Monthly archives: May, 2018

Great Herring Smallie Smash

Today we hit up Great Herring Pond in Plymouth, MA, for our fourth tournament of the season. Nineteen anglers showed up, and we paid out four spots, plus lunker largemouth and smallmouth.

Water temp was 62 degrees to start, which is ridiculous. Par for the course this year, though. The weather was good otherwise, if a bit breezy.

Herring and post-spawn conditions (though some caught some late spawners on beds) kept the bigger fish tight-lipped. Still, over 100 fish were caught and submitted.

With this being the first lake we’ve fished that has an abundance of smallmouth, all but two of us opted into the smallie lunker pool. Bryan Limeburner ultimately took home the smallie lunker prize with a 16.25.

(I mistook Lee Kennon’s 16.25 for a smallie—or assumed it was, I don’t know—and tried to give the lunker money to him since his next biggest was bigger than Bryan’s. Thanks for being honest, Lee!)

Kevin Amaral Jr. landed the biggest fish of the day, an 18.50 largemouth (one of only four caught), so he took home the lunker largie prize.

Kevin also came in fourth place with 64.50.

With 65.25, Brett Krill took third.

Ken Wood lost a 15-incher off the board early in the morning. After culling up two times late in the day, he wondered if that lost fish would have been the winning fish, but with twenty minutes left in the tournament, Domenic Eno settled the matter by culling up with a 15.25.

Ken ended up with 67.50 and second place, while Dom’s late-day bass gave him 71.75 and the victory.

You can see the full results here.

Great job, Dom, and everyone else! Good times, as always.

Big THANK-YOU to Michael Sales and MGC Fishing Equipment and Supplies for providing T-shirts and hats to the winners!

And thanks to everyone helping out with loading and unloading and shuttling guys back and forth to the ramp. We did not expect the ramp to be so busy at the end of the day, but it all went smoothly enough.

Good seeing some new faces as well. Sean and Willian, hope we see you guys at future events!

Speaking of which, our next event is a split-location tournament. You can fish either Ponkapoag Pond or Canton Reservoir. Your choice! The event page is already up on TourneyX, so register there. We will have the Facebook event page up shortly.


Rocky Ledge Tackle

Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ is extremely excited to announce a partnership with Jim Migliozzi and Rocky Ledge Tackle, who will be graciously sponsoring some of our events this year.

Jim makes some of the best hard baits in the business, including one of the most unique spinnerbaits I’ve ever fished: the Swimming Spinnerbait. I’ve lost count of the amount of big fish I’ve caught on this bait alone.

Our members will receive a 20% discount on all online orders. Message Ken Wood, Mike Elrick, or Bruce Levy for the discount code, and please like Rocky Ledge’s Facebook page, check out their website, and orders some killer baits!


Radfish Lures

In addition to our partnership with Go Bananas Outdoors, we are very happy to announce that we have partnered with Ralph D’Arco and Radfish Lures this year!

Radfish will be sponsoring some of our events, plus our members will receive a 10% discount on any Radfish order. Message either Ken Wood, Bruce Levy, or Mike Elrick for the discount code!

If you’re from Massachusetts, you have no doubt heard of Radfish Lures. They are one of the leading local baitmakers, and for good reason. I haven’t fished all their baits, but personally I love the Z-Slugs and Flop-It Craws. We are excited to be working with them!

So please like their Facebook page, check out their website, and give some of what they have to offer a try.

(And once again, “members” means those who have fished with us this year.)


Very Close Finish

Winter temperatures greeted us this morning as we geared up for the third MAKB event of the year at Agawam Mill Pond. (Seriously. It was 37 degrees in Taunton! Absurd.) With the promise of rain, we anticipated a pretty uncomfortable day.

Twenty-one anglers were brave enough do battle with Mother Nature.

Fortunately, it warmed up somewhat and the rain held off until around noon, and even then it was little more than a sprinkle. Still, the cold morning temps and rain from the night before did us no favors (nor did the herring or the post-spawn conditions).

With water temps ranging from a ridiculous 53 degrees (likely just surface temps, but still…) to 62 degrees, the bite proved tough for a lot of us. Of those who caught fish, most caught small fish.

As always, though, some guys found quality bass when others could not.

Big fish were hard to come by. Five 17-inchers, one 19.25—caught by Julio Lopes—and 89 smaller fish. Julio obviously had lunker for the day.

He also came in fifth place, with a solid 73.75. Good job, man!

Chris Diranian put up 74.50 and nabbed the fourth-place slot, while Peter Arruda’s 75.75 landed him in third for the second tournament in a row.

For most of the day, one angler sat atop the leader board. That was Kevin Amaral Jr. But while a win seemed all but certain early on, another angler had other plans…

Just before 1 PM, Troy Brown culled out a 10.75 with a 12.75, giving him 76.50 inches and the victory—by a half inch!

Very nice finish, fellas! And congrats on your first MAKB victory, Troy!

Complete standings can be found here.

Thanks for coming out, everyone, especially considering it was supposed to rain most of the day. We appreciate it! Great time, as always.

Our next tournament is this coming Saturday at Great Herring Pond in Plymouth. The event page is live now. Register quickly, as it will most likely max out.


Go Bananas Outdoors

Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ is excited to announce that we have partnered with some great local companies this year. These are companies that Bruce, Mike, and I are fans of. No disingenuous pro-staff nonsense. If we promote a company or product, we dig it, we use it.

As such, these companies will graciously sponsor some of our events and offer exclusive discounts to our members. Since we do not have a membership option at this time, a “member” this year will be deemed as someone who has competed in one of our regular tournaments, online tournaments, or Knockout Series.

One thing many of us could benefit from around here is a local company that offers kayaks and kayak accessories. Go Bananas Outdoors in Wareham is that company, and we have partnered with them for the 2018 season and hopefully beyond.

On the surface, they are an Army Navy Surplus store, but they are also the largest kayak dealer in New England and have a vast selection of fishing and non-fishing kayaks available, from Jackson Kayak, Native Watercraft, Old Town, Nucanoe, Wilderness Systems, FeelFree, and many more. They also offer a wide variety of accessories—paddles, racks, mounts, etc.

Beyond that, owner John Fine has kindly offered our members 10% off of all kayak accessories and 5% off of all kayaks, excluding sale items. Pretty great deal! So if you have fished any of our events this year, please patronize them whenever you can. You will need to present an ID so that they can verify that you are on our “member” list.

See the photos below for some of what they have to offer.

And a special thanks to Marcus De La Vega for putting us in contact with them.