The 2025 Knockout Series bracket is LIVE! Sixty-four anglers will battle it out this season!
Check it out here!
2024 Season Stats
Winter is hitting a bit different this year, and with Christmas just around the corner, it seems we’ve wrapped up tournaments for the season.
For those interested in some stats, here you go…
In 2024, we hosted a total of 51 events, including 24 divisional events, one championship, 10 Tuesday/Thursday Night Throwdowns, four Cold Water Series events, eight monthly online challenges, three Catch ‘Em All Brawls, and the Knockout Series.
We awarded $49,893 in payouts throughout the year! Here’s the breakdown:
Eastern Division: $8,784
Western Division: $6,020
Central Division: $9,094
Northern Division: $9,024
Championship: $3,960
Monthly Challenges: $3,936
Catch ‘Em All Brawls: $2,441
Thursday Night Throwdowns: $2,574
Knockout Series: $2,400
Cold Water Series: $2,094
In total, 955 competitors participated across these events (with many competing in multiple events, of course), and 4,397 fish were submitted (excluding the Knockout Series).
The highest number of fish submitted during a divisional event was 225, recorded at the Eastern Division’s Mashpee-Wakeby event. On the other hand, the fewest submissions for a single event were 48, during the Central Division opener at Webster Lake. Ironically, just a week later in 2023, Webster Lake set the record for the year with the highest number of fish submitted in a single event—252!
Collectively, we submitted a total of 18,948.75 inches of bass in 2024 (also excluding the Knockout Series).
The biggest limits of the year:
Northern Division: Patrick Brown – 96.00 (Lake Attitash)
Eastern Division: Ken Wood – 95.00 (Upper/Lower Mill Pond)
Western Division: Ryan Stager – 94.25 (Quaboag Pond)
Central Division: Lee Kennon – 92.75 (Sudbury River)
Monthly Challenge: Benjamin Hallowell – 101.25 (July)
Thursday Night Throwdown: Jerry Howes – 56.50 (Buckley Dunton Reservoir)
Cold Water Series: Matthew Conant – 91.00 (Santuit Pond)
The biggest largemouth of the year:
Northern Division: Patrick Brown – 22.25 (Lake Attitash)
Eastern Division: Domenic Eno – 22.00 (Snipatuit Pond)
Western Division: Noah Fahmy – 21.75 (Congamond Lake/Connecticut River)
Central Division: Lee Kennon and Cory Walker – 21.00 (Sudbury River and Flint Pond)
Monthly Challenge: Gregg Fritchey – 21.50 (July and August)
Thursday Night Throwdown: Ken Wood – 20.50 (Winnecunnet Pond)
Cold Water Series: Nate Chagnon – 21.25 (Santuit Pond)
The biggest smallmouth of the year:
Western Division: Justin Gallo – 20.50 (Ashmere Lake)
Eastern Division: John Ferreira and Jim Silva – 19.75 (Mashpee-Wakeby Pond and Upper/Lower Mill Pond)
Northern Division: Adam Rourke – 16.75 (Lake Attitash)
Central Division: Carl Hartwick – 15.75 (Webster Lake)
Some other stats:
Lee Kennon, Matthew Conant, and Ken Wood each secured the most divisional wins, with three victories apiece.
Steve Petkevitch led the pack with the most top-five finishes across all divisions, with 11 overall. Close behind were Matthew Conant and Ken Wood, each with 10 top-five finishes, followed by Mike Morcone with nine.
Benjamin Hallowell dominated the online division, with six wins out of 11 events. He also secured a win in the Cold Water Series, earning him the most overall wins across all events.
All in all, it was an incredible year! Fifty-one events—a bit fewer than last year, but still more than enough opportunities for anglers to get out on the water and compete. And now, we’re gearing up for something special: our tenth season next year—the big 1-0!
Thanks to everyone who continues to fish with us; and an even bigger thank-you goes to Kevin Amaral, Jeremey Andrews, Donald Davis, Bruce Levy, Michael Williams, Anthony Campbell, Jonathan Medina, and Patrick Brown, all of whom have played their part in transforming this little trail into something far beyond what we ever imagined.
Enjoy the holidays! We’ll be announcing our 2025 schedules and more very soon.
2023 Season Stats
On Sunday, we closed out 2023 with one last tournament, a Cold Water Series event on Johns Pond. This final event marked the 53rd event of the season!
In total, we ran 24 divisional events and one championship, 9 Thursday Night Throwdowns, two zone tournaments, six Cold Water Series events, eight monthly online challenges, and three Catch ‘Em All Brawls.
After I make the payouts for the Johns Pond tournament later this week, we will have issued $49,893 in payouts in 2023! This is how it all broke down:
Central Division: $9,148
Eastern Division: $8,822
Northern Division: $6,518
Western Division: $6,168
Monthly Challenges: $5,254
Championship: $3,948
Cold Water Series: $3,242
Catch ‘Em All Brawls: $3,121
Thursday Night Throwdowns: $2,888
Zone Tournaments: $784
All told, 950 competitors fished these events (not all unique, of course) and 5,163 fish were submitted, which includes 1,630 from the monthly online events and Catch ‘Em All Brawls.
The most fish submitted during a divisional event was 252 at the Central Division season opener on Webster Lake. The least fish submitted was 24 at the brutal Eastern Division season opener on Lake Cochituate.
We submitted a total of 21,896 inches of bass.
The biggest limits of the year:
Central Division: Mike Morcone – 91.25 (East/West Waushacum)
Northern Division: Lee Kennon – 90.25 (Sudbury River)
Eastern Division: Steve Petkevitch – 88.25 (Snipatuit Pond)
Western Division: Shawn Dominik – 85.50 (The Lucky 7 Roadrunner event)
Monthly Challenge: Khoa Dao – 102.00 (August)
Thursday Night Throwdown: Patrick Brown – 61.00 (Mascuppic Lake)
Cold Water Series: Derek Brundle – 87.50 (South Watuppa Pond)
The biggest largemouth of the year:
Western Division: Nelson da Costa – 21.75 (Ashmere Lake)
Northern Division: Nate Chagnon – 21.00 (Sudbury River)
Eastern Division: Lee Kennon – 20.75 (Snipatuit Pond)
Central Division: Jon Carlman and Michael Williams – 20.75 (East/West Waushacum and Flint Pond)
Monthly Challenge: Derek Brundle – 22.50 (August)
Thursday Night Throwdown: Derek Brundle – 21.50 (Oldham Pond)
Cold Water Series: Matthew Conant – 22.25 (Johns Pond)
The biggest smallmouth of the year:
Northern Division: Steve Hedges – 17.75 (Merrimack River)
Eastern Division: Matthew Conant – 17.50 (Long Pond Plymouth)
Central Division: Reyluis Morales – 17.50 (Webster Lake)
Western Division: Shawn Dominik – 16.50 (Onota Lake)
Cold Water Series: Ryan Nye – 19.25 (Peters Pond)
In everyone’s defense, between all four divisions, we only fished eight lakes with smallies last year, and none were what you’d call great smallmouth fisheries.
Some other stats:
Mike Morcone had the most wins between all divisions with three.
John Ferreira had the most top-five finishes between all divisions with six, which of course lead him to his well-earned 2023 Angler of the Year win.
Derek Brundle and Ken Wood tied with the most victories between all divisions and formats with six each. They also tied for the most top-five finishes between all divisions and formats with 18 apiece.
Overall, it was a pretty killer year! Fifty-three events is pretty wild, to be honest. We’ll probably have just as many this year, or close to it. And we’re bringing back the Knockout Series like it used to be: in-state only, angler versus angler competing on the same lake at the same time!
This new year marks the beginning of our ninth year! Crazy.
Big shout-out to all the anglers and especially the MAKB staff, past and present, who have made this the baddest kayak bass fishing trail around!
The 2022 Knockout Series: New England
The Knockout Series is expanding!
Started in 2016, this bracketed, one-on-one tournament series has been a success each season. For the 2022 season, however, we have decided to allow anglers from all New England states to compete in the series.
As such, some old rules needed to be changed, while new rules needed to be implemented.
The complete updated rules can be found here. If you intend to compete this season, please read them thoroughly, even if you’ve competed in previous years, as much has changed.
Registration for the 2022 season will go live on Fishing Chaos on February 1, with Round 1 starting on April 1.
If you have any questions, let us know.
Fifth Round Knockout!
The 2021 Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ Knockout Series has come to an end!
We started with forty-eight anglers in April and over the course of four rounds and forty-five matches, just three remained: Shawn Dominik, Greg Krasnowiecki, and Valber Santos!
These three anglers had their championship match this past Saturday at Webster Lake, along with thirty-seven others who were fishing the MAKB Championship. The bite was tough for them, like it was for many fishing that day.
While the MAKB Championship lasted until 4 PM, the Knockout Series Championship ended at 1 PM, and when all was said and done, just three small fish were submitted, one from each angler.
Valber would only catch one fish all day, a 9.5-inch nibbler. Not a win, but still a solid payday after a great run to the championship.
Like Valber, Shawn struggled Saturday, but he did end up finding the fish in the MAKB Championship. Unfortunately for him, he was two minutes too late for Knockout Series Championship. His first fish of the day, a 12.50, came at 8:40 AM. He wouldn’t catch a second fish until 1:02 PM, a 15-incher that would have crowned him the Knockout Series Champion, but was just after the buzzer.
So with just a 13.50-inch smallmouth, the 2021 Knockout Series Champion is…
Greg Krasnowiecki!
Maybe not the kind of match they hoped for, but you can’t say it wasn’t competitive. It was a close one either way!
Congrats, Greg! Great job, well-deserved! To Shawn and Valber as well.
The longest limit of the series went to Matthew Conant, who hauled in a 58-inch bag in round one.
Round one also saw two anglers haul in the biggest fish of the season. Both Matt and Ronel Mullen put up a 21.50. Based on next biggest fish, Matt’s 18.5 trumps Ronel’s 16.25, giving Matt this one as well!
Thanks to everyone for participating this season. We’re going to make some changes for the 2022 season, which we’ll announce in the new year.
If you want to check out this year’s matches, click here.
Announcing the 2021 MAKB Tournament Schedules
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.
And the 2020 Knockout Series Champion Is…
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.
The 2018 Knockout Series Is Underway!
The 2018 Knockout Series bracket has been finalized. Anglers were paired randomly, and this is how round one—which began on April 1 and will run through May 12—will play out:
BRACKET 1:
BRACKET 2:
BRACKET 3:
Because we have 48 anglers, the brackets are slightly different this year, essentially three separate, smaller brackets. The winners of each bracket will make up the final three anglers in the finale.
The 2018 Knockout Series Finale
Our annual Knockout Series came to a conclusion on October 28 at Lake Maspenock in Hopkinton. It was another great year with some very close matches and stiff competition. One even resulted in a tie, which was broken by big fish. Can’t get any closer than that!
We started the series with 32 anglers and ended up with just two—Ken Wood and Shawn Renes.
Shawn made it to the finals last year, but was ultimately beaten by Dave Bibo. As fate would have it, they faced off again in the semi-finals (round 4) this year, but this time Shawn got his revenge and moved on to the finals for the second year in a row.
Ken Wood got spanked in round 1 last year, losing by 30.50 inches! This year he didn’t get to exact his revenge upon Bruce Levy, who himself was knocked out in round 1, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Shawn and Ken decided to try out something new for the final match this year: instead of one match, they fished two. The first took place at our Lake Rico event. It was a close one, with both anglers catching one big fish over 20 inches and four dinks, but Shawn bested Ken by two inches that day, 47.25 to 45.25.
The second half of their match took place at our Lake Maspenock tournament two weeks later, and once again it was a tight finish. Ken quickly landed two fish back to back, the first at 7:08 and the second at 7:15, but it would take him the rest of the day to fill a limit and cull up one time (he caught his last two fish at 1:56 and 2:08 PM).
Shawn had an early flurry, landing four fish between 7:04 and 7:53 AM. Ultimately one of those, a 14.25, was DQ’d for the eye being covered, but a few hours later he caught another the exact same size.
Even if that fish hadn’t been DQ’d, Ken had him beat…until 2:03 PM, when Shawn landed a solid 17.50. That one sealed Ken’s fate.
On the day, Shawn won by .50 inches, 47 to 46.50 (the Knockout Series is a three-fish limit, so only the biggest three of their five from that day were counted here). Between both final matches, Shawn took the win with an overall total of 94.25 to Ken’s 91.75, a difference of 2.50 inches.
So without further ado, a huge congratulations to this year’s Knockout Series Champion: Shawn Renes. Great guy and an outstanding fisherman, and a hell of a match between two strong competitors!
Below is the full bracket (click the image to enlarge):
Not to be forgotten, this year’s overall Knockout Series big fish went to Edmar Junior, with his 22-inch slob caught during his round 3 match back in June. There were a number of bass over 20 inches caught this year, and a few over 21, but none big enough to take the crown and $200 from Edmar. Congrats!
In his round 4 match, Ken Wood managed to hook up with two solid bass—a 20.50 and a 21—which gave him an inch lead over previous series “big bag” leader, Donald Davis. With only one round remaining at that point, Ken only had to worry about Shawn breaking the record at Lake Rico (since they experimented with the two-match finale, only the first went toward the big fish/big limit records), and that did not happen. So this year’s biggest limit went to Ken Wood, with 57 inches, taking a bit of the sting out of his series loss, no doubt.
Thank you all for another great season! Looking forward to next year. Let’s aim for 64 anglers! Sign-ups will begin in January.
Knockout Series Sign-Up Is Live
The sign-up period for this year’s Knockout Series has begun. If you would like to participate, please let us know by commenting on the pinned sign-up post on our Facebook group or by sending an e-mail through our Contact page above.
If you’re not familiar with what the Knockout Series is, it’s a bracketed, three-fish limit, CPR (catch, photo, release), one-on-one tournament series. You fish until you’re knocked out of the competition!
Entry fee is a one-time, non-refundable (after March 14, 2017) payment of $50. Payments can be made via PayPal (preferred) or by check/money order.
Check/money order payments must be received by March 1, 2017. Cutoff for PayPal payments is midnight March 14, 2017. NO EXCEPTIONS! Pairings will be selected the following day
Anglers will be randomly paired to start and beginning on April 1 will have one month to six weeks (depending on how many anglers sign up) to get their match complete.
Each round will run for six weeks, starting April 1 (depending on ice out) until all matches are complete. The exact time periods are as follows:
Round 1: Apr 1–May 12
Round 2: May 13–Jun 23
Round 3: Jun 24–Aug 4
Round 4: Aug 5–Sep 15 (last round with 16 anglers)
Round 5: Sep 16–Oct 28 (last round with 32 anglers)
Winners of each round move on until one angler remains victorious above all others.
We need 16 anglers minimum and will cap it at 32.
You can find the official rules here and FAQs here. Please note that the rules for the Knockout Series are more relaxed than those for our regular tournaments. If you plan to fish both series, make sure you know the rules.
If we’ve missed anything or you have questions, let us know.
