Tag: Lake Maspenock

A Commanding First Win!

September 19, 2020 0 Comment

Every time I’ve fished Lake Maspenock, I go in with high hopes. Then a few hours later I’m on the bottom of my kayak, curled up in the fetal position, crying and questioning my life choices…

Today was no different.

Twenty-three other anglers fished today’s event, and most probably understand what I’m talking about. With the drop in temperature, I’d hoped that it might trigger the fish into feeding instead of shutting them down. I think the latter happened, though.

I had my first fish quickly, at 7:10, a decent 15.75. Then I went exactly two hours without another bite, which resulted in a giant 10.75. At noon I had to go to my car and get a new battery for my fishfinder, and Troy was there packing up. It was an inspirational moment and I almost followed suit, but I decided to stick it out until at least 1 PM.

Just before 1 PM, I got my third bass on a spinnerbait. First cast up in the northern section, and I thought that was going to be the deal. Noooooope! Not another bite on the spinnerbait. But I did manage to yank a smallmouth out from under a dock, knocking it senseless as it smashed into the side of my kayak. I felt bad, but…8.50, baby!

Once again I contemplated leaving, but it was close to the end, so I made my way over to the beach, tossed out the ned, and caught my fifth keeper at 2:32. A limit! A rare feat for me at Maspenock.

Then at 2:48, I caught an upgrade, and another at 2:55! Never felt so good to do so bad. Haha.

As usual, though, anglers begin to buckle down and focus in the last few hours, and there were some surprises…

If you had taken bets on where pickerel lunker would come from, we’d all have bet on the northern, weedy section. Surprisingly, I caught a 21.25 down south, on a spinnerbait in ten feet of water, no weeds in sight. I caught no pickerel up north in the weeds. Makes sense.

John Ferreira caught the biggest smallie (15.25) today, but he didn’t opt in to the smallmouth lunker pool, so that rolls down to Gerard Elias, who had the next biggest at 13.50.

Luckily for John, lunker largemouth was included in the entry fee, so he nabbed that pot with his 18.25!

I passed Chris LaCourse around 11 AM, and he had one fish on the board. He caught five more after that for a total of 66.50 and fifth place. Great job, bud!

Amazingly, my two last-minute upgrades bumped me up into fourth place with 68.75 inches! Guess I’m glad I didn’t quit early.

Joe D’Addeo has been on fire this year, and that streak continues with a third-place finish today. He had 69.75.

Lee Kennon also turned it on in the last two hours, catching three of his five fish during that time, vaulting him up into second place with 71.50!

Today was John’s day, though. From the start, John had it figured out, fishing offshore in deeper water. I passed Bruce Levy at one point and we were both staring at the the sonar spaghetti on our fishfinder screens, scratching our heads, wondering why they wouldn’t bite. John had it dialed in from the jump, hauling in 80 inches and earning him his first regular-season MAKB win. Hell of a day, man!

Great job, gentlemen!

Click here for the full results.

And thanks to everyone for coming out. Our next event is this coming Saturday at Mashpee-Wakeby. They struggled there today (one fish took third place), so let’s cross our fingers and hope for light wind and feeding bass next weekend!

Hard-Earned and Well-Earned

November 10, 2018 0 Comment

With the weather forecast, it wasn’t surprising that we had a low turnout today at Lake Maspenock. Just seven of us were crazy enough to show up.

The morning started drizzly, but relatively calm. The wind didn’t pick up for a few hours, but when it did, it blew pretty hard. Billington Sea last year was far worse, but it still wasn’t all that fun out there today.

Worse, the bite was off. Nonexistent for most. I caught a pickerel and had a few nibbles from perch or sunfish on a dropshot, and that was it. I usually fish hard right till the end, but not today.

As I contemplated heading in early, around 1 PM, I saw three other anglers at the ramp, one of whom was in second place, just a small fish behind the leader. That should tell you all you need to know about how awful it was.

That second-place angler was John Ferreira. He had three fish for 42.25.

Shortly after I got out, two more anglers showed up, leaving just one out there on the lake: Chris Diranian. He was in the lead with four fish and 55.50 inches, so I texted him to come on in.

John got his fish on the ned rig, while Chris junk fished up in the northern section of the lake—which, ironically, was much calmer than the narrower section south of that. I did not expect that.

Chris also got took home lunker largemouth, a 15-incher; while Gerard, the only other angler to catch a fish, landed lunker smallie for the day, also 15-inches.

Check out the standings here: here.

Congrats, fellas! Hard-earned and well-earned!

Thanks for coming out! This will probably be it for the year. We’re looking to have a get-together (part potluck, part pig roast) mid-March, a kind of pre-season gathering and a KBF National Championship sendoff. We’ll also hand out trophies to the tournament winners from this year and Angler of the Year.

Should be a good time! Spouses and children will be welcome. Hope to see you there!

The 2018 Knockout Series Finale

November 7, 2017 0 Comment

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.

A Season End Grind

October 28, 2017 0 Comment

Seventeen anglers closed out our final regular-season tournament of the year, which took place on a foggy morning at Lake Maspenock. In a few words: it was a grind. Super-tough bite for everyone. Only two limits were caught!

With just 28.75, Donald Davis took fourth place. He also caught one of two smallmouth on the day (Ken Wood caught the other), with his being the bigger of the two, which was good enough to win the lunker smallmouth pool. With a last-minute 18.50-incher, Ari Stonehill propelled himself into third place while also taking the lunker largemouth crown.

This year’s Knockout Series started with 32 anglers and ended with two going head to head at this event: Ken Wood and Shawn Renes. Fitting, then, that both of them would battle it out on this day for both their final Knockout Series match (see a future post to see who won) and this tournament.

Both found fish early, but it was Ken who was heading for victory until Shawn caught a late-inning lunker and bumped Ken down to second place with 72.25 inches. Shawn bested him with a solid 74.50.


Dammit, Jim, I’m a fisherman, not a photographer!

You can check out the complete results here.

Thanks for coming, everyone! As of right now, this is our final tournament of the year. If weather permits, we will hold another. Maybe more. If not, we’ll see you next year!