Tag: Mashpee-Wakeby Ponds

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!

Left Early, Still Won

September 26, 2020 0 Comment

Whoooo! That was a barn-burner. Giant smallies all day, baby!

Wait, that was the dream I had last night. Today was more of a nightmare.

We had twenty-seven anglers attempt to tackle Mashpee-Wakeby today, a lake that is too often a soul-crushing body of water. But when it’s on? Sweet Baby Jesus!

Early launch was at 6:30 AM today, and I’m sure most of us were shaking with anticipation as we watched our fishfinder screens light up. Twenty, thirty, forty, fifty feet, it didn’t matter, fish were stacked everywhere!

Massive bait balls were as well, and as we all quickly found out, the bass weren’t interested in our lures when they were surrounded by that kind of buffet.

But we tried…

I had my first bass at 9 AM, a massive 8.25-incher which I happily uploaded. I didn’t get my next bass until 1:25, and that was pure luck.

I had skipped up under a pontoon, only to have the wind push me into it. And of course that’s right when I hooked a nice smallie, which I proceeded to lose because my rod and yak were in a weird spot and I could barely reel. Annoyed, I shoved myself away from the pontoon and, for some odd reason, angrily skipped my bait back up underneath it. To my surprise, an 18.50-inch largemouth nailed it and I managed to land that one.

From there I went into Pickerel Cove, looking for a pickerel or a trout, shooting for those lunker pools instead. I tossed out the spinnerbait and hooked a small pickerel, but it got off when I opted not to use the net. It was small, so no big deal, right? Wrong.

At 1:42, I caught my third bass. At 1:48, I had my fourth, and my fifth came at 2:03, and then at 2:04, my next cast, I caught another that culled out my 8.25. All small, but at least I had a limit. Whoohooo and whatnot.

For a good part of the day, Chris LaCourse was in the lead, only to be overtaken by John Ferreira. When the standings went off at 1 PM, our resident sandbagger Kevin Amaral Jr. had taken the lead. Here’s how the everything played out in the end…

Lunker pickerel went to Nate Chagnon, who had a 15.50. Kicking myself for not netting the one I hooked. Breaks of the game. But Nate’s cashing a check yet again. Hell yeah, bro!

To my surprise, my 18.50 was good enough for lunker largemouth, while Donald Davis nabbed lunker smallmouth with a tank 19.50!

John Ferreira did not get into the trout pool despite catching one while pre-fishing. He was, as far as I’m aware, the only one who caught a trout today. No money for him, but he did get dinner.

Everyone who opted into the trout pool will be refunded.

Fifth place went to our most-improved angler this season: Nate Chagnon. Boom! Nate did the Chagnon Shuffle™ all the way to 51.25.

Unfortunately, Chris LaCourse couldn’t find a fifth fish today, which would have given him at least second place and possibly the win. Disappointing, no doubt, but his four fish totaling 54.50 were enough to secure fourth place.

Hot off of his Maspenock win, John Ferreira hauled in 58 inches to land in third place. A decent payday to cover the cost of replacing the rod he broke.

Amazingly, my late-day run skyrocketed me from 8.25 to 60 inches even, which was enough to take second place. Crazy.

And despite leaving early, Kevin Amaral Jr’s dinks were a bit less dinky than everyone else’s, which, anchored by a solid 18-incher, gave him 70.50 inches and the win! Has he reversed the AOY Curse?

Great job, everyone! Way to grind it out! There were just six limits caught today, and only 15 anglers caught fish. Brutal.

If you want to check out the full results, you can do so here.

Good to see some new faces out there, even if it was a pretty awful day of fishing.

Our next event is in three weeks, October 17, at Billington Sea. Registration will go live Sunday, October 11, at 7 PM.