Category: Eastern Division

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!

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…

Matt Conant Puts Us All on Notice

April 6, 2024 0 Comment

It was a wild one today!

I expected the cold, the wind, and the rain, but the snow was a nice touch by Mother Nature. As soon as we launched, it got a bit nasty, but it wasn’t too bad after that. For a while, anyway.

The main lake, obviously, took the brunt of the wind and the conditions were sketchy for those who fished out there.

Despite the conditions and the tough bite for most, one angler gave us all a hardcore beatdown.

But before we get to him…

In fifth place was Gerard Elias, who left early but was apparently on a decent bite with two 18.25s!

John Ferreira also left early, but still put up enough for fourth place with 42.75.

I finished in third place with 59.50, and also nabbed pickerel lunker with a 25.75. I probably caught a dozen just as big off of one tree. Not exaggerating!

Shuffling his way in second place: Nate Chagnon. He had 66.25.

We’ve had four events thus far in 2024, and Matthew Conant has won three of them. Putting us all on notice!

Today, Matt had 93.75, the only angler to catch a limit, let alone cull—and culled FOUR times! Guess it pays to pre-fish! You also gotta know how to catch them, and Matt clearly does. He also had the event lunker at 21 inches, and he nabbed the Double Down as well.

Not bad for a miserable day. Great job, man!

And everyone else in the money or those who just caught fish and braved the conditions, congrats!

Special nod to Alex Weisheit, who, surprisingly, caught the only smallmouth! Crazy.

Oh, and we can’t forget to show some love to the luckiest angler of the event, Bobby Tran Jr., who not only parked on the wrong side of the road, but IN the road right before a curve ! For eight hours! And he only got a $40 ticket.

Clearly, Bobby is the true winner of this event!

Check out the full results here.

The next MAKB event is tomorrow on Webster Lake. This is a Central Division event. Spots still open!

The next Eastern Division event is on May 18 at Snipatuit Pond.

2024 Schedule Announcement

January 28, 2024 0 Comment

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

DIVISIONAL EVENTS

Apr 6 – Wequaquet Lake (Eastern)
Apr 7 – Webster Lake (Central)
Apr 13 – Lake Cochituate (Northern)
Apr 27 – East Brimfield Lake (Western)
May 11 – A-1 (Central)
May 18 – Snipatuit Pond (Eastern)
May 25 – Onota Lake (Western)
May 25 – Nashua River (Northern)
Jun 1 – Singletary Lake (Central)
Jun 8 – Ashmere Lake (Western)
Jun 15 – Pawtuckaway Lake (Northern)
Jun 29 – Mashpee-Wakeby (Eastern)
Jul 13 – Sudbury River (Central)
Jul 14 – Charles River (Eastern)
Jul 27 – Buel Lake (Western)
Jul 27 – Lake Attitash (Northern)
Aug 10 – Chebacco Lake (Northern)
Aug 24 – Upper/Lower Mill Ponds & Walkers Pond (Eastern)
Aug 31 – Quaboag Pond (Western)
Aug 31 – Whitehall Reservoir (Central)
Sep 7 – Lake Quinsigamond/Flint Pond (Central)
Sep 8 – Billington Sea (Eastern)
Sep 14 – Sudbury River (Northern)
Sep 14–15 – Congamond Lake & The Oxbow (Western)
Sep 28 – Otis Reservoir (Championship)

As you can see, there are very few conflicts between divisions (and none with EKF, if you were wondering), so anyone looking to chase the 2024 MAKB Angler of the Year title should have plenty of opportunity.

A few other things:

Webster Lake, Billington Sea, and the Charles River are on Sunday.

The Pawtuckaway Lake event in New Hampshire is not yet approved. We need to wait until March to submit the permit.

The Western Division is running a two-day event for the season closer. Two days, two separate bodies of water, ten best fish (best five each day).

The championship is on September 28 on Otis Reservoir. Plan ahead!

ONLINE EVENTS

Mar 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Apr 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Apr 21 – The Catch ‘Em All Spring Brawl
May 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Jun 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Jul 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Jun 30 – The Catch ‘Em All Summer Brawl
Aug 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Sep 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Oct 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Oct 20 – The Catch ‘Em All Fall Brawl

TNT SERIES

TBA

COLD WATER SERIES

TBA

KNOCKOUT SERIES

Apr 1–Oct 28

2023 Schedule Reveal

February 5, 2023 0 Comment

If you missed our Facebook Live schedule reveal, here it is:

EASTERN DIVISION

Apr 1 – Wequaquet Lake (Barnstable)
May 13 – Cook Pond (Fall River)
Jun 10 – Snipatuit Pond (Rochester)
Jul 1 – Charles River (Roadrunner)
Aug 26 – Long Pond (Plymouth)
Sep 16 – South Watuppa Pond (Fall River)

WESTERN DIVISION

Apr 22 – Connecticut River – Oxbow (Easthampton)
May 13 – Lake Rohunta (Athol)
Jun 17 – Onota Lake (Pittsfield)
Jul 22 – The Route 57 Run (Roadrunner)
Aug 26 – Connecticut River – North (Roadrunner)
Sep 23 – Ashmere Lake (Hinsdale)

CENTRAL DIVISION

Apr 15 – Webster Lake (Webster)
May 13 – East/West Waushacum Ponds (Sterling)
Jun 10 – A-1/Stump Pond (Westboro)
Jul 22 – Tully Lake (Athol)
Aug 19 – Flint Pond (Shrewsbury)
Sep 23 – Singletary Lake (Millbury)

NORTHERN DIVISION

Apr 29 – Chebacco Lake (South Hamilton)
May 20 – Lake Cochituate (Natick)
Jun 17 – Sudbury River (Roadrunner)
Jul 8 – Merrimack River (Roadrunner)
Aug 5 – Lake Attitash (Merrimac)
Sep 16 – Nashua River (Roadrunner)

CHAMPIONSHIP

Oct 7 – Mashpee-Wakeby Pond (Mashpee)

ONLINE SERIES

Mar 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Apr 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Apr 16 – The Catch ‘Em All Spring Brawl*
May 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Jun 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Jul 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Jul 16 – The Catch ‘Em All Summer Brawl*
Aug 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Sep 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Oct 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Oct 22 – The Catch ‘Em All Fall Brawl*

*Sunday event

We will also have a few “fun” events, but we’re still working out those details. The Thursday Night Throwdowns will also return, but we won’t have any dates until the weather warms up.

As for the Knockout Series returning, that’s still up in the air. If it does return, it will likely revert back to the original format: Massachusetts only, anglers compete head-to-head on the same body of water. We’ll make a final decision soon…

More details were revealed in the live stream, which you can still view at the link above. Otherwise, you can find all this info on the individual event pages on Fishing Chaos.

If you have any questions, please reach out.

MAKB Jerseys and Hoodies Available Again!

March 30, 2022 0 Comment

It’s taken a few years, but MAKB jerseys and hoodies are finally available again!

Newly designed, you can order yours here on our Thrasher Sports Apparel page.

There are two versions available to you:

STANDARD JERSEY/HOODIE

The standard MAKB jersey/hoodie features all our sponsor logos, which cannot be altered or removed. Just add your first and last name and choose which division you’re in (if you have the Online Series membership, just choose the division closest to you).

CUSTOM JERSEY/HOODIE

The custom jersey/hoodie allows you to customize the jersey as you see fit, save for our logos and the American flag. If you would like to represent our sponsors but are also sponsored by a competing company, feel free to add all our other sponsors as you see fit.

Follow this link to order the standard jersey/hoodie, or from there click Add Your Own Sponsors to access the custom jersey/hoodie page.

If you have any questions, let us know!

And the 2021 Eastern Division Angler of the Year is…

February 18, 2022 0 Comment

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!

2022 Tournament Updates and Changes

January 17, 2022 0 Comment

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

January 16, 2022 0 Comment

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.

Boobs on Top!

November 7, 2021 0 Comment

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.