Category: Tournament Results

The Bass Snatchers Edge Out Win in First-Ever River Rumble

June 5, 2025 0 Comment

This past Sunday marked the debut of the River Rumble, a unique four-angler team tournament spread out across four different rivers, one per division.

In play were the Charles River (Eastern), Nashua River (Northern), Sudbury River (Central), and the Connecticut River (Western).

Twenty-eight anglers registered for the event, forming seven teams. With recent rains still impacting the region, elevated water levels and increased current made for challenging conditions, especially for those fishing the main river channels. Cooler water temps further complicated things. Anglers who shifted their focus to off-river spots—backwater areas, ponds, oxbows, etc.—generally found more cooperative bass.

Early on, the Yakstreet Boys jumped out to a strong lead. But as the day wore on, the Bass Snatchers began to close the gap, helped in large part by a pair of big fish from Patrick Brown. Smells Like Fish and The River Bandits also made late pushes, but in the end, it was the Bass Snatchers who pulled off the win, edging out the Yakstreet Boys by a single inch!

Nice work to everyone who competed, and congrats to the Bass Snatchers—Patrick Brown, Mason Bailey, Gerard Elias, and Alexis Arroyo—for taking the win!

There were definitely some unknowns going into this one, especially with the need for a clean four-per-team setup, but everything came together smoothly. We’re already looking ahead to the next River Rumble, scheduled for August 17. If you missed out this time, or were on the fence, we hope you’ll jump in for the next one!

Conor Reavey Has Arrived!

March 30, 2025 0 Comment

For the past two years, Webster Lake has had a habit of blessing one or two anglers while cursing the rest—and yesterday was no different.

At one point, I was actually leading with a five-fish limit totaling 52.50 inches. Not that it felt amazing, but it felt a lot better before Gerard messaged me: “Are you going for the smallest five-fish limit in MAKB history?”

Not long after that, Justin Gallo surged into the lead and looked poised for a dominant win. But when his bite slowed, Conor Reavey’s bite fired up—and he took full advantage, stacking up 84.50 inches and locking in his first-ever tournament win! Huge congrats, Conor!

Rounding out the top five were:

Justin Gallo – 75.75
Gerald Howes – 70.50
Khoa Dao – 67.00
Ryan Stager – 60.25

Chip Dufault took home overall lunker with a solid 20.50-inch largemouth. Justin Gallo grabbed the smallmouth lunker with a 17.25—and he was clearly dialed in, submitting five of the seven smallmouth caught all day.

And last but not least, Ryan Stager stuck a 23-inch pickerel, good enough to take home that sidepot!

It was a cold, miserable day for most of us—but hats off to those who made it happen. Great job all around!

Check out the full results here.

Our divisional season kicks off in just two weeks, on April 12. The Eastern Division will hit Long Pond in Harwich, while the Western Division heads to Richmond Pond for the first time ever. Let’s go!

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!

Lee Kennon Flips Again…and Wins Again

June 24, 2024 0 Comment

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ken also won the Double Down.

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

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

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

Check out the full results here.

Andrew Heath Conquers Lake Ashmere

June 10, 2024 0 Comment

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

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

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

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

Check out the full results here.

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.