Category: Western Division

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.

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.

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.

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 Western Division Angler of the Year is…

February 17, 2022 0 Comment

Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ has grown to be the biggest, most successful kayak bass fishing series in Massachusetts, if not all of New England. Much of our success in 2021 was owed to Jigs and Bigs co-host Shawn Dominik and Nelson da Costa, both of whom stepped up to run our new Western Division.

Fittingly, these two anglers battled it out all season over on the western side of the state.

With just seven events in their inaugural season, becoming the first-ever Western Division Angler of the Year wasn’t easy. There was little margin for error. With our hybrid Angler of the Year format—your biggest twenty fish over the course of the season, bonus points for top-five finishes—a single misstep could have put either of them out of contention.

Shawn Dominik made his plans known right out the gate, at the first event of the season, by taking home the victory with a solid 84 inches, nearly seven inches over second place. Nelson wasn’t far behind in fourth place.

Two events later, Nelson took the top spot.

Over the course of the season, Shawn notched two victories, one second-place finish, and two thirds. While Nelson only won a single event, he scored two seconds, a third, and two fourth-place finishes.

Our Angler of the Year format rewards performance, but it also rewards the quality of fish an angler catches during the season. The bigger, the better!

Out of the seven regular-season Western Division events, Shawn caught the biggest bass in two events, while Nelson caught lunker in three. Each angler had accumulated twenty bonus points for top-five finishes. They were neck and neck all season long, and everything came down to the wire at our championship event. But while Shawn held an eight-and-a-half point lead in the standings, Nelson’s smallest six bass on the season were 14-inchers…and he’d done very well pre-fishing.

Within the first hour, Shawn put up his first bass. It wasn’t big enough to add to his Angler of the Year total, but it was one fish to Nelson’s zero. It would remain that way for the next four hours, when Shawn began adding to his total. At the end of it all, nothing would change for Nelson, who suffered that dreaded misstep, giving Shawn a well-deserved fifth place for the championship and firmly secured his place atop the Western Division Angler of the Year standings!


Shawn Dominik, 2021 Western Division Angler of the Year

Congratulations on a great season! There can never be another inaugural Western Division Angler of the Year champion!

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.