Category: Tournament News

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.

A Plate of Nachos Goes 1 and 2

May 29, 2021 0 Comment

Well, that was fun, right?

Twenty-one of us fished Lake Nippenicket today for the third Eastern Division event of the season. Two backed out beforehand, and two just went home, never even launching, and many left early.

Cold, wind, and rain are bad enough alone, but add them all together and it can be pretty miserable, especially if you’re not catching fish. And that was me.

I had my kayak nearly fully rigged in my garage, and still managed not to get on the water in time to launch early with most everyone else. Because of that, every spot I went to had an angler or multiple anglers on it. Then I got stuck in the weeds and had to paddle against the wind, which was awful. I bailed at 9:30 AM, only to leave my kayak at the ramp, Power Pole down, group of people standing there gawping at it as I walked away. When I came back, the kayak was floating away and they were all just staring at it.

Pretty nice of them.

Anyway, Joe Fournier gave me a hand with that, then Nate Chagnon rolled up, and we rolled out and went to Smokey Bones, where we took the lead for a bit.


Bruce’s angry text message accusing us of sandbagging was worth it!

Anyway, a good amount of fish were caught, though. More than I expected, to be honest, but only four limits. Two of the 16 anglers that caught fish today figured something out and they led the field from the start, each holding the lead at times throughout the day.

Since I left early, I don’t know many details of how things went down, but here’s what the standings show:

Steve Hedges was already having a good week, but it just got better with his 24.25-inch pickerel taking the pickerel lunker pool.

Event lunker went to Valber Santos, who nabbed a tank 21.50-inch, 6-pounder, right after he launched.

In fifth place is Bob Pierce, who only caught four fish, but they were enough. He had 62.25.

Steve Hedges took the fourth spot, landing five bass for 64 inches. Maybe he’s not having a good week but a great one?

Ari Stonehill was contemplating leaving, not even launching. And in fact he didn’t launch with everyone; he was waiting/hoping for the weather to improve. I’m not sure it did, but he chose to get on the water despite this, and it paid off. With 71.50, he took third place.

For a while, it looked like Bruce Levy was going to come out on top. Valber Santos was in the lead, his limit anchored by not one tank but two (a 21.50 and a 20.00), but Bruce smashed a late-day 18.25, giving him the lead by more than three inches.

Valber had a 12.50. He also hadn’t uploaded a fish since 9:10 AM. It wouldn’t take much, though, to take the lead.

Unfortunately for Bruce, at 1:18 PM, Valber did just that, adding a solid 18.75 to his already impressive limit. With two 20s already on the board (not done since Peter Arruda’s win at Whitehall a few years ago), Bruce would need an epic rally to retake the lead. Lucky for Valber, it didn’t happen, and his 93.25 was plenty to beat Bruce’s 87.75. Any five-fish limit with two giants is always going to be hard to beat!

Great job, guys! Congrats! And to everyone that caught fish—hell yea! I’m glad it wasn’t awful for everyone, though I’m sure even those were catching fish suffered.

Full results can be found here.

A Lead Too Great

April 4, 2021 0 Comment

Our new Monthly Online Challenge Series kicked off the season last Thursday, but the first single-day event took place yesterday.

Our no-limit Catch ‘Em All Brawl Series started in 2019 with the first-ever Fall Brawl. Steve Scott won that event with 471.50 inches. We followed it up with the Spring Brawl in 2020, with Derek Brundle hammering home the win with 393.25 inches.

So going into yesterday, we all should have known that you need a very good, productive lake if you want to come close to winning. For many of us, that win proved elusive. With spring temps being colder at this time than in previous years, and a cold front pushing through, that spring bite was hard to come by for a lot of us.

In fact, only nine anglers out of 35 caught five fish or more. Pretty brutal out there for most of us.

With 35 anglers, we paid out three spots, plus lunker bass and lunker pickerel.

For me, I knew fairly quickly that I had no shot. I picked a small pond in Carver that I’d never fished before (something I love to do, but maybe not the brightest move for a tournament), so when I saw Steve Scott and Matthew Conant lighting up the leaderboard early, I just hoped I could lay into a big one for the KBF State Challenge.

That didn’t happen, of course.

Meanwhile, Steve steadily increased his lead, but Matt began inching closer and closer. Birthday boy Bob Pierce started to make a run for the top as well, but at the end of the day Steve had just amassed too great of a lead from the start, one that he continued to add to throughout the day.

With 434 inches, Steve nabbed himself another Brawl victory, besting Conant’s impressive second-place haul by nearly 130 inches! Bob’s 218.25 rounded out the top three.

The lunker pools went to Joseph Daddeo and Shawn Dominik. Joe landed a 20-inch largemouth from his favorite honey hole, while Shawn laid a long 24.50-inch pickerel on the board.

Great job, fellas! Happy to be back on the water with everyone!

For the full standings, click here.

Announcing the 2021 MAKB Tournament Schedules

March 7, 2021 0 Comment

With two divisions, new monthly online events, as well as the Spring/Fall Brawls and the Knockout Series, setting up this season has been a lot of work. But we’re finally at the finish line!

Before we get into everything, though, you will need a Fishing Chaos account to fish any of these events. You can set that up here, if you haven’t already done so.

Though you can only register for some tournaments at this time (read on to find out what you can register for), all of our events are live on the on the Fishing Chaos website. Follow this link to check everything out!

Also, as we discussed in a previous post, you will also need to be a paid MAKB member to fish any of these events, save for the Knockout Series, which is open to all.

We have three membership tiers, all of which have different perks and grant specific access to different events, so please read the membership details on our Fishing Chaos club page before joining.

That said, there’s a lot to unpack here, but I’ll try to be as brief as possible…

EASTERN DIVISION SCHEDULE

We have nine events scheduled for this year’s season, plus the championship. The schedule is as follows:

Apr 17 – A-1/Stump Pond (Westborough)
May 15 – South Watuppa Pond (Fall River)
May 29 – Wequaquet Lake (Barnstable)
Jun 12 – Nashua River (Groton)
Jul 10 – Lake Nippenicket (Bridgewater)
Aug 7 – Charles River (Roadrunner)
Aug 28 – Lake Cochituate (Wayland)
Sep 4 – Long Pond (Lakeville)
Sep 18 – Walker/Upper/Lower Mill (Brewster)

Oct 23 – Webster Lake (Webster) (Championship)

WESTERN DIVISION SCHEDULE

Shawn and Nelson have done a great job setting up our new western division! In this first year, there will be seven events, plus the championship. The schedule is as follows:

Apr 10 – Quaboag Pond (Brookfield)
May 8 – Buckley Denton Reservoir/Yokum Pond (Becket)
May 15 – East/West Waushacum Ponds (Sterling)
Jun 12 – Chicopee River (Chicopee)
Jul 24 – Tully Lake (Athol)
Aug 28 – Cheshire Reservoir (Cheshire)
Sep 18 – Lake Garfield (Monterey)

Oct 23 – Webster Lake (Webster)

The championship event on Webster Lake is a single event for qualifying anglers in both division. To learn how to qualify, click here.

MONTHLY ONLINE CHALLENGE SERIES

We’ve always talked about running a monthly online series, something similar to KBFs monthly state challenges, but never could figure out a fair way to do it. One inherent issue with KBFs challenges is that those anglers who cannot fish a lot are very unlikely to win when many other anglers can fish every day.

With our switch to the Fishing Chaos tournament management platform, we now have the ability to alter things in ways we couldn’t before, affording us a way to even the playing field for anglers, so to speak.

So we will be running a monthly online series similar to KBFs, but with one key difference: anglers can only fish one week out of the month.

When registering, anglers will choose one of four weeks, starting on the 1st of every month and ending on the 28th. It breaks down as follows:

Week 1: 1st–7th
Week 2: 8th–14th
Week 3: 15th–21st
Week 4: 22nd–28th

Our hope is that this will make things fairer and more competitive all around. Yes, some anglers will be able to fish all seven days, but it will be more difficult for them with only seven days to fish as opposed to thirty or so.

This series starts in April and will run monthly through October. You can register for all of these events on Fishing Chaos now!

THE CATCH ‘EM ALL SPRING & FALL BRAWLS

The Catch ‘Em All Spring Brawl and Fall Brawl are online no-limit events we started a few years ago. In the past we’ve opened them up to all of New England, but this year we are limiting them to Massachusetts.

These events are pretty straight forward: one lake of your choosing (public, of course), eight hours, catch and upload as many bass as you can. Simple.

You can register for these events on Fishing Chaos now!

KNOCKOUT SERIES

Registration for the Knockout Series is ongoing. This is our annual bracketed, angler-versus-angler series. This series works with 32, 48, or 64 anglers. We’ve already hit the 32-angler threshold and are working up to forty-eight.

You can read more about the series here and sign up over on our Facebook group page. If you do not have a Facebook account and would like to sign up, shoot me a message through our contact page.

And that’s it, folks! We have a busy, exciting year planned, and we can’t wait to kick it off on April 1 with the Spring Brawl!

If you have any questions, just ask.

Talking Fishing Chaos

January 3, 2021 1 Comment

So as expected, I’m getting a lot of questions about Fishing Chaos. As mentioned in our last post, there is an update coming to the app, so I’m not going to go over any of the mechanics just yet because things are going to change, and for the better.

But I can go over the main things people are asking about now…

SUBSCRIPTION PLANS

First, you do need a Fishing Chaos account. You can’t fish without one. Simple as that.

Second, you do not need to opt in to either their monthly or annual subscription plan. That said, not doing so would be beneficial to you only if you’re not planning to fish many events this year.

The benefit of buying into their monthly or annual subscription is simple: no tournament fees.

With either plan, you can fish unlimited events without incurring a fee. If you choose the annual subscription for $43.89, you’ll pay no additional fees for the entire year, no matter how many events you fish through Fishing Chaos. If you choose the monthly plan for $3.99, the same applies for that particular month.

The third alternative is to choose neither subscription and simply pay a small fee per event—3.5% of the entry fee, plus $1.50 per ticket (we’ll get into tickets in a minute). So for a $50 entry fee, you’ll pay a $3 fee on top of that.

Obviously the annual plan works for me since I’ll be traveling all around the country fishing KBF events, MAKB events, MYA events, and fishing our new regional trail events (official announcement coming this Sunday, January 3).

So whether you choose a subscription plan or choose to simply pay the additional fee per event really comes down to how many tournaments you plan to fish next year.

Now, some have argued that you’re not really saving anything, the fees taken out of the pot before aren’t going back into your pocket now unless you happen to win. All true, but here’s some perspective:

Last year, $245 of my money went toward fees, not including PayPal fees. If we’d been using Fishing Chaos last year, $201.11 of that money would have stayed in the pot.

So yes, you’re not “saving” that money unless you win, but it is staying with the anglers, which is a win in my book.

TICKETS

Fishing Chaos uses the term “tickets” when registering for events. It’s different from what we’re used to, but it’s simply a different way to describe something we’ve been doing all along: registering for events and buying into optional lunker pools.

I won’t go over the specific process because that may change, but when you register for an event, you will purchase at least one (virtual) ticket. That’s your registration.

There may be other tickets attached to that main ticket. For instance, our events will always have an additional ticket included at no cost. This is for the main lunker pool, which is included in the main entry fee. Our optional lunker pools will be additional tickets that you’ll need to purchase.

Also keep in mind, if you opt out of both subscription plans, every ticket is an additional $1.50. So if you register for one of our events at $50, you’re gonna pay an additional $3 (3.5% plus $1.50 for the ticket). If you then opt into smallmouth and pickerel lunker pools, you’re going to pay $1.50 for each of those, so that $3 fee becomes $6.

And that’s it, really. A little confusing at first, but you’ll get used to it. If you have any questions, let me know.

New Year, New MAKB

January 1, 2021 0 Comment

New year, new MAKB!

With the continuous evolution of the sport, we are evolving as well. I will keep these as brief as possible, but if you intend to fish with us this year, I highly encourage you read everything.

So…

TOURNAMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

After many hours of research and testing, as well as multiple demos, we have decided to use Fishing Chaos as our tournament management system starting this season.

This was not an easy decision to make. We have used TourneyX since our last event of 2016—62 events total between then and now. Dwayne and the app have served us well, but its limitations have also held us back in many regards. We feel that the Fishing Chaos app not only does everything we’ve always wanted an app to do, but also so much more.

So you will need to download the app and create an account on Fishing Chaos.

There is a learning curve, and as we close in on the season we will have a series of posts going over how to use the app. An update to the app is scheduled for February, so we will wait until after that time to post this info.

MEMBERSHIPS

Thus far, MAKB has been an open trail. Starting this year, we are moving to a membership-based platform.

With two divisions now in place, cost to run the trail will double. Some of that cost was offset in previous years through our 50/50 raffles. We tried that once last year through PayPal, but it didn’t quite work, so once again the cost of trophies and such will be an out-of-pocket expense (around $400). I can barely justify that (especially to my wife) for one division, so I definitely can’t justify it for two.

We have come up with three memberships plans—$25, $15, $10—all of which come with certain perks. You can read all about them and join through our club page on Fishing Chaos.

You will not be able to fish any of our tournaments, whether online or live, without being a member.

That said, being a Premium member will not guarantee you a spot at any of our live events, save for the river events which are unlimited because the boundaries allow for it. Due to state restrictions, we are allowed a max of 25 anglers per most events. First come, first serve, which is why registration for all our events goes live at 7 PM the Sunday before.

DIVISIONS

In case you missed the recent Jigs & Bigs podcast, we are heading west! Starting this season, we will have two divisions: East and West. Many of you have been asking for us to expand into different parts of the state, and this is the first step in that direction.

The Eastern Division will cover the same area we’ve always covered, which is the south shore and Cape Cod.

The Western Division is the new division, and it will be run by Shawn Dominik and Nelson da Costa. While we are still working on the trail schedule, there will be seven stops this year, spread out from the central part of the state to the New York border.

You won’t see much overlap of anglers between divisions. As such, each division will have its own separate Angler of the Year race.

TOURNAMENTS

There will be nine Eastern Division events this year, one less than normal, and seven Western Division events. As mentioned above, they will all culminate in the first-ever MAKB Championship.

In addition to those live events, we will be hosting more online events. The Catch ‘Em All Spring Brawl and Fall Brawl have already been scheduled. The Spring Brawl will kick off our season on April 3!

There will be monthly challenges as well. We’re still discussing what those challenges will be, as we fully understand that traditional month-long challenges benefit those anglers who can fish more. We’re looking at ways to level that playing field to make it more competitive for all.

This is where our new tiered memberships come into play, as each one gives you access to certain events.

CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT

One thing we’ve always discussed was having a championship event at the end of each season. We never quite got around to doing that, though.

With the new division, the idea of having a championship became even more enticing. So at the end of the 2021 season, both divisions will come together in Central MA for our first-ever MAKB Championship event!

To qualify, you just need to finish in the top three at any live event. Simple.

More details will follow.

APPROVED MEASURING DEVICE

Starting this year, all anglers fishing MAKB events, both live and online, must use one of the following three Ketch Products boards: the Ketch Karbonate board, the Ketch X board, or the original Ketch board.

As a result of the infamous Flexgate and based on how many anglers used another brand of measuring board in our events last year (I think there were three total), we felt that this was the best choice to not only discourage cheating but also stay in line with the current industry standard.

We are not affiliated with Ketch Products in any way.

That should cover all the big things. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, let us know.

We’re Heading West!

December 14, 2020 0 Comment

As Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ has grown, more and more anglers have asked us to run events on the north shore and out in the western part of the state. With our core group of anglers being from the south shore, this has proved difficult. As such, the idea of opening new divisions has been explored for years now, but we’ve never been able to find anyone dedicated enough to take on that task.

Until now…

Starting in 2021, MAKB will have a brand new western division. Directing it will be Shawn Dominik and Nelson Da Costa, both longtime MAKB members. We are very excited about bringing new opportunities to anglers in a part of the state where there has been a demand that we’ve not been able to fulfill!

The western division will run just like the original “eastern division,” as it’s now called. There will be seven regular-season events for the western division this first year, while the eastern division will have nine instead of its normal ten. Reason being, the season will culminate in the first-ever MAKB Championship, where top anglers from each division will compete for the title of Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ Champion!

If you’re interested in hearing some more in-depth discussion about this new division, check out the latest episode of the Jigs & Bigs podcast, where Shawn, Nelson, and Ken Wood discuss it and more. Jump to 1:14 mark if you don’t want to listen to the rest (though it is an entertaining podcast all around, so give it a shot).

Big things are coming for MAKB and this region, and this is just a small taste…

Slaughter at Oldham

November 15, 2020 0 Comment

We all know what can happen when fishing in late fall: feast or famine, either a whiz-bang-pow lights-out kind of day or it’s a struggle.

For most of us at yesterday’s mystery event on Oldham, it was more of the latter.

It was for me, at least. Knowing that a 54-degree water temp was still relatively warm and that some fish would still be active shallow, I focused on a deeper bite, spending most of my truncated day bouncing around to the myriad humps and flats that litter the lake. I did briefly try the weeds out back, but without any sign of life, I moved back to deeper water and focused on spots that have produced well for me in the past.

The fish just weren’t there like I’d expected. I did catch three, though, and I lost a few others, which unfortunately is what kept me out there.

Around 1 PM, shivering from the cold (I under-dressed because it was supposed to be sunny all day, which was another lie in a long stream of lies from those losers we call weathermen), I looked at first place and determined that the payout for second or third wasn’t worth the misery…so I quit. And I don’t regret it one bit. Haha.

For this event we also ran optional smallie and pickerel lunker pools. The smallmouth population there is small, and in my experience nonexistent until recently. As such, no one caught a smallmouth, so all those who opted in will be refunded.

But some big pickerel were caught, including two giants by Joseph Daddeo, who seems to always catch giant pickerel and whose 25.25-incher at this event bested the field. Eight pickerel were submitted, four of which were Joe’s…

He is Joe Exotic, the Pickerel King!

We’re only paying out three spots for this one, and third goes to Joe as well, with 77.50 inches.

As I mentioned above, fall fishing can be feast or famine. For two anglers, outlaws from Rhode Island, it was all feast!

Sometimes having no experience on a body of water is an advantage, and I think that played a role here. While a lot of us used our experience and focused on specific spots, they covered water, and it paid off BIG time.

Throwing a ned rig and slinging a jig, Greg Krasnowiecki hauled in five bass that maxed out at 89.50, while Chris Catucci made even that beefy limit look slim by putting up a new club record of 96.50! Chris caught his fish on a chatterbait and jig. Bass fishing 101, and we got schooled by both of them!

Chris also had the biggest of the event at 21 inches, with Greg having a 20.75 that was just a hair’s width away from 21 inches.

Great job, guys! Very very impressive.

Final results can be found here.

That was likely the last tournament of the year for us, unless we have a seriously warm day in the near future. And if it is the end, no worries, we had a great year and next year is going to be insane!

Those of you who live in western MA will be happy.

And the 2020 Knockout Series Champion Is…

November 8, 2020 1 Comment

The 2020 Knockout Series kind of flew under the radar this year, for whatever reason. Some of you reading this may not even know what it is.

The Knockout Series is a bracketed series we started back in 2016 and have run every year since. Turnout this season was lower than last year, but still thirty-two anglers signed up and battled it out in head-to-head matches over the course of the season. Four rounds leading to the championship round which took place yesterday between Bruce Levy and Kevin Amaral Jr.

To get to this point, Kevin had to best Dave Bibo, Paulo DeMorais, Patrick Brown, and reigning Angler of the Year Joe D’Addeo, while Bruce had to get past Chris Catucci, Gabe Portes, Peter Arruda, and Dennis Kiroff. No easy paths to victory by any means.

Bruce and Kevin fished Norton Reservoir for the championship match, which may seem like an odd choice given how tough it fishes more often than not. But luckily for them, the fish were hungry yesterday.

Kevin started by fishing the islands and points, which are always good for some fish, and they were yesterday. When the bite died, he moved shallow without any luck for a time. Toward the end of the day, Kevin made his way to a shallow cove that still had some grass, and big bass were in there crushing bait fish!

The spinnerbait bite was on, and while he caught some fish, he lost some others, including one close to five pounds.

While Kevin found that shallow, grassy cove late, Bruce found it early and had his three-fish limit and was culling almost immediately. He caught all his fish burning a white Jackhammer and spent the day culling 17-inchers!

When all was said and done, Kevin’s best three went 46.25, while Bruce hauled in a hefty 53.50, claiming the 2020 Knockout Series Championship crown by more than seven inches!

Awesome job, buddy!

You, too, Kevin. Great job out there.

And the 2020 Angler of the Year Title Goes To…

November 5, 2020 0 Comment

Some say winning the Angler of the Year title is the most prestigious title one can win in a tournament organization. That’s debatable, of course. Some will agree, some won’t, and that’s fine.

What isn’t debatable, in my opinion, is how difficult it is to win Angler of the Year. Anyone can win a tournament, but to win the Angler of the Year title, you have to be consistent all season long, and be better than all the other anglers who do well time and time again, and that is not easy by any means.

Our Angler of the Year format is a bit of a hybrid. It is based on an angler’s best twenty-five fish throughout the year, but we also award bonus points to the top five anglers at each event—five points for first place, four for second, etc. To become the MAKB Angler of the Year you not only have to fish a lot of our events, you have to catch quality fish and also consistently finish at the top.

Otherwise, you have no shot.

In his first year fishing with us, Joseph Daddeo made it known right out the gate—with a dominating win in our first tournament of the year on the Charles River—that he was coming for that title.

Joe went on to win two more events and place in the top five multiple times, amassing 19 bonus points to go along with his season total of 414 points. And when he didn’t finish in the top, he upgraded fish in his biggest twenty-five of the season.

The only time Joe wasn’t in the lead for Angler of the Year was the two weeks following our second Charles River tournament of the year, which he was not able to fish. He came back and won the next event, firmly securing his spot at the top where he remained for the rest of the season.

So without further ado, the Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ Angler of the Year for 2020…

Congratulations, buddy! A well-deserved win. Hell of year!