An Epic Day on Snipatuit

May 28, 2024 0 Comment

On Saturday, May 18, the Eastern Division hit angler-favorite Snipatuit Pond for its second regular-season event of the year. At 5:45 AM, 26 anglers launched into the dreary morning hoping the rain kept its distance…

And it did—for about 20 minutes.

From then on out, it was a cold, windy, and wet day. In other words, a typical tournament day for MAKB East.

Christopher Nardi put the first bass on the board at 6:11 AM, and the bite remained consistent for him and many others throughout the day. Overall, 128 bass were submitted, as well as four pickerel.

When the tournament ended (as well as the rain, of course), Alex Weisheit sat in fifth place with 83.25 inches. Mirroring that score, in fourth place, was John Ferreira, who’s 17.50 was the tie-breaker between them.

In third place was Christopher Nardi, who landed 84.25 of Snipatuit largemouth; while Joe Fournier hauled in 87.25 inches, good enough for a solid second-place finish.

Despite the conditions, Ken Wood brought a frog rod with him. The cool water temps and lack of shoreline cover had him convinced it was too early in the season, but a few minutes in, he grabbed the rod and gave it a shot. Three casts later, he had a 19.50 in the net. Three minutes after that, he slapped a 17 down on the board.

Unfortunately, the frog bite was not as consistent as it started, but when something bit, it was a good one. All told, he managed 93.25, anchored by a 20-incher, which he was convinced was good enough for lunker and would have had him “hitting for the cycle”—lunker, pickerel lunker (a 23.75, also caught on the frog), Double Down, and first place.

Domenic Eno put an end to that dream with a mondo 22-inch donkey! Great fish! Who could be mad about that?

Congrats, everyone. Great job out there!

Check out the full results here.

Our next event is at Mashpee-Wakeby on June 29. That’ll be an interesting one for sure…

Tough Bite on the Nash

May 27, 2024 0 Comment

Saturday was stop two for the Northern Division on the Nashua River. The weather was great, which seems to be a rare situation for us here at MAKB come tourney day. The Nashua is known for holding some true giants, as we saw a few years ago when Bruce levy put up over 100 inches. But this year, the river wanted to be difficult when it came to bigger fish.

As always, though, anglers found a way to prevail regardless!

The standings were as follows…

The only angler to boat two fish that were 18 inches or longer took first place! Nice job, Steve Petkevitch!

Coming in second with another solid bag of 80.25 was Mike Morcone.

Christopher Nardi put up 78.75, which was good enough for a third place finish, winning a tiebreaker with an 18-incher. And on the other end of the tie, landing in fourth place was Russell Holmes who also had 78.75.

Rounding out the last paying spot was Reyluis Morales, who put up a respectable bag of 77 inches even.

Lunker bass went to Kevin Amaral with the only fish to break the 20-inch mark at 20.75! Lunker pickerel went to the man from Cape Cod! Gerard Elias managed a 21-incher to put some money in his pocket before the long trek home.

As always it was a great time. Definitely blessed to finally have a beautiful day on the water! We had 39 anglers for this event, and was awesome to see participation from guys in other divisions and from a few guys from up New Hampshire and Maine coming down to join us! Thank you to all!

And can’t forget to thank all of our great sponsors who make this possible!

Check out the full results here.

The next event is on June 15th at Pawtuckaway Lake in New Hampshire! Should be an awesome event with plenty of opportunities to win it however you like to fish! Tight lines everyone!

Matt Conant is on Fire!

May 26, 2024 0 Comment

On May 25, the Western Division fished Onota Lake in Pittsfield. The weather finally cooperated and we had a great day! And Onota finally put out for most of the 20-angler field. One hundred and fifteen fish were put on the board compared to 54 from last year!

The leaderboard was up and down all day, with the top five all upgrading fish after 1 PM as the afternoon bite picked up. If the tournament went until 3 PM, I think we would have seen 90 plus on the board.

Matthew Conant took down the win with a solid 83.50, anchored by a 19.50” largemouth. Nice work and congrats on your third win this year.

Jeremey Andrews took second place with 19.75 smallmouth upgrade at at buzzer—1:59 and 30 seconds! That upgrade was also good enough for overall lunker and smallmouth lunker. His overall length was 82.25.

Derek Brundle finished in third with 80.50, making the trip from Cape Cod out West feel a little better. Derek also upgraded at 1:36 PM.

Kevin Senecal took fourth with 79.25. Kevin had a small upgrade at 1:49 PM, but then unfortunately had to watch the shenanigans of Jeremey catching my his smallmouth in the last seconds of the tournament, knocking Kevin down a spot.

Todd Brothers rounded out the top five with 77.25. From noon until the end of the tournament, Todd caught four of his five fish.

Luis Adames took pickerel lunker with a 20-inch pickerel.

Awesome tournament and great to hangout with everyone. Thank you all for coming out. Can’t wait for Ashmere in two weeks.

Check out the full results here.

Carl Hartwick Notches His First MAKB Win

May 22, 2024 0 Comment

On May 11, 25 anglers from across the state came together at A-1/Stump Pond in Westborough to compete in the second MAKB Central Division event of the year.

Fortunately, we were greeted with much better weather and far fewer weeds than last year’s event, which was plagued by cool temperatures, rain, and endless weeds. It was a wise choice to schedule this event a bit earlier in the season.

As the name suggests, Stump Pond is known for its underwater stumps and, unfortunately, one angler learned that the hard way when they hit a stump and took an unexpected dip into the water.

Carl Hartwick took the top position with 85.75 for his top 5 fish, catching most of his fish on a spinnerbait, a springtime classic. Not only that, he also scored the biggest bass of the event with a 19.25, which beat out two other fish of the same size. Lunker tiebreaker goes to the longest bass on the board, and Carl’s edged out the other two.

Matthew Conant brought in an 84-inch limit, securing the second-place spot. Kevin Amaral came in third with an impressive 81.50, and fourth place was awarded to Ken Wood with a total of 80.75. Finally, Mike Morcone snagged the final paying spot with 78 inches.

But wait, there’s more! Ken Wood was crowned the Double Down winner, beating out Khoa Doa by seven inches. And pickerel lunker was awarded to Denise Cunniff with her impressive 22.75-inch pickerel.

Congratulations to those in the money! And thanks to all who came out to fish with us. Hope to see everyone at our next MAKB Central Division event on Singletary Lake on June 1.

Check out the full results here.

Bass Were Tight-Lipped at the Western Division Opener

April 28, 2024 0 Comment

The first Western Division event of the season went down on East Brimfield Lake on April 27. The weather was decent for early in the season, but the bite was not. Besides one 20-inch bass, the big fish just weren’t eating. In fact, the bass were tight-lipped for the most part, with only three anglers catching limits. And small ones at that.

We had 35 anglers fish the event, and these anglers came out on top:

1st: Robert Williams (67.00)
2nd: Gerald Howes (66.50)
3rd: Ryan Stager (62.00)
4th: John Ferreira (57.75)
5th: Ethan Bartlett (57.25)

Lunker: Todd Brothers (20.00)
Pickerel Lunker: Michael Williams (22.75)

Check out the full results here.

Lake Cochituate Fishes Tough Once Again

April 16, 2024 0 Comment

Despite the weather being better than forecast, and water temps in the high forties to low 50s, Lake Cochituate fished tough for those fishing the first Northern Division event of the season.

If you were unable to follow along, tenth place had two bass for 31.25 inches. Yeah, that’s tough fishing! The money spots were as follows:

1st: Matthew Conant (81.00)
2nd: Mike Morcone (77.00)
3rd: Patrick Brown (75.25)
4th: Andrew Heath (72.25)
5th: Ari Stonehill (58.00)

Lunker: Andrew Heath (19.00)
Pickerel Lunker: Patrick Brown (21.25)
Double Down: Ken Wood (13.75)

Check out the full results here.

Congrats to all! Our next Northern Division Event will be at the Nashua River on May 25. The Nashua has a history of putting out some big bags.

Fireworks Came a Month Early This Year

June 29, 2021 0 Comment

July is usually the month of fireworks, but there were plenty in Week 2 of June’s monthly online challenge!

No one entered fish during Week 1, so the game was wide open when Week 2 started. Matt Conant set things off quickly, putting up nearly 90 inches his first day out, but Ken Wood laid a hefty 92 inches on the board on my first day out, overtaking Conant for the lead. He was able to increase that total to 97.50, naively thinking he had a good shot at winning it all.

But with his work week starting on Sundays and Week 2 not ending until Monday evening, Ken gave Matt too much time on the water unopposed, and he retook the lead with 99.75. Joe D’Addeo wasn’t far behind with 95.75, and Derek Brundle and Christopher Alves were making runs with 90.75 and 89 inches, respectively. But when Week 2 ended, Conant still had the lead.

Four anglers took to the water during Week 3, but none could catch the leader. Five more tried in the final week, but last month’s winner Steve Hedges was the only one to break 90 inches. Unfortunately his 91.75 wasn’t enough and Conant wins his second monthly online challenge of the year (he won the first of the season in April).

Matt and Ken tied for lunker, with both of them putting up 20.75-inch tanks. Their second biggest bass determined the tie-breaker, though, with Ken’s 20.50 besting Matt’s 20.25 for the lunker win!

Check out the final results here on Fishing Chaos.

Announcing the 2021 MAKB Tournament Schedules

March 7, 2021 0 Comment

With two divisions, new monthly online events, as well as the Spring/Fall Brawls and the Knockout Series, setting up this season has been a lot of work. But we’re finally at the finish line!

Before we get into everything, though, you will need a Fishing Chaos account to fish any of these events. You can set that up here, if you haven’t already done so.

Though you can only register for some tournaments at this time (read on to find out what you can register for), all of our events are live on the on the Fishing Chaos website. Follow this link to check everything out!

Also, as we discussed in a previous post, you will also need to be a paid MAKB member to fish any of these events, save for the Knockout Series, which is open to all.

We have three membership tiers, all of which have different perks and grant specific access to different events, so please read the membership details on our Fishing Chaos club page before joining.

That said, there’s a lot to unpack here, but I’ll try to be as brief as possible…

EASTERN DIVISION SCHEDULE

We have nine events scheduled for this year’s season, plus the championship. The schedule is as follows:

Apr 17 – A-1/Stump Pond (Westborough)
May 15 – South Watuppa Pond (Fall River)
May 29 – Wequaquet Lake (Barnstable)
Jun 12 – Nashua River (Groton)
Jul 10 – Lake Nippenicket (Bridgewater)
Aug 7 – Charles River (Roadrunner)
Aug 28 – Lake Cochituate (Wayland)
Sep 4 – Long Pond (Lakeville)
Sep 18 – Walker/Upper/Lower Mill (Brewster)

Oct 23 – Webster Lake (Webster) (Championship)

WESTERN DIVISION SCHEDULE

Shawn and Nelson have done a great job setting up our new western division! In this first year, there will be seven events, plus the championship. The schedule is as follows:

Apr 10 – Quaboag Pond (Brookfield)
May 8 – Buckley Denton Reservoir/Yokum Pond (Becket)
May 15 – East/West Waushacum Ponds (Sterling)
Jun 12 – Chicopee River (Chicopee)
Jul 24 – Tully Lake (Athol)
Aug 28 – Cheshire Reservoir (Cheshire)
Sep 18 – Lake Garfield (Monterey)

Oct 23 – Webster Lake (Webster)

The championship event on Webster Lake is a single event for qualifying anglers in both division. To learn how to qualify, click here.

MONTHLY ONLINE CHALLENGE SERIES

We’ve always talked about running a monthly online series, something similar to KBFs monthly state challenges, but never could figure out a fair way to do it. One inherent issue with KBFs challenges is that those anglers who cannot fish a lot are very unlikely to win when many other anglers can fish every day.

With our switch to the Fishing Chaos tournament management platform, we now have the ability to alter things in ways we couldn’t before, affording us a way to even the playing field for anglers, so to speak.

So we will be running a monthly online series similar to KBFs, but with one key difference: anglers can only fish one week out of the month.

When registering, anglers will choose one of four weeks, starting on the 1st of every month and ending on the 28th. It breaks down as follows:

Week 1: 1st–7th
Week 2: 8th–14th
Week 3: 15th–21st
Week 4: 22nd–28th

Our hope is that this will make things fairer and more competitive all around. Yes, some anglers will be able to fish all seven days, but it will be more difficult for them with only seven days to fish as opposed to thirty or so.

This series starts in April and will run monthly through October. You can register for all of these events on Fishing Chaos now!

THE CATCH ‘EM ALL SPRING & FALL BRAWLS

The Catch ‘Em All Spring Brawl and Fall Brawl are online no-limit events we started a few years ago. In the past we’ve opened them up to all of New England, but this year we are limiting them to Massachusetts.

These events are pretty straight forward: one lake of your choosing (public, of course), eight hours, catch and upload as many bass as you can. Simple.

You can register for these events on Fishing Chaos now!

KNOCKOUT SERIES

Registration for the Knockout Series is ongoing. This is our annual bracketed, angler-versus-angler series. This series works with 32, 48, or 64 anglers. We’ve already hit the 32-angler threshold and are working up to forty-eight.

You can read more about the series here and sign up over on our Facebook group page. If you do not have a Facebook account and would like to sign up, shoot me a message through our contact page.

And that’s it, folks! We have a busy, exciting year planned, and we can’t wait to kick it off on April 1 with the Spring Brawl!

If you have any questions, just ask.

New Year, New MAKB

January 1, 2021 0 Comment

New year, new MAKB!

With the continuous evolution of the sport, we are evolving as well. I will keep these as brief as possible, but if you intend to fish with us this year, I highly encourage you read everything.

So…

TOURNAMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

After many hours of research and testing, as well as multiple demos, we have decided to use Fishing Chaos as our tournament management system starting this season.

This was not an easy decision to make. We have used TourneyX since our last event of 2016—62 events total between then and now. Dwayne and the app have served us well, but its limitations have also held us back in many regards. We feel that the Fishing Chaos app not only does everything we’ve always wanted an app to do, but also so much more.

So you will need to download the app and create an account on Fishing Chaos.

There is a learning curve, and as we close in on the season we will have a series of posts going over how to use the app. An update to the app is scheduled for February, so we will wait until after that time to post this info.

MEMBERSHIPS

Thus far, MAKB has been an open trail. Starting this year, we are moving to a membership-based platform.

With two divisions now in place, cost to run the trail will double. Some of that cost was offset in previous years through our 50/50 raffles. We tried that once last year through PayPal, but it didn’t quite work, so once again the cost of trophies and such will be an out-of-pocket expense (around $400). I can barely justify that (especially to my wife) for one division, so I definitely can’t justify it for two.

We have come up with three memberships plans—$25, $15, $10—all of which come with certain perks. You can read all about them and join through our club page on Fishing Chaos.

You will not be able to fish any of our tournaments, whether online or live, without being a member.

That said, being a Premium member will not guarantee you a spot at any of our live events, save for the river events which are unlimited because the boundaries allow for it. Due to state restrictions, we are allowed a max of 25 anglers per most events. First come, first serve, which is why registration for all our events goes live at 7 PM the Sunday before.

DIVISIONS

In case you missed the recent Jigs & Bigs podcast, we are heading west! Starting this season, we will have two divisions: East and West. Many of you have been asking for us to expand into different parts of the state, and this is the first step in that direction.

The Eastern Division will cover the same area we’ve always covered, which is the south shore and Cape Cod.

The Western Division is the new division, and it will be run by Shawn Dominik and Nelson da Costa. While we are still working on the trail schedule, there will be seven stops this year, spread out from the central part of the state to the New York border.

You won’t see much overlap of anglers between divisions. As such, each division will have its own separate Angler of the Year race.

TOURNAMENTS

There will be nine Eastern Division events this year, one less than normal, and seven Western Division events. As mentioned above, they will all culminate in the first-ever MAKB Championship.

In addition to those live events, we will be hosting more online events. The Catch ‘Em All Spring Brawl and Fall Brawl have already been scheduled. The Spring Brawl will kick off our season on April 3!

There will be monthly challenges as well. We’re still discussing what those challenges will be, as we fully understand that traditional month-long challenges benefit those anglers who can fish more. We’re looking at ways to level that playing field to make it more competitive for all.

This is where our new tiered memberships come into play, as each one gives you access to certain events.

CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT

One thing we’ve always discussed was having a championship event at the end of each season. We never quite got around to doing that, though.

With the new division, the idea of having a championship became even more enticing. So at the end of the 2021 season, both divisions will come together in Central MA for our first-ever MAKB Championship event!

To qualify, you just need to finish in the top three at any live event. Simple.

More details will follow.

APPROVED MEASURING DEVICE

Starting this year, all anglers fishing MAKB events, both live and online, must use one of the following three Ketch Products boards: the Ketch Karbonate board, the Ketch X board, or the original Ketch board.

As a result of the infamous Flexgate and based on how many anglers used another brand of measuring board in our events last year (I think there were three total), we felt that this was the best choice to not only discourage cheating but also stay in line with the current industry standard.

We are not affiliated with Ketch Products in any way.

That should cover all the big things. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, let us know.

Ken Wood Joins the Jackson Kayak Fishing Team

March 13, 2020 0 Comment

Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ founder, Ken Wood, has joined the Jackson Kayak Fishing Team. Here is his statement…

• • •

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Life is a journey, not a destination.”

My interpretation of this quote has always been a simple one, but Louis L’Amour probably said it best: “Too often I would hear men boast of the miles covered that day, rarely of what they had seen.”

Where you start doesn’t determine where you finish. It’s everything in between that gets you there and matters most, and I’ve always been one to embrace and focus on the many adventures within the long journey to my final destination, whatever that may be.

On this day four years ago, I traveled down to Delaware Paddlesports on my way to the first-ever Kayak Bass Fishing National Championship on Kentucky Lake. That short detour started my journey with Jackson Kayak, with the purchase of a brand new Big Rig.

I’ve been with Jackson ever since, from that first Big Rig to the Coosa FD and now the Big Rig HD/FD. As an angler, there isn’t another kayak I’d rather be in.

At the 2018 National Championship, I found myself knocking on death’s door in the frigid waters of Lake Barkley, having flipped my Coosa FD.

In the process of trying to flip the kayak back over, I bent and broke the lower unit of the Flex Drive.

Upon hearing of this, Jackson Kayak and their team stepped up and had a new lower unit for me the following day. I was rattled and not much interested in fishing, but I was back on the water facing my newfound fear. Words can’t explain how important that was.

My loyalty doesn’t come easy, but Jackson has it, for many reasons.

And so I am excited to announce that I’ve accepted a position on the Jackson Kayak Fishing Team, alongside Joshua Evans, Matt Ball, Henry Veggian, Russell Johnson, Richard Wohlwend-Penny, Josh Stewart, Dwayne Taff, Jamie Broad, and so many more, giants of the kayak bass fishing community.

I don’t know where this road leads, and I don’t want to. Never do. I just want to be present and available for whatever adventure comes next. This is just one of them.

Photo courtesy of Scott Beutjer.