Big Win Up da Shires

May 9, 2021 0 Comment

Yesterday was the second MAKB Western Division Trail stop, a two-lake random-draw event at Buckley Dunton Reservoir and nearby Yokum Pond in Becket.

Two very different water bodies. Buckley Dunton is timber filled, and the closest the west has in similarity with A-1 out east. Yokum is closer to a shallow kettle pond, but does harbor a population of smallmouth.

After pre-fishing both, my prediction was that numbers would come from Yokum, and lunker would come from Buckley Dunton. I was half right, as Yokum anglers struggled for limits, and a couple anglers found size and numbers at Buckley.

Twelve anglers participated (seven at Buckley, five at Yokum). Nelson da Costa was the highest finisher at Yokum, with four fish totaling 57.75 that he fought for with the light bite there.

I found a jig bite early, then found a flat with baitfish and bulldozed my way through a dozen and a half post-spawn perch (including a pin-sized one) for a couple decent largemouth and a good pickerel. I upgraded and finished in 2nd with 88 inches even.

Jeremey Andrews took first with a bladed jig/jerkbait/finesse plastics combination, finishing with 91.75 and lunker with a 19-inch fatty on the raw, cloudy day “up da ‘Shires.” Congrats and nice job, Jer!

Only two pickerel were caught on the day. Nate Chagnon hit an 18-incher over at Yokum, but the 19.75 I caught around the baitfish was the winner.

Congrats to all who placed in the money, and congrats to any KBF members that qualified for the National Championship through the MAY-hem event!

Check out the result here.

The Biggest Challenge Was the Bad Weather

May 4, 2021 0 Comment

Our first monthly online challenge is in the books!

We had 25 anglers enter this one, but with the less than favorable weather that plagued us in April, only eight submitted fish to the event. With 25 anglers, we paid out three spots and lunker, and it looks like Week 3 was the most productive week of the month.

For me, it was just a day. An hour, in fact, at our A-1 event. Right place, right time. I was only able to fish one other day for my week, and it was cold, rainy, windy, and I only caught two fish.

When all was said and done, Matthew Conant took first place and lunker, while Derek Brundle and I placed second and third, respectively.

Great job, fellas!

Final results can be found here on Fishing Chaos.

And KBF just announced that we can award National Championship for online events, so with this being the month of May, KBFs Mayhem promo means 50% of the field qualifies. Since only eight anglers caught fish, all eight qualified!

Congrats!

(Anglers must have been at least an AmBASSador-level KBF member prior to the start of the event to qualify.)

Tough Conditions and Stingy Bites

April 18, 2021 0 Comment

The guarantee of cold, wind, rain, and a tough bite didn’t stop twenty-five of MAKB’s most dedicated anglers from hitting A-1 yesterday morning for the Eastern Division opener.

Before launch, the wind was relatively light, and it seemed like maybe the day wouldn’t be as bad as expected. The moment we launched, however, Mother Nature said, “Psyche!” The wind kicked up, the cold cut through, and not long after the rain rolled in. The sun broke through briefly, but for much of the day it was pretty miserable.

From what I saw, it seemed that most anglers started out shallow, including me. Ari Stonehill started near me, so I stuck to the shoreline, while he fished some wood a bit offshore. I quickly moved away from that area, tossing a green pumpkin Project Z chatterbait through the sparse pads. I was still on the inside, close to shore, but then moved to the outside of the pads, a little deeper, and got a good whack that came off. Whatever it was felt like it shook its head a bit, a good sign it was a bass.

In the meantime, Nate Chagnon had already put a 17.75 on the board just after the 7 AM start.

In the morning, Nate told me he had that gut feeling, like he had down in Alabama for the KBF Trail Event, where he placed third. I told him it was probably diarrhea, but before I knew it, he had three over 17 inches on the board.

Mike Morcone, Gerard Elias, and Sean Dwyer all put up 18-inchers in about the first hour. Bruce Levy put up a solid 19.25 shortly after, but that early flurry of activity died not long after that.

For my day, after that first whack on the green pumpkin chatterbait, I caught a 17, and decided to stick to the chatterbait for the rest of the day. I alternated to a white chatterbait, then moved farther offshore, and ran into four good ones in quick succession—7:57, 8:15, 8:21, and 8:37. Then, besides on 13-incher, my bite died until 1:36 PM, when I caught a two-inch upgrade.

At the end of the day, only two anglers out of twenty-five caught a limit, and only seventeen caught a fish. A brutally tough day for all involved.

We ran a lunker pickerel pool, as always, and Ari Stonehill took it with a 21.50. Knowing the giants in there, I’m still surprised that one held up. I guess even the pickerel were tight-lipped due to the snow and near-freezing temps the night before.

My 20-incher took overall event lunker, which was a legit shock to me because I entered the length incorrectly, thought I had a 19, so when Donald Davis, who judged the event, corrected it to 20 inches, I was genuinely confused. Haha. A pleasant surprise, though.

Taking fifth place, with just three fish and 52 inches, was Gerard Elias. To tell you how tough the bite was, Gerard didn’t catch a keeper after 8:53 AM.

John Ferreira nabbed fourth place with 66.75, catching most of his four bass offshore; which is exactly where Mike Morcone spent his day, netting 72 inches of bass and third place.

Nate Chagnon’s gut feeling proved true (much better than the alternative), and he worked one spot and one bait all day, hauling in 86.75 inches worth of A-1 greens. That was one of only two limits caught all day, good enough for second place. Nate is on fire this year!

I have fished A-1 a half dozen or so times in the past, only doing well once. Despite it having everything I love to fish—shallow water, weeds, wood, etc.—I have struggled there. So going in my expectations were low. And despite that productive early-morning hour, I struggled as usual.

Thankfully for me, that one lucky hour was enough for the win. The late-afternoon upgrade was just icing on the cake. My best five went 94.25, a record I will likely never top at A-1.

I gotta say one thing about the Jackson Kayak Flex Drive. I never once had to concern myself with all that submerged wood as long as I was moving forward. I hit so many stumps at full speed, and that drive kicked up and never slowed me down. Pretty killer design.

Anyway, congrats to all who caught fish on a very tough day, and thanks to everyone for braving those conditions.

You can check the full results here.

Our next Eastern Division event goes down on May 15 at South Watuppa Pond in Fall River.

Dogfight at Quaboag Pond

April 11, 2021 0 Comment

Before I get going on how the first MAKB Western Division tourney played out, I’d just like to thank Ken Wood for letting Nelson da Costa and myself roll out a division on this side of the state. I’ve said it before, but if we manage to run things even half as smoothly as he does, then I’ll consider it a success. Also a huge thanks to Nelson for stepping up to help me out. Much appreciated!

We had nearly a full house at the launch Saturday at Quaboag Pond. Twenty-four of the 25 slots were filled! With 24 anglers, we paid out five spots, plus lunker bass and lunker pickerel.

I’ve fished the pond less than a handful of times over the past 10 years, and know that it can be a “feast or famine” type of water body. I even predicted to Nate Chagnon at some point in the previous week that I believed there would be one or two anglers with big bags, and the rest of the standings would be a dogfight.

When Saturday launch rolled around, my initial plan of heading into the incoming Brookfield River was shot in the foot, as no less than seven kayaks took off in that direction. I opted instead to fish into the outgoing Quaboag River.

I pedaled up alongside Ken, who had the same idea, but then watched him pull a U-turn and return to the launch for his Ketch Board.

The water was glass for the first couple hours, and my first two keepers were promptly thrown back without pictures—because I had forgotten about the eight-inch minimum, naturally. Luckily I rebounded and filled out a limit using topwater in the shallows for smaller bass.

A couple hours in, Ken moved into first on the backs of a couple 16-inch fish. The standings were filled with fish under 15 inches. I had moved downriver to a section I fished last year, and hooked two of my three biggest fish on a jig, which brought me to second place, a few inches behind Ken.

Right as the standings went offline at 1 PM, I downsized to a Ned-rigged creature bait and continued working the areas that earlier produced the 17-incher and an 18.75, and dug up a 15.5 and 19.5, which sealed the deal.

I placed first with 84 inches even, while Ken held second with 77.25. Charging into 3rd was Nick Rinngard with a solid 71.25. Nelson also made a late run behind a 19.25-inch pig, to end at 68.25. Sean Dwyer rounded out the paying slots with 65.75.

The largemouth lunker pool went to me, and Ray Figueroa for nabbed the pickerel pool with a 23.25!

Great job to everyone for grinding it out in the wind! What an awesome way to start this division, and I sincerely thank all who attended.

Finally, thanks to Joe Brown and his wife Meg for hosting the after-event food and drinks at Old Glory Outdoors!

For the full standings, click here.

Our next event is taking place WAY out west in the mountain town of Becket on May 8th. Buckley-Dunton Reservoir and nearby Yokum Pond will host the tourney, and there will be limited to the first 20 anglers to register! Registration goes live at 7 PM on May 2nd through Fishing Chaos.

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.

Old Glory Outdoors

March 31, 2021 0 Comment

We are very excited to announce a new partnership with Old Glory Outdoors, a veteran-owned company located at 363 East Main Street in East Brookfield, MA.

Owner/CEO Joe Brown is an avid outdoorsman and tournament angler, and every employee shares the same passion and is highly knowledgeable in everything fishing-related, especially bass fishing. Considered a pro shop, Old Glory carries a large selection of tackle and gear from a variety of companies, such as 6th Sense, Cashion Rods, Lew’s, Abu Garcia, X-Zone, Z-Man, and local legend Radfish Lures, one of our other sponsors.

Old Glory will generously be providing tournament prize packs and has offered a 20% discount to all MAKB members, good for in-store and online purchases. Also, anglers fishing the first Western Division event of the season are invited back to the shop after the event for pizza and beverages.

We’re very excited and honored to be working with Joe and Old Glory Outdoors!

Please give them a like and/or follow on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.

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…