paid off! Fishing the same general area as Matt, Todd hauled in a mixed bag for 84.75, landing him in first place!

Great job out there, fellas! Congrats!

A big shout-out to our sponsors, as always. Especially Reacton Tackle, Yakrods, Nocqua, and YakAttack for the giveaways!

Thanks to everyone who came out! Our next event is on the mighty Charles River, Sunday, June 14. It’s a weekend of river events, with the Central Division hosting their next event on the Sudbury River the day before.

See you then!

YakAttack LeaderBoard Approved!

June 25, 2024 0 Comment

As of June 24, 2024, the new YakAttack LeaderBoard is approved for use in Massachussetts Kayak Bassin’ events.

If you have any questions, please let us know.

Lee Kennon Flips Again…and Wins Again

June 24, 2024 0 Comment

On Saturday, June 15, the Northern Division crossed the border into southern New Hampshire and hit Pawtuckaway Lake for the third event of the season!

Going into the event the anticipation was high. One reason was because it’s MAKB’s first tourney north of the border, so we couldn’t wait to see how it turned out. And secondly, the week prior at the Mountain Road Trading Post tournament on Pawtuckaway, there were some very good bags put up. To everyone’s surprise, however, the lake fished a little tougher than the week before…

But as always a lucky few put up some good numbers!

No stranger to being in the money (or flipping his kayak like he did once again), Lee Kennon clinched the top spot for the second time this season with a 92 inches anchored by a 21.25-inch largemouth!

In second place, and in the hunt for the 2024 Northern Division Angler of the Year title, was Steve Petkevitch, who put up 88.75 inches.

Following up a second-place finish the weekend prior, Ken Wood landed in the money again, taking third place with 84.50 inches.

Sean Renfroe had a solid fourth-place finish with 82.25, and Cory Walker rounded out the top five with 80.75—and this, after getting off the water an hour early by accident!

Event lunker went to Lee with his 21.25 largemouth, while lunker smallmouth was won by Jon Bandi with a 15-incher. Surprisingly no one caught a pickerel, so that lunker pool rolled over the the main lunker pool. Crazy!

Ken also won the Double Down.

It was a super-fun day out there and me and Pat were happy to see that the interest/feedback in fishing up in New Hampshire was great. We’ll definitely be doing it again next season!

As always thank you to all of our sponsors for making this trail possible! And can’t forget to thank Mountain Road Trading Post and Troy Brown for hosting us for a grill-and-chill after the event. We all had a blast and left with full stomachs!

Our next event is on July 27 on Lake Attitash, which should fish well that time of year. But if you can’t wait until then to scratch that competitive itch, we are hosting a Tuesday Night Throwdown tomorrow night at Johnson’s Pond in Groveland! And we’re looking to put another one together between now and the Attitash derby, so keep an eye out!

Check out the full results here.

Andrew Heath Conquers Lake Ashmere

June 10, 2024 0 Comment

The Western Division held its third event of the season at Lake Ashmere in Hinsdale, MA, on June 8.

Mother Nature gave us some wind and rain to deal with and cooler temps than expected, but we were treated to a pretty good day of fishing. Sixteen anglers entered 129 fish to the event. We paid out four spots, and the results were as follows…

4th – Ethan Bartlett (82.00)
3rd – Richard Keefe (82.25)
2nd – Matthew Conant (86.25)
1st – Andrew Heath (87.75)

Lunker Bass – Kevin Senecal (19.75)
Lunker Pickerel – Justin Gallo (20.50)
Double Down – Jeremey Andrews (69.50)

Check out the full results here.

Lee Kennon Takes Down Singletary

June 4, 2024 0 Comment

This past Saturday, MAKB Central Division held our third event of the season on Singletary Lake. The day started with nearly perfect weather and surprisingly no boat traffic until after 11 AM. It seemed that we had the lake mostly to ourselves, with only a few fellow paddlers around. Many small fish were seen, but some anglers were fortunate to come across multiple bigger fish and make it pay out for them.

Lee Kennon clinched the first place in his Hobie pedal kayak with five fish measuring an impressive 81.50 inches. Lee could be seen all over the lake at different times, which must have added up to around ten miles! Congratulations, Lee!

Right behind Lee was Todd Brothers, who put up a strong performance and achieved a limit of 80.50, while Domenic Eno secured 3rd place with 79 inches.

John Dicenzo managed to lock down fourth place with 75.50. He recorded the two biggest fish of the tournament: a nice 20.75-incher, which was also the event lunker, and another measuring 20 inches even. Both largemouth.

Mike Morcone took the final payout spot—even though he had to paddle the entire event due to someone stealing his trolling motor—and still brought in five fish totaling 75 inches.

There are a million smallmouth bass in Singletary, but they are all really small. Khoa Dao caught the biggest of biggest of the day, a monster 14-incher, which earned him the smallmouth lunker pool.

The final optional lunker pool, this one for pickerel, went to Jeff Lin, who landed a 21.75. Many anglers reported catching huge pickerel but losing them at the boat.

Cory Walker was the only angler to enter for the Double Down. Not technically a win, but it looks good on paper.

Lastly, we would like to thank all the anglers who came out to fish with us at Singletary and cooperated during the parking predicament at that small launch. It was like a game of parking-lot Jenga, but we managed to park everyone in the lot successfully.

Congratulations to the winners, and we hope to see you at our next event in July at the Sudbury River.

Thank you to our sponsors for your support.

Check out the full results here.

Android Users: Proper Steps to Submit Photos Through Fishing Chaos

May 24, 2024 0 Comment

PLEASE READ THIS IF YOU FISH OUR EVENTS!

If you fish our events (or any events through Fishing Chaos), please read this article and then check your phone settings. If you have an iPhone, it should be easy to run the test and get things set correctly.

If you own a phone that uses the Android OS (pretty much anything that’s not an iPhone), please read the instructions linked in the article under Android Settings, paying very close attention to what’s in the photos below.

Anglers with Android phones continue to have issues with their submissions uploading with no data. I’ve spoken with Tom at Fishing Chaos, and he pointed out that this is typically because anglers are not following the proper steps when uploading pictures.

You must submit photos in the exact manner shown in the photos below!

If you do not do so, you run the risk of having your fish denied. You could also simply use the in-app camera and skip these steps.

If you have any issues or questions, let us know.

Ben Hallowell Sets a New Record!

April 22, 2024 0 Comment

With our switch to a 15-inch minimum in our seasonal Catch ‘Em All Brawls, we assumed the record of 516.50 would never be broken. Why? Because it’s much easier to catch dinks, of course.

Well, we were wrong.

For yesterday’s Spring Brawl, John Ferreira started off hot and looked set on running away with it…until Ben Hallowell began uploading fish.

John and Ben went back and forth for a bit, and then Steve Hedges threw his hat into the ring, but at some point, Ben switched on the afterburners and there was no catching him.

Excluding Ben’s fish, what the rest of the field put up is what we expected things to look like with the new 15-inch minimum, taking around 300 inches to win. Steve, for instance, had 273.75 inches for second place.

But Ben found something special, a pond that was firing at the right time, and he put up a massive 570.25 inches of largemouth bass, besting Steve by 296.50 inches, nearly as much as Steve had on the board!

What a day! Congrats, man!

As mentioned, Steve took second place, while John held onto third with 254.50.

Clearly, the bite was tough for many, and the number dropped significantly from third place on. Lee Kennon took fourth place with 109.50, as well as pickerel lunker.

(Ben actually had pickerel lunker as well, but unfortunately submitted a photo that partially cropped out the fence of the photo, so it was denied.)

Finally, in fifth place was Nate Chagnon with 97.25. And overall lunker went to Brian O’Connor, who dropped a 20.50-inch spring fatty on the board.

Great job, everyone! Good to see a big turnout for this one.

Check out the full results here.

The Summer Brawl goes down on June 30!

FYI: When viewing these events on Fishing Chaos, you only see the submission time. So when you see numerous fish submitted less than a minute apart, this is why. Judges can see the rest of the data.