Monthly archives: September, 2018

Throwin’ Down

Today, thirty anglers threw down at the Three Lake Throwdown!


Honey, I shrunk the photographer.

The Three Lake Throwdown was an idea Donald Davis suggested while we were all up in Maine fishing the KBF Trail event on Lake Messalonskee. We needed to change locations for one of our dates, so he suggested we fish three lakes—Oldham Pond, Robbins/Stump Pond, and West/East Monponsett—on the same day. What lake you fish would be a random draw the morning of the event. We thought it was a great, unique idea.

So yesterday we all met at a central location—the Walmart parking lot in Halifax—paid our entry fee and then picked our location from a hat.

The day almost got off to a very bad start with me sleeping through my alarm clock. Luckily my wife’s alarm went off at 3:15 AM and I was out the door about 5 minutes later. Can’t say I smelled too good, but I got there on time.

For those of us who drew Stump Pond, the day started slightly foggy and chilly…and then the fog grew thicker, the wind kicked up, and it got cooooooooooold! The forecast certainly did not mention 20 mph winds. Luckily it died down around 8 AM or so.

The bite was very tough at Stump and Monponsett today. Those who drew Oldham were the lucky ones, I think.

I hear Jay Sebastian caught a smallie at Oldham, but he didn’t take a photo. (What the heck, Jay?) So everyone in the smallie lunker pool got their money back.

Jay made up for that, though, by hauling in the day’s biggest largemouth—a 21-inch tank! Congrats!

Bob Pierce also had a 21, but Jay had the next biggest for the tiebreaker.

We paid out five spots today, and fifth place went to John Ferreira, who sore-lipped 77.50 inches of largemouth.

Fourth place and the Best Dressed Angler award went to newcomer Gabriel Portes, who coaxed into his canoe 82.50 inches of stubborn Stump Pond bass.

The day started slow for me, but I was able to work a spinnerbait pattern for a short period of time when it was windy, then work a similar pattern with a chatterbait at the end of the day when the wind picked up again. I ended up with 83.25, good enough for third place.

Coming in just a quarter inch a head of me was Jay Sebastian, adding a nice chunk of change to his already big lunker winnings.

First place went to MAKB first-timer and Knockout Series runner-up Nick Booth, who flipped jigs to Oldham docks all day and pulled in a hefty 88 inches, adding a bold 4.50-inch exclamation point to his victory. Great job, man!

And congrats to everyone else. We’ll do this again next year!

Click here for the full results.

Our next tournament is just a week away, Oct 6, at Neponset Reservoir, 7 AM to 3 PM. It’s already full, but I will create an alternates list in case anyone backs out.

Thanks for coming out, guys!


Last Minute, No Limit

Yesterday Kevin P Amaral and I fished our round-four Knockout Series match at Cook Pond. I was lucky enough to narrowly take the win with 47.75 to his 45.50. Pleasure fishing against you, sir!

The last match of this round takes place today between Steve Scott and Jason Gardner. The winner will be meet me and Nick Booth in the finale. Good luck, guys!

Anyway, on Thursday I checked to see if there were any tournaments scheduled at Cook yesterday, and there weren’t. So I asked Kevin if he wanted us to put together a last-minute no-limit tournament and invite others. He said, “Sure why not.” So we did…

And everyone was like, “Pffft! Screw that. Losers.”

We had seven people show up, including Tyler Lehane, fishing his first-ever tournament. It was chilly and windy. Not the best combination, but there was a decent bite early in the morning. Not great, but we put fish on the board.

In the past, our no-limits events have been pointless because the fishing sucked. It wasn’t great yesterday, but seven people put up 39 fish compared to last year at Lake Rico where 21 could only manage 61 fish. Slight improvement.

Though we had just seven anglers, we paid out three spots and lunker for largemouth and smallmouth.

Peter Arruda nabbed lunker largemouth with a 17.75, and I landed the biggest smallmouth, a 16.75, my biggest to date there, caught on the smallest lure I’ve ever thrown there. Go figure.

Kevin Amaral took third place with six fish coming in at 87.25 inches.

Rob Harnish put seven fish on the board for a total of 104.25 and second place.

Despite the cool temps and cloudy day, I kept going back to an area of dying lily pads, tossing the frog. I managed to catch five fish in there throughout the day, which allowed me to pull ahead of the pack with 11 fish and a total of 156.50 inches, which was good enough for the win.

Great day on the water despite the cool breeze and tough bite for most of the day. Always a good time, no matter how many people show up.

Congrats, fellas! Great meeting you, Tyler. Hope to see you at another one.

Our next tourney is on September 29, our first ever Three Lake Throwdown. It’s gonna be a fun one!