Category: Eastern Division

Kicker for the Win

September 5, 2021 0 Comment

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

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

And that’s exactly how this one played out…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And congrats to everyone else!

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

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

Then it’s on to the championship!

Long Day on Long Pond

August 30, 2021 0 Comment

This past Saturday, for the first time in a long time, we had a full field of 25 anglers! Was good to see. Unfortunately, by the end of the event, most had already gone home.

Anglers were met with strong winds almost right from the start. The eastern shoreline was relatively calm, at least in comparison to the washing machine that was the western side of the lake. With this place being notoriously tough, the wind did not help matters.

Only six anglers caught a limit!

At the ramp after the event, I announced another angler as having won the pickerel lunker pool. He entered an incorrect length, however, and after correcting it, Mike Morcone’s 21-incher moved into the top spot!

Lunker bass for the event went to Steve Hedges, who nailed a 19.50 just after 7 AM. Great job, man!

Torrence Davis kindly donated one of his Bubba Bass Anglers tackle boxes to the first person out of the money, and that angler was Domenic Eno!

Thanks again, Torrence! And if you’ve not checked out the Bubba Bass Anglers YouTube channel, do yourself a favor and do so. Then smooch the like button, kick subscribe, and headbutt the bell, or whatever. Something like that.

Seriously, though, it’s a great channel.

Speaking of Torrence, with 65.75 inches, he landed in fifth place, his first time in the money with MAKB. Congrats, man! Fishing rocks was where he found the most success.

Also with 65.75, Steve Hedges nabbed fourth place, with his tournament lunker being the guaranteed tie-breaker.

I landed five fish all day, and it took me fishing the entire western side of the lake to do so. Those five fish went 71.25, good enough for third.

Troy Brown almost backed out after his car was rear-ended the day before. Luckily he woke up not feeling as bad as he feared, made the event, and threw 72 inches on the board. Anchored by a solid 18.50, the second biggest of the event, this hoisted him up into the winner’s circle and second place. Glad you made it, man!

As I made my way up the shoreline, noting that the farther north I went there were less weeds and more rock and hard/sandy bottom, I lamented not bringing my bag full of Z-Man products. I felt the ned rig would have been perfect for that stuff. I had the rod, the hooks, but not the baits.

Toward the end of the day, coming down the eastern side, I passed Matthew Conant, who said something along the lines of, “Keep going. Nothing to see here.” I saw he had a ned rig in his hand, which confirmed what I was thinking earlier…

As he said, once he tied that on, it was “like night and day.” After struggling most of the day, the ned produced for him almost immediately, and he continued to catch fish and cull up to a solid Long Pond limit of 74.25, plenty enough to give him yet another notch in his belt! Congrats, brother!

Check out the full results here.

Tied Up on the Charles River

August 7, 2021 0 Comment

The Charles River played host to the sixth Eastern Division event of the season today. Twenty-seven anglers fished this one, launching from various locations along the near 70-mile river boundary.

The water is higher than normal, the current swifter, which made the bite much tougher than it usually is this time of year.

The leaderboard changed quite a bit throughout the day, as anglers started putting the pieces together. Every time I checked the standings, things had shifted.

One thing that wasn’t changing was the pickerel lunker standings. Steve Hedges put up a 14-incher early, but that was the only one submitted until he submitted a 17.25 in the last thirty minutes. No other pickerel were submitted!

I know I was surprised not to have caught any, but I guess they were in a collective funk all across the river. Steve wins that lunker pool uncontested!

A number of big bass were caught, though, but Domenic Eno dropped the hammer on a 20.75-inch tank within the first hour, pretty much closing the door on lunker for the day right then and there.

I didn’t pay a lot of attention to the standings toward the end of the day. All I knew was, my bites were coming few and far between. The fish just weren’t where I expected them to be.

Valber Santos pushed into the lead at one point and with his knowledge of the river it was looking like he had it all but wrapped up. His 84.75 had him separated from the pack by close to ten inches.

Justin Lacasse was a last-minute sign-up. He had a near win at the KBF Trail event last year, and he won the Ocean State Kayak Bassin’ event on the river earlier this year. A late-day cull today pushed him up into fifth place with 77 inches, tying Ryan Pierce, who won the tie-breaker with his big fish—a 19-incher—giving him fourth place.

I was out on the Charles for the Summer Brawl last weekend, and I couldn’t buy a bite on the frog. That’s usually my go-to on the Charles in the summer, but yet again today they just wouldn’t touch it. Mike Morcone had the complete opposite experience: that’s all he could catch them on! His 78.25 nabbed a third-place finish.

Around 10:30 AM, I hooked up with my fifth fish, nearly five miles from where I launched. I’d sidled up to a log jam at a bridge and cast up under it before going through. A very aggressive bass smashed my bait, and in the process of reeling it in, it got wrapped up in all my other rods that I had laying down on the deck. Complete nightmare!

Worried my line was going to break, the only thing I could do was power-lift it up into the kayak—five or six rods with it—and try to pendulum swing it in…

And then the fish came off!

Unbelievably, though, in the process of falling, its upper lip fell right onto my flipping bait and the bass hooked itself! Unreal. I wish I had the GoPro with me for that one. Just insane. I started screaming like Iaconelli! Haha.

That fish gave me my limit and pushed me up into second place with 81.50 inches. I still had a 12.50, though, so I knew I was one good bite away from taking the lead.

Then, at 1:31, Valber dropped an 18 on the board, pushing him to 86.50.

Five minutes later, I was on my way back, rushing to hit some key laydowns along the way. I came to one from which I’d watched Chris Titi pull two 19.75s back to back earlier in the morning, flipped in, and smashed a 17.50, giving me a five-inch upgrade, tying Valber’s 86.50.

My big fish was a 19, though, which trumped Valber’s 18.25, giving me the win. Crazy finish, man! Great job out there!

Full results can be found here.

An extra special shout-out to Valber and Cleiton Rocha, who assisted Scott Salvo after he flipped his kayak. A lost phone is much preferable to a lost life. Thanks, guys!

Scott was doing well, too. Who knows, maybe the day would have been his? Next time, buddy!

Thanks for coming out, fellas! Everyone caught fish, so that’s always good.

Deja Vu in the Bridgewater Triangle

July 11, 2021 0 Comment

Yesterday, twenty anglers fished the fifth Eastern Division event of the season on Lake Nippenicket. This was our second time at the Nip this season, after having to relocate an earlier event due to high winds.

That previous event was won by Valber Santos in the final hour, when he put an 18.75 on the board, bumping Bruce Levy, who’d had the lead most of the day, down to second.

Both anglers, I’m sure, went into this second event with a lot of confidence. But they weren’t the only ones fishing…

I went out last Thursday, and the bite was tough as hell. Others I’d spoke to who’d also fished that day had the same experience. The tropical storm system that rolled through on Friday had them in a funk the day before, and that seemed to carry over to Saturday as well.

I did not fish this event, but the bite was tough down in Brewster where I was fishing, and the final standings for the Nip mirrors my experience, with only six anglers catching limits, and many of those fish on the smaller side.

Some good ones were caught, though, including a 22-inch beast hauled in by Joe Fournier. I’ve fished many events there where a fish that big wasn’t big enough for lunker at the Nip (I caught a 6.4 there once and it was not the biggest fish of the tournament), but luckily for Joe his fish was the biggest of the day, by 2.5 inches!

The Nip doesn’t only have big bass, it has monster pickerel as well, which Patrick Brown learned when he nailed a long 24.50! Almost big enough for a state pin, definitely big enough for pickerel lunker.

In his second event of the year, Donald Davis found himself in the money once again, putting up 64.75 and notching a fifth place finish in his storied MAKB career. And once again, doing so out of the old sit-in! =)

Joshua Jackson also found himself in the money for the second time this year, landing in fourth place again, this time with 66.75!

Adding more cash to his pickerel winnings, Patrick Brown pulled off a third-place finish with 71.25!

I checked the standings at some point in the morning and Bruce had a commanding lead, around 20 inches if I recall correctly, maybe more. He looked poised to get a little redemption after the last event there.

Typically I turn the standings off two hours prior to an event ending, but I forgot to set an alarm this time, and I didn’t even think about it until the tournament was nearly over. At 1:44, I checked the standings and reigning Angler of the Year Joseph Daddeo had closed the gap considerably, sitting at 73 inches, just .75 behind Bruce.

So I turned the standings off, thinking it’d add a little drama to the event if Joe could pull off a last-minute upset.

Shortly after 2 PM, all the way down on Cape Cod, I heard Bruce cursing, because four minutes after I turned off the standings, Joe put up a fish that pushed him into the lead, adding another 3.25 inches to his final score (76.25) and giving him the win!

Déjà vu for Bruce, but still another solid finish on an already great season.

Great job to everyone who got out there and put up fish. The Nip can be tough on any day and the weather definitely didn’t help this time.

Congrats to everyone in the money! Awesome job. =) And thanks to Don and Bruce for running this one!

Check out the full standings here.

A Record-Shattering Day!

June 12, 2021 1 Comment

Earlier this morning, at 8:18 AM, I got a phone call. The person on the other end, voice shaking, said, “What’s the club record?”

That record—95.25, caught by me at Snipatuit Pond in 2016—has fallen.

(That was the official regular-season record. Chris Catucci put up 96.50 in a post-season event in 2020.)

I didn’t fish the Nashua River event today. I was fishing the Kayak Fishing League event and my Kayak Bass Bracket Tour match at Snipatuit Pond, of all places. I had a good day. But it doesn’t compare.

Seventeen anglers made the trek up to the Nashua River today. With 17 anglers, we’re paying out just four spots and lunker.

This is how it broke down…

Lunker Snapper – Steve O’Brien (26 lb)
Lunker Pickerel – Ray Figueroa (19.75)
Lunker- Bruce Levy (21.50)

5th Place – Christopher Nardi (72.00)
4th Place – Nate Chagnon (77.00)
3rd Place – Donald Davis (79.75)
2nd Place – Kevin P Amaral (81.50)
1st Place – Bruce Levy

Remember that phone call from 8:18 AM? That was Bruce calling. He had the tournament won at that point, and will likely hold the club record for biggest limit for as long as this group exists.

Bruce’s biggest five bass totaled a MONSTROUS…102.50!

Unreal. Holy crap. What a day! LEGEND!

For a day.

Congrats to everyone, but bow down to the GOAT!

But not for too long.

Watch Bruce discuss his epic day on The Breakdown with John Ferreira.

Check out the full standings here.

A Plate of Nachos Goes 1 and 2

May 29, 2021 0 Comment

Well, that was fun, right?

Twenty-one of us fished Lake Nippenicket today for the third Eastern Division event of the season. Two backed out beforehand, and two just went home, never even launching, and many left early.

Cold, wind, and rain are bad enough alone, but add them all together and it can be pretty miserable, especially if you’re not catching fish. And that was me.

I had my kayak nearly fully rigged in my garage, and still managed not to get on the water in time to launch early with most everyone else. Because of that, every spot I went to had an angler or multiple anglers on it. Then I got stuck in the weeds and had to paddle against the wind, which was awful. I bailed at 9:30 AM, only to leave my kayak at the ramp, Power Pole down, group of people standing there gawping at it as I walked away. When I came back, the kayak was floating away and they were all just staring at it.

Pretty nice of them.

Anyway, Joe Fournier gave me a hand with that, then Nate Chagnon rolled up, and we rolled out and went to Smokey Bones, where we took the lead for a bit.


Bruce’s angry text message accusing us of sandbagging was worth it!

Anyway, a good amount of fish were caught, though. More than I expected, to be honest, but only four limits. Two of the 16 anglers that caught fish today figured something out and they led the field from the start, each holding the lead at times throughout the day.

Since I left early, I don’t know many details of how things went down, but here’s what the standings show:

Steve Hedges was already having a good week, but it just got better with his 24.25-inch pickerel taking the pickerel lunker pool.

Event lunker went to Valber Santos, who nabbed a tank 21.50-inch, 6-pounder, right after he launched.

In fifth place is Bob Pierce, who only caught four fish, but they were enough. He had 62.25.

Steve Hedges took the fourth spot, landing five bass for 64 inches. Maybe he’s not having a good week but a great one?

Ari Stonehill was contemplating leaving, not even launching. And in fact he didn’t launch with everyone; he was waiting/hoping for the weather to improve. I’m not sure it did, but he chose to get on the water despite this, and it paid off. With 71.50, he took third place.

For a while, it looked like Bruce Levy was going to come out on top. Valber Santos was in the lead, his limit anchored by not one tank but two (a 21.50 and a 20.00), but Bruce smashed a late-day 18.25, giving him the lead by more than three inches.

Valber had a 12.50. He also hadn’t uploaded a fish since 9:10 AM. It wouldn’t take much, though, to take the lead.

Unfortunately for Bruce, at 1:18 PM, Valber did just that, adding a solid 18.75 to his already impressive limit. With two 20s already on the board (not done since Peter Arruda’s win at Whitehall a few years ago), Bruce would need an epic rally to retake the lead. Lucky for Valber, it didn’t happen, and his 93.25 was plenty to beat Bruce’s 87.75. Any five-fish limit with two giants is always going to be hard to beat!

Great job, guys! Congrats! And to everyone that caught fish—hell yea! I’m glad it wasn’t awful for everyone, though I’m sure even those were catching fish suffered.

Full results can be found here.

Down to the Wire at Watuppa

May 17, 2021 0 Comment

The second Eastern Division event of the year went down yesterday on South Watuppa, the state’s fifth biggest body of water, and the biggest we’ve fished as a group.


Mike Morcone and others at launch

Notoriously stingy, Watuppa gave up some pretty decent bags yesterday, and easily the most smallmouth I’ve seen in a tournament—nine overall.

The wind also played nice until the end of the day, when a front came in, shifting direction, and pushing strong westerly gusts and some big waves toward all the anglers—which seemed to be most of the field—fishing the northeastern end of the lake. It laid down some after that, but overall it was a rare calm day out there.

Ryan Pierce drew first blood with a 16-incher just a few minutes after lines in, then Mike Morcone overtook him with a 16.75. But it would be a bit before fish started really hitting the leaderboard. An hour or so in, I believe only five or six fish had been uploaded.

As the day progressed and warmed, though, the fish got hungrier, especially the bigger fish. Every fish 18 inches and bigger was caught after noontime.

Unlike the bass, the bigger pickerel didn’t show up. With thirteen anglers in the pickerel lunker pool, I expected the winning fish to be one of the many giants that live in the lake, but Ari Stonehill’s 22.75 took home the prize.

We had a tie between John Ferreira and Patrick Brown for smallmouth lunker, with both of them hauling in a 16-incher, a pretty good-size smallie for that lake (from my experience, anyway). They will split the pot.

Tournament lunker went to Christopher Alves. He pulled up from the depths a hefty 19.50 on a dropshot.

We had 24 anglers, so we’re paying out five spots…

Derek Brundle, no stranger to making money at tournament, made a little more by nabbing fifth place with 79.25.

Fourth place went to Joshua Jackson, who submitted seven fish, all but one of which was caught after noon, and that one just before it. I believe this marks the first time Josh has “cashed a check” at an MAKB event. Right on!

Bruce Levy tossed his trusty white spinnerbait around for an early limit, even holding the lead a few times. With no kicker, though, his 81 inches was only enough for third place.

With 83 inches, Valber Santos was lined up for the win…until Mike Morcone snatched an 18-incher out of bed at 2:43 PM, giving him a 2.5-inch upgrade and the win with 84.25!

Congrats to all! Great day out there.

Click here for the full results.

Tough Conditions and Stingy Bites

April 18, 2021 0 Comment

The guarantee of cold, wind, rain, and a tough bite didn’t stop twenty-five of MAKB’s most dedicated anglers from hitting A-1 yesterday morning for the Eastern Division opener.

Before launch, the wind was relatively light, and it seemed like maybe the day wouldn’t be as bad as expected. The moment we launched, however, Mother Nature said, “Psyche!” The wind kicked up, the cold cut through, and not long after the rain rolled in. The sun broke through briefly, but for much of the day it was pretty miserable.

From what I saw, it seemed that most anglers started out shallow, including me. Ari Stonehill started near me, so I stuck to the shoreline, while he fished some wood a bit offshore. I quickly moved away from that area, tossing a green pumpkin Project Z chatterbait through the sparse pads. I was still on the inside, close to shore, but then moved to the outside of the pads, a little deeper, and got a good whack that came off. Whatever it was felt like it shook its head a bit, a good sign it was a bass.

In the meantime, Nate Chagnon had already put a 17.75 on the board just after the 7 AM start.

In the morning, Nate told me he had that gut feeling, like he had down in Alabama for the KBF Trail Event, where he placed third. I told him it was probably diarrhea, but before I knew it, he had three over 17 inches on the board.

Mike Morcone, Gerard Elias, and Sean Dwyer all put up 18-inchers in about the first hour. Bruce Levy put up a solid 19.25 shortly after, but that early flurry of activity died not long after that.

For my day, after that first whack on the green pumpkin chatterbait, I caught a 17, and decided to stick to the chatterbait for the rest of the day. I alternated to a white chatterbait, then moved farther offshore, and ran into four good ones in quick succession—7:57, 8:15, 8:21, and 8:37. Then, besides on 13-incher, my bite died until 1:36 PM, when I caught a two-inch upgrade.

At the end of the day, only two anglers out of twenty-five caught a limit, and only seventeen caught a fish. A brutally tough day for all involved.

We ran a lunker pickerel pool, as always, and Ari Stonehill took it with a 21.50. Knowing the giants in there, I’m still surprised that one held up. I guess even the pickerel were tight-lipped due to the snow and near-freezing temps the night before.

My 20-incher took overall event lunker, which was a legit shock to me because I entered the length incorrectly, thought I had a 19, so when Donald Davis, who judged the event, corrected it to 20 inches, I was genuinely confused. Haha. A pleasant surprise, though.

Taking fifth place, with just three fish and 52 inches, was Gerard Elias. To tell you how tough the bite was, Gerard didn’t catch a keeper after 8:53 AM.

John Ferreira nabbed fourth place with 66.75, catching most of his four bass offshore; which is exactly where Mike Morcone spent his day, netting 72 inches of bass and third place.

Nate Chagnon’s gut feeling proved true (much better than the alternative), and he worked one spot and one bait all day, hauling in 86.75 inches worth of A-1 greens. That was one of only two limits caught all day, good enough for second place. Nate is on fire this year!

I have fished A-1 a half dozen or so times in the past, only doing well once. Despite it having everything I love to fish—shallow water, weeds, wood, etc.—I have struggled there. So going in my expectations were low. And despite that productive early-morning hour, I struggled as usual.

Thankfully for me, that one lucky hour was enough for the win. The late-afternoon upgrade was just icing on the cake. My best five went 94.25, a record I will likely never top at A-1.

I gotta say one thing about the Jackson Kayak Flex Drive. I never once had to concern myself with all that submerged wood as long as I was moving forward. I hit so many stumps at full speed, and that drive kicked up and never slowed me down. Pretty killer design.

Anyway, congrats to all who caught fish on a very tough day, and thanks to everyone for braving those conditions.

You can check the full results here.

Our next Eastern Division event goes down on May 15 at South Watuppa Pond in Fall River.