Category: Tournament Results

A Commanding First Win!

September 19, 2020 0 Comment

Every time I’ve fished Lake Maspenock, I go in with high hopes. Then a few hours later I’m on the bottom of my kayak, curled up in the fetal position, crying and questioning my life choices…

Today was no different.

Twenty-three other anglers fished today’s event, and most probably understand what I’m talking about. With the drop in temperature, I’d hoped that it might trigger the fish into feeding instead of shutting them down. I think the latter happened, though.

I had my first fish quickly, at 7:10, a decent 15.75. Then I went exactly two hours without another bite, which resulted in a giant 10.75. At noon I had to go to my car and get a new battery for my fishfinder, and Troy was there packing up. It was an inspirational moment and I almost followed suit, but I decided to stick it out until at least 1 PM.

Just before 1 PM, I got my third bass on a spinnerbait. First cast up in the northern section, and I thought that was going to be the deal. Noooooope! Not another bite on the spinnerbait. But I did manage to yank a smallmouth out from under a dock, knocking it senseless as it smashed into the side of my kayak. I felt bad, but…8.50, baby!

Once again I contemplated leaving, but it was close to the end, so I made my way over to the beach, tossed out the ned, and caught my fifth keeper at 2:32. A limit! A rare feat for me at Maspenock.

Then at 2:48, I caught an upgrade, and another at 2:55! Never felt so good to do so bad. Haha.

As usual, though, anglers begin to buckle down and focus in the last few hours, and there were some surprises…

If you had taken bets on where pickerel lunker would come from, we’d all have bet on the northern, weedy section. Surprisingly, I caught a 21.25 down south, on a spinnerbait in ten feet of water, no weeds in sight. I caught no pickerel up north in the weeds. Makes sense.

John Ferreira caught the biggest smallie (15.25) today, but he didn’t opt in to the smallmouth lunker pool, so that rolls down to Gerard Elias, who had the next biggest at 13.50.

Luckily for John, lunker largemouth was included in the entry fee, so he nabbed that pot with his 18.25!

I passed Chris LaCourse around 11 AM, and he had one fish on the board. He caught five more after that for a total of 66.50 and fifth place. Great job, bud!

Amazingly, my two last-minute upgrades bumped me up into fourth place with 68.75 inches! Guess I’m glad I didn’t quit early.

Joe D’Addeo has been on fire this year, and that streak continues with a third-place finish today. He had 69.75.

Lee Kennon also turned it on in the last two hours, catching three of his five fish during that time, vaulting him up into second place with 71.50!

Today was John’s day, though. From the start, John had it figured out, fishing offshore in deeper water. I passed Bruce Levy at one point and we were both staring at the the sonar spaghetti on our fishfinder screens, scratching our heads, wondering why they wouldn’t bite. John had it dialed in from the jump, hauling in 80 inches and earning him his first regular-season MAKB win. Hell of a day, man!

Great job, gentlemen!

Click here for the full results.

And thanks to everyone for coming out. Our next event is this coming Saturday at Mashpee-Wakeby. They struggled there today (one fish took third place), so let’s cross our fingers and hope for light wind and feeding bass next weekend!

Three Times a King

August 15, 2020 0 Comment

Our annual Three Lake Throwdown is in the books!

Thirty-one of us split the three lakes, ten each at Snipatuit and Agawam Mill, and eleven at Glen Charlie. Mother Nature walloped us pretty good with strong winds all day and intermittent light rain, which made it relatively chilly for those of us who stupidly believed the forecast and wore shorts and a T-shirt.

Overall, it seemed to be a tough bite for most of us. I know it was for me. Lots of fish, but all small. Even the lone pickerel I caught was tiny.

Finding those bigger bites made all the difference today, and many anglers found it late in the day. Lots of movement on the leaderboard after the standings went off at noon.

In years past, typically one lake outperformed the others in this event. Today, they all produced equally. Out of the top ten, three fished Snipatuit, three fished Agawam Mill, and the remaining four fished Glen Charlie. And the top three each fished a different lake.

As such, the bonus winnings from the increased entry fee will go to top three anglers.

Here’s how it all played out…

Pickerel Lunker: Kelvin Nova (aka Medicen Rexx) (23.00)
Lunker: Kelvin Nova (21.00)

5th Place: Bruce Levy (79.75)
4th Place: Chris Catucci (80.00)
3rd Place: Wally Ultsch (81.00)
2nd Place: Valber Santos (82.00)
1st Place: Joseph Daddeo (89.00)

D’Addeo crushes it yet again! This is his third win with us this season and, according to TourneyX, his eighth overall. Beast mode! Valber is crushing it this year as well, placing in the money at all but one event (New Bedford Reservoir).

Great job, guys! Well deserved.

Check out the full results.

With the upcoming KBF Trail event on Lake George and the KBF SuperTrail event on China Lake/Messalonskee Lake, our next event isn’t until September 19, on Lake Maspenock. So hang tight.

Oops! Almost forgot (as usual): thanks for judging, Kevin!

A Gamble Pays Off

August 1, 2020 0 Comment

Well, if you’re sick of fishing rivers as much as I am, I have some good news: no more river tournaments this year!

I think. I hope. We do still need to make up one of our canceled dates. Taunton River again?

Anyway, today marked our fifth tournament of the season and second on the Charles River. During our last tournament on the river, only one angler broke 75 inches, and he did it in a big way, putting up 89.25 inches overall.

Eleven anglers crossed the 75-inch line today, with three going past 80 inches. Definitely a better day than last time, that’s for sure.

For this one, I wanted to get away from the crowds, so I scouted a few areas I’d never fished before. I put up 72 inches at one spot on Wednesday and 86 on Thursday at a different spot. I gambled on the latter, hoping that the handful of laydowns that produced on Thursday would do so again today.

Thankfully, most of them did.

Here are the official results pending any protests:

Pickerel Lunker: Ari Stonehill (17.25)
Lunker: Ken Wood (19.25)

Fifth Place: Lee Kennon (77.50)
Fourth Place: Valber Santos (79.00)
Third Place: Steve Scott (80.25)
Second Place: Domenic Eno (82.25)
First Place: Ken Wood (84.00)

Congrats, gentlemen. Great job out there!

(Now, if Lee hadn’t caught that 17.75 and 16.50 on back to back casts right next to me, I might have also won the KBF Trail event. Haha.)

Find the full results here.

Since I’m fishing again tomorrow, payments will likely go out on Monday. =)

Our next event will be our annual random-draw Three Lake Throwdown event on August 15. Good luck to everyone taking another swing at the Charles tomorrow for the second KBF Trail event.

Dominant Dominik

July 27, 2020 0 Comment

Yesterday, twenty-seven of MAKB’s finest hit the Nashua River for our fourth event of the season!

No one launched north of the covered bridge in Groton, so as suspected there doesn’t appear to be any easily found launches up that way, if any at all.

Also, no smallmouth was caught, so I don’t know if the information I received was incorrect or if they’re just not abundant south of Groton. Either way, everyone who got in on that lunker pool will be refunded tonight.

Going in, I had expectations of countless blow-ups as I chucked a frog all day long. At least for me, that didn’t happen. I brought two frog rods—one for a hollow body, and the other for a soft plastic frog—and I didn’t get a single damn blow-up all day. I’m still confused.

Even more confusing, Kevin Amaral Jr. said he got all his fish on the frog and, at least for a time, I was fishing in the same general area as he was. Go figure!

Most of my fish came on a chatterbait, while the others came on a soft-plastic “thingy.” And I didn’t catch many, which was also baffling. Not sure if the cooler temps the night before affected the bite, but it wasn’t there for me.

I kept grinding, though, running about three miles south looking for a bigger bite, and it came around 12:30 PM…and I lost it. A giant, but for some reason I thought it was smaller than it was, so I tried to muscle it into the net. It went on a run, pulling drag, jumped, and came unbuttoned (see the video below). Heartbreaking.

Anyway, that was my day, how was yours?

Here are the official results pending any protests…

Pickerel Lunker: Scott Weismann (19.00)
Lunker: Peter Arruda (20.25)

Fifth Place: John Ferreira (72.75)
Fourth Place: Valber Santos (72.75)
Third Place: Kevin Amaral Jr. (74.75)
Second Place: Donald Davis (79.50)
First Place: Shawn Dominik (80.00)

Like our last event, one good fish or two decent ones would have vaulted anyone in the top 16 into the top five.

So congrats to those who did find (and land) the right fish!

Standings can be found here on TourneyX.

Our next event is once again on the Charles River on August 1. Same deal as last time. This time, we are also hosting a KBF Trail Event, and another one the following day. Let’s have a huge turnout for this one, guys!

If you are not currently a KBF member and want to fish the Trail Event, head over to KBF and join. You may, however, just fish our event if you want to.

D’Addeo Does It Again!

July 11, 2020 0 Comment

The Taunton River tournament is done, and it has been banished to the black list for all time! If it gets voted in again? Executive veto! Haha.

Surprisingly, a lot of fish were caught. I caught a ton myself, mostly small, but I put together a decent limit when all was said and done. I lost a giant at the end (the winning fish), which still has me confused. The thing hit my chatterbait three times, the last time right next to the kayak. Never got a hook in it. I think it was blind.

I also caught a big fallfish. I think, anyway. Not sure how big they get, but this one was 13.5 inches, which seems big. PB fallfish, though, so…yay or something.

Anyway, I fished one of the tributaries. Lots of grass with small open areas in between and clear channels running along the edges. I caught most of my fish on Jason Gardner’s Dirigo Bait’s ned craw paired with a Ned EWG Jig Head by Lifted Jigs.

My biggest came on a frog, teabagging it over a branch above a small patch of grass and duckweed. Damn thing had a mouse sticking out of it’s gullet, too, but he was still hungry, I guess.

The chatterbait bite turned on at the end of the day. Unfortunately I ran out of water (laydowns in the way) and time. But I did catch a 16.75 on the way back to my launch spot, at 2:15 (also the winning fish).

With 24 guys registered, we’re paying out five spots and lunker…

Lunker: Valber Santos (18.50)

5th Place: Chris Nardi (74.25)
4th Place: Angelo David (74.50)
3rd Place: Ken Wood (75.00)
2nd Place: Valber Santos (76.50)
1st Place: Joseph Daddeo (77.25)

Joe does it again! The ultimate grinder, this guy. A Hail Mary cast up a small creek at the end of the day landed him an 18.25, culling a 9.50, and propelling him to the top!

One big fish for basically the top eleven anglers would have resulted in a win. Kickers make a difference!

Congrats, fellas! Great job.

Full results here.

Thanks to everyone for coming out, especially under potentially poor conditions. But the meaty urologists got it wrong again! Waaaaaay wrong. Holy crap!

Our next event on the Nashua River is coming up next Saturday, July 18. This is a make-up event for one of our canceled tournaments. A bit farther away than our normal events, but we’re still practicing social-distancing and this will yet again allow us to fish while not putting anyone at an unnecessary risk.

So, far away but supposedly a fantastic fishery. You can register now on TourneyX.

A Lights-Out Barnburner…of Sorts

June 20, 2020 0 Comment

Twenty-five of us hit New Bedford Reservoir today for the second MAKB event of the season! Based on pre-fishing reports, I thought today was going to be a lights-out barnburner, and…well, I guess it was, in a sense.

Lots of changes in the standings throughout the day, but the majority of the fish caught were small. I expected bigger fish.

But big fish or small fish, someone’s gotta win, right?

My day did not go as planned. I have fished the two northern ponds before, the big side twice, the little pond once. I contemplated hitting the small pond first, assuming I could put up a quick limit, but ultimately my love of fishing new bodies of water won out and I dropped into the southern pond.

Literally. It goes from inches of water to the abyss in one step. A few of use learned that firsthand. Haha.

I caught a lot of fish, but just couldn’t get on a big bite, nothing but dinks for me. So sometime after noon I decided to shoot for pickerel lunker and I hopped over to the small pond.

Not before accidentally falling into the watery abyss again, of course. Shut up, Bruce!

In the small pond, I quickly nailed a 22.75-inch pickerel. Hell yeah. And I got two bass upgrades.

Two other anglers were there—Jim Silva and newcomer Joe Fournier, who was in the lead for a good portion of the day. I should have started there.

Anyway, it was great to have us all relatively in the same location, but obviously social-distancing and such meant that I didn’t see or talk to everyone before or after the event, so once again this was more of a personal write-up.

But who won? I know. I’ll shut up and do that now…

Bass Lunker: Gerard Elias (21.75)
Pickerel Lunker: Ryan Pierce (23.00)

5th Place – Joseph Daddeo (75.00)
4th Place – Kevin Amaral Jr. (75.00)
3rd Place – Ari Stonehill (76.25)
2nd Place – Joe Fournier (81.25)
1st Place – Domenic Eno (81.50)

Good stuff right there. Dom and Joe were trading punches for a good part of the day. So close! Kevin’s big fish was bigger than D’Addeo’s, so he wins the tie-breaker, and Ari shoots up into third place with a late upgrade! Kick ass, boys!

Sadly, this was Gerard’s event to win. Not only did he catch a 21.75, but he lost a 21-incher off the board earlier in the morning. He also had a fish denied because the photo was too blurry. By my estimation, he should have walked away with the “W” with 82.50 inches.

Not posting that to make fun, make you feel bad, or take anything away from the other guys. We all know that these things happen, but great job either way, bud.

Thanks for coming out, fellas! Thanks for judging, Donald!

Find the full results here.

Our next event is on the Taunton River, July 11! Registration will go up soon. No cap on this one. It will be a roadrunner event, like the Charles River tournament. The downriver boundary will be the Aquaria Desalination Plant (just south of where the Three Mile River dumps in), and the upriver boundary will be the Plymouth Street bridge in Bridgewater (right where the Town River becomes the Taunton River).

Anglers may fish all ponds and tributaries to the first impassable barrier within those boundaries. As with the Charles, this means that, from the area you fish for the event, you must be able to navigate to and from the Taunton River. The tides do not affect this rule.

But yeah, the river is tidal, so do your research, folks!

Crushed It on the Charles

June 6, 2020 0 Comment

The first official event of 2020 is in the books!

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, we ran this event as a “roadrunner” event, which allowed anglers to launch from any public ramp/launch area within certain boundaries, roughly Millis to Boston. With anglers spread out over such a wide area, I’m not sure how things specifically played out for everyone, so this is more of an individual write-up on my day.

We had 21 anglers, so we’re paying out five spots, plus lunker and pickerel lunker.

For me, my spot just didn’t pay off. I spent the first 2.5–3 hours targeting striper. They were stacked up below the Watertown Dam and I just couldn’t resist. I’ve caught some hybrids down south, just by chance, but never fished for them specifically anywhere. So yeah, wasted the first three hours doing that. Haha.

Slayed them, too. Had a blast!

I don’t think losing those hours would have made much of a difference; I just wasn’t in a productive spot today. Other spots were, though. Eleven limits were caught, and 19 anglers caught fish. Pretty good day overall. Better for some, of course, with one them crushing it!

With that said, here are your winners…

Pickerel Lunker: John Ferreira (23.25)
Lunker: Joseph Daddeo (18.75)
Fifth Place: Ryan Pierce (72.50)
Fourth Place: Ari Stonehill (73.50)
Third Place: Valber Santos (74.75)
Second Place: Steve Scott (74.75)
First Place: Joseph Daddeo (89.25)

Joe is an absolute beast, guys! When he told me where he was going to fish, I almost told him not to. It’s not a bad spot, but it’s a difficult part of the river to fish. Clearly that didn’t matter, though. With no pre-fishing, fishing the toughest section of the Charles, he wins by 14.5 inches! Badass, brotherman!

And congrats to everyone else. Great job out there. Payments will go out tomorrow, barring any protests.

Full results can be found here.

Donald Davis did all the judging today. Thanks, bro!

Our next event is June 20. Not a roadrunner event, but there are three areas to fish, two big parking areas, which should keep everyone at a safe distance from each other.

We will still do everything through PayPal and all that to limit contact, but this one should be closer to a normal live event.

Get Outta My Spot!

October 27, 2019 0 Comment

Yesterday, eighteen of us ventured to Oldham Pond for a post-season team/zone event. Anglers were paired randomly and then one drew for their starting zone, A or B. Anglers then fished each zone for four hours.

It was not our most efficiently run event, new format and all, but we made it through. Definitely needs some tweaks if we’re to ever do it again.

Because we were fishing Oldham, we ran an optional crappie lunker pool, as they’re abundant there and usually pretty aggressive.

In addition, we ran optional smallmouth and pickerel lunker pools.

Smallmouth are even less abundant, but appearing in greater numbers as time passes. Only one smallie was caught, though—an 18.75 fatty caught my Kevin Amaral Jr., who once again did not enter the lunker pool. Someday he’ll learn…

Those who did enter got their money back.

Pickerel lunker was a three-way tie between me, Peter, and Bruno. We each had a 20-incher and split a $100 pot. Though, upon further inspection, my pickerel was very clearly a 20.25, which makes my taking a smaller cut of that uneven $100 pie even sadder. Haha.

Ari Stonehill walked away with the crappie lunker, catching an 11.25, the only one caught all day.

The day’s biggest largemouth was hauled in by Zachary Smus, who put up a 20.50-inch largemouth. A bit of good fortune, as he also lost his phone to the depths. Sorry, dude!

Since this was a team event and pots were being split, we paid out only three spots.

Coming in third place was the very creative Team Lame Name, consisting of me and Ari. Prior to culling our smallest fish, Ari had the biggest limit of the day with 79 inches. As a team, though, our best five went 81 inches. I only caught two fish on the day, so Ari most definitely carried us. Thanks, buddy!

Gerard Elias and Mike Elrick comprised Team Hobie, and they managed to maneuver around the rocks and shallow areas without breaking those cheap drives (LOLZ, I keed, I keed), ultimately catching enough bass for second-place with 82.75. Congrats, fellas!

And first place went to…

Team Get Outta My Spot!

Rude, am I right? Not unexpected, really, coming from John Ferreira and Kevin Amaral. Mean bastards, those two.

Anyway, their best five went 83.75, enough to cement the victory in our first ever team event. Great job, you big meanies!

Full results here.

(Ignore the angler standings, as fish were culled, making those irrelevant.)

As always, thanks for coming out, everyone. Pretty sure this was our last event of the season. I’m not burnt out, but I’m looking forward to a break from fishing. I have a lot of other things I need to work on. But if the weather remains mild and some of the other guys want to run one, go for it!

We’ve been discussing it for years now, but I think we’ll finally see an MAKB ice tournament this winter. If you’re into that, keep an eye out for details.

The Catch ‘Em All Fall Brawl

October 6, 2019 0 Comment

Originally called Oktoberfish, then changed to the Catch ‘Em All Fall Brawl, we held a late-season online no-limit event on October 5–6. The rules were simple: fish one of two days, 6 Am to 6 PM, on any public body of water, and catch as many fish over 12 inches that you can. Easy enough.

Well, it was a barn burner for some, and a very humbling experience for others.

I fished two lakes, one of which is a longtime honey hole and the other a place I’ve been fishing since I was a little kid, and I managed just two bass, only one being a keeper.

Yeah, that’s humbling. Haha. But let’s talk about the winners!

Yesterday, as most of you know, John Ferreira put up a seemingly unbeatable 414.25 inches, roughly 150 inches ahead of his nearest competitor.

Around noontime on day two, however, Allan Seniuk and Steve Scott started making some moves. Around 4 PM, Allan moved up into second place, inching closer to that top spot…

And then I turned off the standings. Don’t you love when I do that?

Allan did take the lead, bumping John down to second place, and he began adding to it, looking to reach 500 inches by the 6 PM deadline. He didn’t quite get there, though, and ended up with a whopping single-day total of 31 bass for 462.75 inches!

But…he didn’t win.

Emerging from the purgatory of 1x signal strength, Steve Scott began surging up the leaderboard as he uploaded everything he was unable to earlier in the day. Steve’s 36 bass totaled out at 471.50 inches, just shy of 500 but plenty enough for the victory!

Congrats, bro! And to Allan and John—great job out there!

Each of these three anglers beat the rest of the field by at least 100 inches! Wow!

Steve also won a YakAttack Park-N-Pole kindly donated by Dennis Kiroff. The top three won a prize pack from Three X’s Fishing, and the top five—which included Jay Sebastian (4th) and Joseph Daddeo (fifth)—won prize packs from KneeDeep Tackle!

Thank you for that!

We also had a few lunker side pots. For those, Cameron Burke took the largemouth pot with his 19.50, and Gabe Portes’s 18.25-inch smallmouth nabbed him the smallie pot. Awesome job, guys!

Thanks to everyone who fished this one! Next time we’ll do it earlier in the year.

To the winners, payments will be made within 48 hours. This will give us time to go through the submissions and make sure everything is accurate.

Thanks again, and congrats once more!

One Big Fish, One Big Win

September 21, 2019 0 Comment

Well, that’s all she wrote! The 2019 regular season is in the books.

Twenty-six of MAKB’s finest fished Long Pond and Little Long Pond in Plymouth today for our season closer. Many who pre-fished reported less than stellar results, lots of small fish, and…that’s pretty much how it played out today.

As always, we also ran some optional lunker pools. This time smallmouth and pickerel.

Valber Santos walked away with the pickerel cash. He thanks Mike Elrick—who caught a giant—for not opting into the pickerel pool.

Both smallie and largemouth lunker went to Gabe Portes, who had a 12.50 and 20.50, respectively. He thanks Kevin Amaral, Jr.—who caught a 14.75-inch smallie—for not opting into the smallie pool, and also Doug Savage for allowing his 15-inch smallmouth to flop off his board and back into the lake. Haha.

Most of us launched into Long Pond to start, while five or six, myself included, dropped into Little Long Pond. I had my first fish on the board at 7:03 AM, an 8-incher. Little did I know that I’d be intentionally hunting those a few hours later…

And I wasn’t the only one.

At some point Angelo David jumped over to Little Long Pond and quickly dropped five on the board, four of them dinks—and small dinks at that. But that was the name of the game today. Anchored by a 15-incher, his 50.50 pushed him up into fifth place for the day. Congrats!

Jared Meegan had a nearly identical limit—a 15, two 9s, and two 8s, same as Angelo—just with a few that were slightly bigger. With 51.50, he took fourth place and a little scratch in just his second tournament with us (his first was last year). Great job, man!

As I mentioned, my first fish came three minutes in. A few hours after that, struggling to find a limit, I went shallow and deliberately targeted the schools of tiny bass roaming the shallows. I quickly filled out my limit and started to upgrade, one measly quarter inch at a time—all 8- and 9-inchers. At noon, I switched sides and managed one small upgrade—an 11.75 smallie—to give me 59.25 on the day. Not impressive, but good enough for third place.

Kevin Amaral, Jr. had, I thought, one 8-inch bass when he and his pops, Kevin Amaral, jumped over to the big lake. But no, Kevin’s a sandbagger. Evil, basically. No one likes a sandbagger, Kevin! So out of nowhere, he rudely knocked me down to third, taking the second-place spot and holding it to the finish line. He had 62.50.

He is also unofficially the 2019 Angler of the Year! He’s not on Facebook, but he’s a good kid and a great angler, so if you’re on Tinder, congratulate him!

I will get the AOY standings updated soon and make everything official.

Now, remember what I said about sandbaggers? Did you know that I was in first place for a split second? At 11:38 AM I uploaded a whopper of a 9.50-inch bass, which put me in first place. As I was break dancing on the front deck of my kayak and screaming a la Mike Iaconelli, Kevin Jr. pedaled by and said, “Did you see that Gabe put up a twenty?”

Indeed he did. A 20.50, which he’d caught in the morning and held onto for the right moment, that perfect time to crush my dreams! Haha.

(Not sure why this got so goofy. Sorry!)

Seriously, though, that big bass made all the difference today. Without it, Gabe would have had 58.75 and third place, instead of 69 inches, first place, and lunker.

Congrats, bro! Two wins in a row! Kick ass.

Check out the standings here.

Thanks to everyone for coming out, as always, and for supporting this trail and group all season. It’s been great fun.

Thanks to Donald Davis, Bruce Levy, Mike Elrick, and everyone else who has helped out at these events. Especially Sarah Wood, our judge. The value of that seemingly small contribution is immeasurable.

As always, we will try to run a few more events, as long as interest is there, until it gets too cold. We want to try a team event before then, but first…OKTOBERFISH!


Absurd graphic courtesy of John Ferreira. Haha.

In two weeks, October 5th and 6th, we will run an online no-limit event. You pick one day to fish, Saturday or Sunday, 6 AM to 6 PM, any public body (or bodies) of water in the state of Massachusetts, as many fish over 12 inches you can catch in those 12 hours!

I’ll get the event uploaded to TourneyX soon! Who’s in?