Tag: Lake Rico

Kicker for the Win

On Saturday, twenty-one anglers hit Lake Rico for the eighth Eastern Division event of the season.

Lake Rico is an interesting spot. It has some monsters, but it’s also stocked with trout and has a lot of small bass, both of which make catching the big ones more difficult. But if you can find one or two above 16 inches, you’re very likely to win.

And that’s exactly how this one played out…

At the end of the event, there was a three-way tie for pickerel lunker. But one angler gave himself a quarter inch too much, while the other shorted himself a quarter inch. After correcting the lengths, Christopher Nardi came out on top with a 16.75.

Steve Hedges’s 17.75 largemouth was the hero of the day, as well as big bass of the event.

Valber Santos was a hair’s length away from a one-inch deduction, which would have put him in seventh place. Luckily the open mouth that almost cost him was open exactly a quarter inch—which is a deduction in KBF, but not one in MAKB per our rules addendum—so he landed in fifth place with 63.50 inches.

Also with 63.50, but winning the tie-breaker with a 14.25 big fish, was Anthony Campbell, who grabbed fourth place.

Chris LaCourse rolled into a spot Nate Chagnon had been fishing most of the day before moving to another area, and he was able to put together something decent. (Much to Nate’s regret, I’m sure.) His 64 inches was enough for third place.

Separating himself from the pack with two over 15 inches was Patrick Brown, giving him 68.25, second place, and his best finish of the season!

As I mentioned, the angler who finds a good kicker or a few fish upwards of 15 inches typically wins at Lake Rico. Steve Hedges nailed that 17.75 at 6:05 AM. Remove it from the equation, and he ends up with 63.25 and fifth place. But coupled with a 14.25 and three 12s, he was hard to beat on this day.

This is Steve’s second win of the season, having also taken down the Route 57 Run tournament over in the Western Division. Great job, man!

And congrats to everyone else!

If you want to see the full results, click here.

We have one regular-season event remaining in each division before the championship. The next Eastern Division event will be on September 18, down in Brewster on Walkers Pond and Upper/Lower Mill Ponds (they’re all connected). A great spot to end the season!

Then it’s on to the championship!


Dinkathon 2019

We had a great turnout for the first MAKB event of the year (aka Dinkathon 2019). I was afraid the weather forecast would have scared a lot of anglers away, but 37—18 on Lake Rico, 19 on Neponset Res—showed up to battle the wind and the rain.

And despite the forecast, it wasn’t bad. The wind was awful—that was accurate—but it didn’t rain nearly as much as I expected.

The fishing forecast, however, was dead on. Dinks, dinks, and more dinks. Only three big fish were caught and, unfortunately, one was disqualified (more on that in another post).

We paid out five spots, lunker, and pickerel lunker (one pool for each pond).

Not a whole lot to write about when everyone is catching dinks, but five of those put Lee Kennon into the winner’s circle with 62 inches even (more on Lee’s day in another post as well).

One inch ahead of Lee, Joshua Jackson took fourth place. I think this is his first time placing in the money with us. Congrats, man!

A last-minute, 3.25-inch upgrade bumped Nick Booth up into third place with 64.75.

A big fish, even a 15-incher, would have made a big difference for a lot anglers today. That’s how tight things were.

Many thought Neponset Reservoir would put out bigger limits, but of the top ten, only one angler—Kevin Amaral Jr.—fished Neponset. Kevin put up a respectable (for these ponds) 65 inches for second place.

I lucked out today. My first two fish went 10.25 and 9.50, while my third went 12.50. Shortly after catching the latter, I just happened to find an area and a bait that both bass and pickerel were keying on: chatterbait slow rolled through partially dead, holdover lily pads. I first caught a pickerel, then another, and then one more, one of which was 18 inches—and I was pumped because I figured out a damn pickerel pattern and decided I’d shoot for winning the pickerel lunker pool.

In my excitement to catch pickerel, I laid into an absolute cow. When it rolled on me and I saw its belly, I thought it was a 10-pounder. Sadly, it was too short to be a 10, but it was fat. She went 20 inches and weighed 6.54 pounds. Full of eggs and food, ready to burst. That fish and a handful of others I caught later were enough to take lunker and first place. Though it is a bittersweet victory, which I’ll discuss later.

Because we had over 30 anglers, Nick, Josh, Kevin, and I also qualified for the 2020 KBF National Championship on Guntersville Lake in Alabama!

As mentioned, we held two separate pickerel lunker pools. I wasn’t sure how each lake compared when it came to pickerel, so I thought it was best to separate them. That said, Valber Santos took home the Neponset pool with a 23-something, and Gabe Portes nabbed the Rico pool with a giant over 25 inches!

Anyway, congrats to everyone who placed. And thank you to all who showed up under what promised to be an awful day. We appreciate you!

Check out the full results here.

Our next event is two weeks from now: Johns Pond in Mashpee on May 4. We’re looking to make this another split-location event to accommodate the demand, but we’re still trying to figure out if Ashumet is comparable to Johns.

The event pages will go up soon.

Thanks for all the help today Donald and Troy! And Sarah!


A Lesson in Irony

Well, for the second year in a row, our No Limit tournament turned out to be a lesson in irony. Only one angler caught more than five fish today!

It was a struggle.

Fish under 12 inches were abundant, but finding fish over that was a challenge for all 21 of us. Out of 61 fish submitted, only six were over 14 inches long. Awful.

Four of those six were big ones, though. Michael Andreasen dragged in a 19.50 early. With so many small fish being caught, it was assumed that Michael’s fish would be the lunker for the day—until Ken Wood caught a 20-inch fatty! Certainly that would hold as the day’s lunker, right? Nope. Shawn Renes caught himself a beastly 21.50! And then Peter Arruda was like, “Pffft,” and hauled in a 21.75, which ended up taking the top lunker spot of the day.

Current Angler of the Year leader, Bruce Levy, struggled for most of the day, but he finally landed four in the last two hours, which was enough to secure fifth place with 54.25 inches.

Only four anglers caught more than four fish. One of them was Mark Johnson, who took fourth place with five 12-inch slobs that went 61.25.

Ken Wood didn’t catch his fifth fish until 2:30, and five was all he caught. Luckily for him, one of those fiver was a 20-incher, which was enough to hoist him into third place.

Shawn Renes has fished with us two times so far, and both times he’s come in second place. He had five fish—four dinks and a tank—that went 71.25.

(Shawn and Ken Wood also fished the first half of their Knockout Series finale today. Based on each of their three biggest, Shawn is leading Ken 47.25 to 45.25. They will fish again at our next tournament in two weeks and crown a winner!)

Craig Page hadn’t fished with us yet this year, and hasn’t fished much at all in fact, but that didn’t stop him from getting the “W” with six fish totaling 75.50. That sixth fish made all the difference! Congrats, Craig!

And congrats to everyone else! You had to work hard for this one.


Yeah, I may have Photoshopped my head into the picture

You can see the full results here.

Anyway, great seeing everyone again. Good to meet you, Gerard!

Our next tournament is at Lake Maspenock (aka North Pond) in Hopkinton on October 28. This will be our last regular-season tourney of the year (we’ll do a few more if the weather’s nice enough).

You can register for that one here.

See you in two weeks!