Sponsor Announcement: Rocky Ledge Tackle

We very excited to announce that Rocky Ledge Tackle will continue to sponsor Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ through the 2022 season!

Based in New Hampshire, Owner Jim Migliozzi makes some of the best baits around. You can expect nothing but quality from Rocky Ledge Tackle: bass fishing staples like spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and jigs, to some of the most unique baits in the game, which is what really sets them apart.

Be sure to check out the Bladed Swim Jig, Swimbait Jig, CAT5 Wakebait, Vibra-Bug Finesse Spinnerbait, and one the sweetest spinnerbaits you’ll ever fish, the Swimming Spinnerbait.

Winners of our no-limit Catch ‘Em All Brawl events this season will receive a Rocky Ledge Tackle prize pack, and all Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ members will receive a 20% discount on all online orders.

Please support those who support us by giving them a like and follow on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.


Sponsor Announcement: Old Glory Outdoors

We a very happy to announce that Old Glory Outdoors will once again be sponsoring Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’!

Veteran owned and operated, Old Glory Outdoors is located in East Brookfield, MA, and has an extensive lineup of rods and reels, as well as a wide variety of artificial baits and tackle, from 6th Sense to X Zone Lures to Z Man and much more. Old Glory Outdoors also has your live bait needs covered.

Owner Joe Brown is an avid outdoorsman, and it shows. Drop in and see for yourself!

At every regular season event this season, the angler who hauls in the tournament lunker—the Old Glory Outdoors Big Bass—will receive a $20 gift card. Old Glory Outdoors will also be providing an extensive prize pack for our championship, and all members will receive a 20% discount on all in-store and online orders!

Please support those who support us by giving them a like and follow on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.


And the 2021 Eastern Division Angler of the Year is…

Winning the Angler of the Year title is about consistency. It’s a slow burn. Winning obviously doesn’t hurt, but performing on a high level over the course of the season is what brings home the Angler of the Year trophy. A single misstep, as we saw in the Western Division, is often the death knell on an angler’s chances of taking home that title.

The Eastern Division Angler of the Year race was anyone’s game through the first three events. Ken Wood sat at the top after two events, but Mike Morcone, Valber Santos, and Bruce Levy were nipping at his heels. Mike won the second event of the season, while Valber won the third.

After a poor showing at that third event, Ken dropped from the top and Mike and Bruce Levy took the top two spots, respectively.

Our hybrid Angler of the Year format was designed to keep the race competitive all season long. An angler “running away with it” isn’t easy under this format, which is based on an anglers top twenty-five biggest bass over the course of the season, plus bonus points for top-five finishes (five for first, four for second, and so forth).

In years past, the Angler of the Year’s total points were the result of a number of quality bass, but with only one or two of them being over twenty inches. It’s not easy catching giants during tournaments, especially when sharing the water—which is usually a small body of water around here—with two dozen other anglers.

But sometimes an angler stumbles upon something special…

At our Nashua River event, Bruce Levy did just that, dropping the hammer on not only one giant, but five of them! Four of those bass were twenty inches or longer, with his smallest going 19.25 inches. His total that day was a massive 102.5 inches, which planted him firmly atop the Angler of the Year standings, casting a big shadow over the rest of the field!

The historical stats don’t exist to back this up, but it’s highly likely that this is the biggest limit ever caught during a single-day kayak bass fishing tournament in the state, if not all of New England. At a minimum, it is the biggest limit caught during a Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ event, and without a doubt will remain there on top for a very long time.

While a few anglers still had opportunities to dethrone Bruce during the remaining events, this single performance made that very difficult. He followed it up with just two additional second-place finishes over six events, but he also added a number of quality fish to his yearly total, including one more over twenty inches, ultimately bringing his points total to 463.75.

So without further ado, your 2021 Eastern Division Angler of the Year…


Bruce Levy, 2021 Eastern Division Angler of the Year

Congrats on an EPIC season, one unlikely to be duplicated any time soon!


And the 2021 Western Division Angler of the Year is…

Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ has grown to be the biggest, most successful kayak bass fishing series in Massachusetts, if not all of New England. Much of our success in 2021 was owed to Jigs and Bigs co-host Shawn Dominik and Nelson da Costa, both of whom stepped up to run our new Western Division.

Fittingly, these two anglers battled it out all season over on the western side of the state.

With just seven events in their inaugural season, becoming the first-ever Western Division Angler of the Year wasn’t easy. There was little margin for error. With our hybrid Angler of the Year format—your biggest twenty fish over the course of the season, bonus points for top-five finishes—a single misstep could have put either of them out of contention.

Shawn Dominik made his plans known right out the gate, at the first event of the season, by taking home the victory with a solid 84 inches, nearly seven inches over second place. Nelson wasn’t far behind in fourth place.

Two events later, Nelson took the top spot.

Over the course of the season, Shawn notched two victories, one second-place finish, and two thirds. While Nelson only won a single event, he scored two seconds, a third, and two fourth-place finishes.

Our Angler of the Year format rewards performance, but it also rewards the quality of fish an angler catches during the season. The bigger, the better!

Out of the seven regular-season Western Division events, Shawn caught the biggest bass in two events, while Nelson caught lunker in three. Each angler had accumulated twenty bonus points for top-five finishes. They were neck and neck all season long, and everything came down to the wire at our championship event. But while Shawn held an eight-and-a-half point lead in the standings, Nelson’s smallest six bass on the season were 14-inchers…and he’d done very well pre-fishing.

Within the first hour, Shawn put up his first bass. It wasn’t big enough to add to his Angler of the Year total, but it was one fish to Nelson’s zero. It would remain that way for the next four hours, when Shawn began adding to his total. At the end of it all, nothing would change for Nelson, who suffered that dreaded misstep, giving Shawn a well-deserved fifth place for the championship and firmly secured his place atop the Western Division Angler of the Year standings!


Shawn Dominik, 2021 Western Division Angler of the Year

Congratulations on a great season! There can never be another inaugural Western Division Angler of the Year champion!


The 2022 Knockout Series: New England

The Knockout Series is expanding!

Started in 2016, this bracketed, one-on-one tournament series has been a success each season. For the 2022 season, however, we have decided to allow anglers from all New England states to compete in the series.

As such, some old rules needed to be changed, while new rules needed to be implemented.

The complete updated rules can be found here. If you intend to compete this season, please read them thoroughly, even if you’ve competed in previous years, as much has changed.

Registration for the 2022 season will go live on Fishing Chaos on February 1, with Round 1 starting on April 1.

If you have any questions, let us know.


2022 Tournament Updates and Changes

As we enter our seventh season, we have some new opportunities on the horizon, as well as some changes to existing things, which you’ll want to read about below…

SUNDAY EVENTS

Due to the speed at which this sport continues to grow, especially up here in the Northeast, opportunities that just a few years ago were out of reach for many are now well within grasp. As such, we decided to include a handful of Sunday events to de-conflict with some of the other trails that anglers may want to fish this season.

We have three Sunday events lined up, all in the Eastern Division. Those dates are June 5 at Agawam Mill Pond, June 19 at Whitehall Reservoir, and July 24 on the Nashua River. So mark your calendars and don’t show up on Saturday.

Like always, registration for these events will go live at 7 PM the Sunday before. And the pre-fishing deadline will be extended by one day for Sunday events.

DOUBLE DOWN

We’ve added a Double Down option to every Eastern Division event this season. This is an optional winner-takes-all sidepot (less credit card processing fees), which doubles the cost of the entry fee ($50). When registering for an event, you’ll be able to purchase the Double Down ticket. At the end of the event, the angler with the biggest limit who also doubled down wins it all.

TIE-BREAKERS

The options for tie-breakers in kayak fishing are limited. Practical ones, anyway. You can go by the next biggest fish or by the first fish caught. Most people think the former is the fairest, while some think it’s the latter.

Fishing Chaos, our tournament management software, does not account for the next biggest bass when determining lunker. It will do this to determine the overall winner for an event, but not lunker. Instead, it defaults to the first fish caught.

At the end of our championship event last year, Fishing Chaos listed one angler as the winner of the lunker pool, which was a significant amount of money. Unfortunately, he wasn’t aware that the app was limited, and therefore thought he’d won. Two other anglers, however, had caught a bass the same size. Out of those three anglers, the one who caught his big fish last actually won, due to his having the next biggest fish.

We know the angler who thought he’d won was disappointed, as were we because of it.

So over the winter we discussed this and came up with a compromise. Going forward, if there is a tie for lunker, we will determine the winner by the actual length of the fish. If one fish’s tail just touches the 18-inch mark, for instance, while the other comes closer to the 18.25-inch mark, we will award the lunker prize to the angler with the longest bass based on where it lands on the measuring board, not by the last quarter-inch line it touches/crosses.

If we are unable to definitively determine the biggest bass this way, we will go to the next biggest and repeat the process, if necessary, until we determine a winner.

NEW ANGLER OF THE YEAR FORMAT

The first year we did Angler of the Year, it was a points-based format and it didn’t work. Three-quarters of the way through the season, it was clear that the wrong angler was going to win. So we spent some time talking with other directors around the country and we came up with a hybrid format, one that gave points based on the quality of fish caught (top 25 of the season) and where an angler finished in the standings (bonus points for the top 5 anglers).

That format worked well, but we are changing it again this season.

One mistake we think we made that first year was not having any drop-events. So in 2022, the Eastern Division will have three drop-events and the Western Division will have two. For those unfamiliar, drop-events are your worst events of the season. If you fish all ten Eastern Division events, for example, your best seven will determine your Angler of the Year ranking. Your worst three showings will be excluded.

In addition, we will be adopting a simple points-based format, the same format that KBF and EKF uses. For a more detailed breakdown, check out the Angler of the Year page here.

One of Fishing Chaos’s many great features includes a live Angler of the Year leaderboard, which changes as the standings change during a tournament. With this new format, we will be able to utilize this built-in feature, which means everything will update in real time. No more waiting for the manual update, which was very time-consuming.

MONTHLY ONLINE CHALLENGE SERIES

The Monthly Online Challenge Series will begin in April. Anglers will once again be required to choose the week they want to fish when registering. We understand this is a gamble to some extent, not knowing what the conditions will be when signing up if, for instance, you choose Week 4, but…that’s part of the challenge.

By only being able to fish a week, this levels the playing field to some extent, giving all anglers a better chance at winning.

THE CATCH ‘EM ALL BRAWLS

We will continue to do the Catch ‘Em All Brawls. These are our no-limit online events, where anglers can fish a lake of their choosing and catch as many bass over 12 inches as they can! Like last year, you can expect Spring, Summer, and Fall Brawls this season.

THURSDAY NIGHT THROWDOWNS

The Thursday Night Throwdowns will continue this season. Once again limited to the Eastern Division. We don’t have a date on when these will start, but since they do extend into the evening a bit—5 to 9 PM—we will determine the start of the season based on the weather, when the days are longer and the evenings start to warm.

And that’s all we have for now. Expect more updates in the days to come, including new sponsor announcements, rules updates, and an update on the Knockout Series, which is getting an overhaul.

If you have any questions, let us know!


The 2022 MAKB Trail Schedule

The 2022 Eastern and Western Division trail schedules have been announced! We’re excited and looking forward to another great season. So let’s jump right into the schedules…

EASTERN DIVISION

Apr 16 – Walkers Pond & Upper/Lower Mill Ponds (Brewster)
Apr 30 – Snipatuit Pond (Rochester)
May 7 – New Bedford Reservoir (Achushnet)
May 28 – Lake Massapoag (Sharon)
Jun 5 – Agawam Mill Pond (Wareham)
Jun 19 – Whitehall Reservoir (Hopkinton)
Jul 2 – Upper/Lower Mystic Ponds (Medford)
Jul 24 – Nashua River (Roadrunner)
Aug 6 – Charles River (Roadrunner)
Sep 17 – Lake Cochituate (Wayland)

WESTERN DIVISION

Apr 2 – A-1/Stump Pond (Westborough)
Apr 30 – Lake Rohunta (Athol)
May 7 – East/West Waushacum (Sterling)
Jun 4 Chicopee River (Roadrunner)
Jul 23 – Cheshire Reservoir (Cheshire)
Aug 13 – The Route 57 Run (Roadrunner)
Sep 17 – Ashmere Lake (Hinsdale)

MAKB CHAMPIONSHIP

Oct 1 – Location TBD

A few things of note…

• There are still a handful of permits outstanding, so some of the locations may change, but the dates will not.

• There are a few Sunday events on the Eastern Division schedule this year. Registration for these events will open the Sunday before at 7 PM, like always, but the pre-fishing deadline will be extended by one day.

• The Western Division opener will open for registration a day early, but only for Western Division anglers. We will discuss how this will work in a separate post about memberships. As always, just read the tournament descriptions for all event-specific details.

If you have any questions, please reach out.


The Best-Laid Plans

This was originally written for the Jackson Kayak fishing blog earlier this year, but was never posted, for whatever reason. Instead of letting it go to waste, here it is…

In 1785 Scottish poet Robert Burns penned one of the most famous lines of all time: “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men gang aft agley.”

Maybe you’re not into old Scots-language poetry (and I wouldn’t hold that against you), but you know this line. Translated it means, simply, the best-laid plans often go awry.

Coming off of a less than stellar showing at the first two Kayak Bass Fishing (KBF) Trail events of the season down in Kissimmee, Florida, I looked ahead to late February and set my sights on Lake Murray, South Carolina, host to the second set of KBF Trail events of the year.

To maximize my time pre-fishing, I made the near thousand-mile drive down a week early. I took the Sunday before the event off to travel, with the intent to pre-fish in the morning that Monday and Tuesday, work from the rental the rest of the day, pre-fish all day Wednesday and Thursday, and then, providing I was lucky enough to have found a productive spot for the tournament, work Friday to save a vacation day.

That was my best-laid plan, and…well, you guessed it, things went awry.

I got a late start leaving, so I pulled onto the narrow, aptly named Slice Road at 4 AM Monday morning and found myself at a dead end, having gone too far, looking for house number 233. I tried in vain to turn around. It was still dark—country dark, not city dark—and I couldn’t see a thing behind me. I got out, unhooked my trailer, hauled it down the road a bit, then successfully turned my car around and reconnected it.

I rolled slowly down the street, passing number 248, number 211…

I got out of my car once again, walked back to the first mailbox to see if I’d misread it. Nope. Still number 248, and the second was still number 211. I stood there, mentally and physically exhausted, illuminated by my vehicle’s headlights—and then I saw it, far back off the road, nestled in darkness and tall grass, wedged between million-dollar homes (numbers 211 and 248): a horror-movie mobile home with plywood additions sprouting from both sides like mangled ears.

This must be it, number 233, I thought. This is where I die.

I’m not sure if it was exhaustion or that one simply must abide by the tenets of all horror movies, but…I went down there. Cellphone in hand, built-in flashlight on, I made my way through the field to the house (if you could call it that), searching for the lock box. It wasn’t there. I shined my light all over the house, in the windows, around the back, even on the house next door. Then I remembered that I was in South Carolina, where most people had guns, and made a quick retreat back to the road, and proceeded to curse fellow Jackson teammate Jason Gardner for renting the place, wherever it was.

I walked farther down the road and came upon a sign: CAPT. BOB’S RETREAT. I remembered the name. I’d found the house, which was number 203, not 233. Cursing myself now (though I still blame Jason because it feels better), I jumped back in my car, pulled away, and heard an ominous scraping-thumping sound. Assuming something had gotten caught in my trailer, I found nothing there. I circled the car, and what little energy I had left completely deflated, like my rear passenger-side tire.

Back in the car, flat tire flopping under the rim, I made my way slowly to the house, fumbled my way inside, and stumbled my way into bed for a few hours of sleep.

I woke just as I’d gone to sleep: exhausted. But I had work to do, so I set up my laptops and—hey, look at that, no Wi-Fi! Who rents a house with no Wi-Fi?

Luckily I had a hotspot (wish I could have said the same thing about the fishing that was to come).

An hour later, I went out to get a fan from my car, and came back inside with a Megabass Vision 110 hook jammed into the joint of my right index finger. Seriously.

Inside, staring at my throbbing finger, things came into painful focus: my car had a flat, I was alone until Wednesday, I was hungry and had no food in the house, I was supposed to be working, and I was probably going to have to call an ambulance or an Uber and go to the ER to have the hook in my finger removed.

Not wanting to do that, but knowing I wouldn’t be able to yank out the hook with my weaker hand, I grabbed my pliers and tried to slowly work it free. Briefly. Thoughts of the one hook coming out while another hook or hooks took its place swirled inside my empty skull, so I went to work removing the other two hooks. Miraculously, with the table looking like the kind of bloody massacre you’d find inside the horror house a few lots over, I managed to do it.

Two (or six since they were treble) hooks removed, I got to work on the one still in my finger, which was almost roaring in pain at that point (those Megabass hooks are sharp). After a while, I decided to push instead of pull. Grabbing the pliers tight, I braced my left arm on the table and pushed with my right. Nothing happened, so I increased the force, increased it more, and then it popped free. Literally. Like a balloon. POP!

When I stopped whimpering, I called AAA to assist with a tire change because, having just had them rotated and balanced, the tires were on so tight I couldn’t loosen the nuts. That evening, I got food, cooked a steak and shrimp dinner (because you’re damn right I deserved it), and was back in business.

The following morning, I fished, launching from the rental…and caught nothing.

The next day, Wednesday, I got up early and headed west to the Kempson Bridge Boat Ramp, where the Saluda River begins to widen into Lake Murray proper. My focus was on some of the backwater areas there, and while everything looked juicy, I pedaled away with nothing to show for it, packed up, and moved to another spot.

I hit Rocky Creek next, where I ran into Derek Brundle and reigning KBF National Champion Matt Conant (we Massachusetts anglers always gravitate to the same spots). I fished there for the rest of the day, but just couldn’t put anything together. As promising as the area looked, I could only manage two small bass.

I launched from the house again the following morning, this time with Adam Rourke and Jason Gardner, who was taking his brand new Big Rig FD for its maiden voyage.

They made their way up Buffalo Creek, while I made a long run out to the main lake to fish a cluster of offshore humps at the mouth of a creek. Yet again, besides one solid whack on a rattletrap (which was probably a striper), I came up empty. I worked my way to the back of a nearby creek and the pattern repeated: no fish.

Everyone I spoke with—from kayak anglers to locals—was struggling out there.

Heading in, I managed a striper and lost a decent bass on a Z-Man Jackhammer. The muddy water just wasn’t producing as I hoped it would. My best guess is that the fish were still a bit lethargic, not aggressive enough to chase, so unless you dropped your bait right on top of them, your chances of catching them were very slim. I fished deep, shallow, humps, rocks, docks, boats, wood, channel swings, points, throwing every bait that made sense and many that didn’t, and I just couldn’t coax them into biting.

That Friday, instead of working, I fished. I should have worked.

My plan was to head east, to cleaner water, but I remembered another spot I wanted to fish, so that’s where I went, launching from Little River Landing at dawn. I worked my way about seven miles down the creek, fishing some of the sexiest stuff an angler could ask for: laydowns, weeds, mats, stumps, rocks. It all looked amazing, but all I caught was my first-ever gizzard shad.

Hey, new PB! Small victories, right?

That evening at the captain’s meeting, I asked John Ferreira—who’d been fishing the cleaner water with some success—to point out some ramps from which he’d launched. I looked them over, decided to roll the dice, and just picked one that looked good.

As disappointing as things were, I stayed positive knowing I wasn’t the only one struggling to find fish.

Tournament morning, I pulled into the ramp, and out of shadows comes Matt Conant. Of all the ramps on the lake, we once again found ourselves at the same one. We had a good laugh about it, especially because of a text he’d sent me the night before…

At the end of the day, we were still smiling.

With no knowledge of the area, I made my way south from the launch toward three islands. That was my starting spot. After two hours and no bites, things weren’t looking good. I made my way to the shore and started fishing riprap and docks. In the back of small pocket, I skipped my jig up under a dock, and laid into my first big bass of the week—a 20.50-inch fatty!

Possibly the grossest bass I’ve ever caught, I had to send Amanda Brannon a video of it for fear the judge would think it was dead.

For the next hour and a half, I focused on the jig and docks with no luck. The wind had kicked up at that point, and when I pulled up to the windblown side of a marina, I changed things up and pulled out a Z-Man Big TRD, green pumpkin. On that side of the marina, there were eight double-slips and nine wooden pilings at the end of each parallel dock. A few casts in, I caught my second keeper, a 16-incher. The bass were stacked on those outer pilings, and over the next few hours I made my way back and forth, plucking bass off of them on each pass. I caught most, but lost a few.

I tried the rest of the marina, all the slips and pilings, the boats, and the bass weren’t there. They were only on that windblown side. I wish I’d had more time, but I was sitting in fifth place when I started back. I caught one upgrade off a dock on the way, lost another that I simply wasn’t prepared for (I think it grabbed the ned when it was snagged), that would have bumped me up at least one spot, maybe two, but that’s just how it goes sometimes.

When all was said and done, I finished in seventh place (three others who launched there found themselves in the top ten as well).

After the horrible week I had, seventh place was just fine.

Matt Conant had an even better day, finishing in second, which he would go on to repeat the following day. I wish I could say the same for me, but I just failed to put it together. A shift in wind direction told me that my marina bite would not be there, and I was correct in that. But my day began to go sideways nearly from the start.

That morning, I began again near the islands, then slowly made my way to them, with fish busting all around me the entire time. Tossing the Megabass Vision 110 (much more aware and respectful of its hooks), I quickly netted my first bass, a 15- or 16-incher, only to realize I’d forgotten to write the identifier code on my identifier. Typically I have at least one Sharpie with me, usually more. But this day? None. I had Gorilla Glue, though, and tried to write the code in glue, then sprinkle some dirt from the island onto it. In theory, not a bad idea, I guess (though I’m not sure if that would have been legal), but the island was all wet clay and didn’t have the effect I’d hoped for.

Not wanting to keelhaul the poor fish thirty minutes back to the ramp, possibly killing it in the process, I let it go and kicked the Flex Drive-E into high gear.

Frustrated, I kept it together, got the identifier sorted, and headed back to my spot. At this point the wind was howling, nearly doubling the time to get there. With the marina bite dead, I turned my focus to windblown docks, but if the fish were there, they weren’t eating.

Eventually I came upon a big laydown at the back of a creek. I plucked two small bass from it, and watched an absolute monster (or maybe multiple monsters) swimming in between its submerged boughs. But guess what I didn’t have with me that I’d had with me every other day that week? A flipping stick. I’d left it in the car to make room for another finesse setup.

I spent the remaining hours trying to coax more bass from wood (and everything else), but those two dinks were all I could manage. Not quite a “hero to zero” event, but seventh to sixtieth is pretty close. I’m happy with the results, though. Six tough days weigh a lot less, especially on the mind and soul, when you have one good day.

In the end, I could have easily let all the negative elements from that week eat away at me and leave my mental game rotten like that bass from day one, like it did down in Kissimmee, Florida, weeks earlier. I’m not saying it didn’t get to me a bit; it most certainly did. Shortly before catching that first fish on Saturday, I’d texted my wife that I was leaving Sunday morning if I didn’t catch any fish.

Not sure if I would have left, but I know I would have at least seriously entertained the idea. Things turned around for me, though, and quickly. All it takes is one fish. Then hopefully a few more.

The lesson here is a simple one: hang in there, stay positive. Because even when the best-laid plans go awry, sometimes no plan turns out to be the best one of all.


Smart Move Decides October

With only four people registered, there wasn’t a whole lot of action in October’s Monthly Challenge. In fact, since someone else on staff judges the monthly challenges, I kind of forgot about it until about twenty minutes ago!

I did check in on things a few times, though. Eric Graves and Steve Hedges fished Week 1, while Nick Ringgard and Dan Johnson Jr. fished Week 4.

Only five fish were entered in the first week, three from Eric and two from Steve. Eric’s three fish were good for second place and a little bit of money, enough to cover the entry fee and then buy a candy bar.

Nick and Dan had just one fish, both caught at our championship, until the final day of the challenge, where it looks like Nick went out and added four more fish to his total for a small limit. Smart move on his part, as that took first place!

Nick also had lunker for the event. He and Eric actually tied, so the next biggest fish was the tie breaker. Both their biggest three fish tied, though, so the fourth fish broke it. Unfortunately for Eric, he only had three fish, so Nick took the lunker pool—an astronomical sum of $6.60!

There were only four, but great job either way!

Check out the full results here.

We’ll start these up again in April, maybe March if the weather is nice enough.


Boobs on Top!

Unless we get a day of unseasonably warm weather, yesterday will likely have been the last MAKB event of the season.

Each year, after the regular season is over, we run at least one fun event, try a different format and such. Yesterday, we went with two: a mystery lake, randomly chosen Friday evening, and a team format.

We chose the lake from a list of fifteen, with some smaller locations being combined for a split lake event. Two of the smaller lakes on the list were A-1 and Chauncy Lake, which were chosen. We’ve fished with a full field at A-1 before, but once the weeds come up, the fishable portion of the lake shrinks quite a bit, so we paired it with Chauncy for this event.

Seven anglers fished at each location, one from each team, and with the temperature being about 28 degrees at the start of the tournament, fishing was tough for most. Thankfully, the “light and variable” wind forecasted was accurate for a change, so after the first hour or two, it wasn’t so bad. Overall, a really nice day out there.

We introduced the Double Down option for this one, which is a winner-takes-all side pot. We’ll be doing that at each live event next season.

We also had our standard optional pickerel lunker pool, which was won by Valber Santos, with a 21.75.

Gerard Elias took down the lunker bass prize, with a healthy 18.75.

As mentioned, this was a team event. Instead of the normal five-fish limit, we went with eight for this one, making it a bit more challenging, which it was. Only two teams filled a limit, but if we’d had the traditional five-fish limit, only three teams would have achieved that.

Second and third place would have swapped, though.

This time, however, third went to team Shake and Bake, consisting of John Ferreira and Nate Chagnon, who put up six bass for 95 inches.

The second-place team, The Green Machine, comprised Shawn Dominik and Scott Rhodes. They had a full limit that went for 111.50.

Promising your kids that they could name your team probably isn’t wise, as Ray Figueroa and I ended up on team Banana Boobs, courtesy of my goofball kids. I feel like they’re telling me I need to hit the gym. But a promise is a promise, and we took that name to the top with 123.75!

I was also fortunate enough to put up the biggest five-fish limit and take home the Double Down prize with 84.75.

Great job, everyone! Had a great time out there.

Check out the full results and the rest of the “very professional” team names here.

If this is our final event of 2021, it’s been a great season. Looking forward to next year, and hopefully we can finally pull off some ice-fishing events before the start of the 2022 season.