Tag: Online Tournaments

Smart Move Decides October

November 8, 2021 0 Comment

With only four people registered, there wasn’t a whole lot of action in October’s Monthly Challenge. In fact, since someone else on staff judges the monthly challenges, I kind of forgot about it until about twenty minutes ago!

I did check in on things a few times, though. Eric Graves and Steve Hedges fished Week 1, while Nick Ringgard and Dan Johnson Jr. fished Week 4.

Only five fish were entered in the first week, three from Eric and two from Steve. Eric’s three fish were good for second place and a little bit of money, enough to cover the entry fee and then buy a candy bar.

Nick and Dan had just one fish, both caught at our championship, until the final day of the challenge, where it looks like Nick went out and added four more fish to his total for a small limit. Smart move on his part, as that took first place!

Nick also had lunker for the event. He and Eric actually tied, so the next biggest fish was the tie breaker. Both their biggest three fish tied, though, so the fourth fish broke it. Unfortunately for Eric, he only had three fish, so Nick took the lunker pool—an astronomical sum of $6.60!

There were only four, but great job either way!

Check out the full results here.

We’ll start these up again in April, maybe March if the weather is nice enough.

Shooting for 500

October 30, 2021 0 Comment

Well, the last Brawl of the season went down today. Fifteen anglers fished this one. It was competitive for a while…and then John Ferreira put the proverbial pedal to the metal.

I don’t have a detailed recap since we all fished different spots, so I’ll go over my day…

I fished a pond down on Cape Cod. I had high hopes going in, but the fish weren’t where I expected them to be. I figured the fish would be offshore, but if they were out there, they were hugging the bottom because I didn’t see much of anything.

Where I found fish was shallow. Real shallow, like a foot or less of water. And they were smallmouth! Crazy. They were relating to wood, in particular a laydown and bushes overhanging the water near grass.

The problem was, there is very little grass in this lake and there was literally one laydown and four or five bushes in the water. Just not enough real estate for me to be competitive. I wish I’d been able to find a secondary pattern.

But the ones I got were good ones, including an 18.5 that was lunker for the event. And I had the best five-fish limit! Not that it matters. Small victories, am I right? Haha.

Anyway, we paid out three spots, plus lunker and pickerel lunker.

Nate Chagnon nabbed pickerel lunker with a 20.75. He also took third with 255.50 inches.

Shawn Dominik was also on Cape Cod, and he was on the right bite, hauling in 358 inches for second place.

I know where John Ferreira fished. He’s been telling about the fall bite at this place, and now I’m a believer. John was hoping to hit 500 inches today, and he came pretty damn close with 492.25! That’s a new Brawl record!

Congrats, fellas! Good job out there!

Check out the final standings here.

Low Numbers, High Limits

August 29, 2021 0 Comment

The Monthly Online Challenge for August is complete!

Lower numbers for this one since I completely forgot to promote it (a lesson I clearly didn’t learn from), but the twelve anglers that did fish it put up some good numbers.

I wasn’t able to get out and fish much my week, but luck was on my side! Four of my five fish came from the Thursday Night Throwdown on Norton Reservoir and accounted for 74 of my 90.75 inches. Not bad for four hours on the water.

But that was still no match for the mighty Matthew Conant, who put up 97.75, with a 21-inch kicker that was the biggest of the month!

Steve Hedges was just outside the money with a solid 90.25, and Bruce Levy and I put up the month’s other 20-inchers.

Great stuff, guys! Congrats, Matt!

Full results here.

And Still…

August 2, 2021 0 Comment

This past Saturday we hosted our second Catch ‘Em All Brawl of the year, this one being the Summer Brawl. This is always a tough event for most people, as finding a location that holds a lot of small dumb fish can be tricky.

Some people have a spot, others hope they do. I know multiple spots that are loaded with the right kind of bass, but they seem to never produce on the days of these events. Saturday was no different.

I got my first keeper within a few casts after launching. I was hoping it set the tone. Not long after, I caught a 9- or 10-incher. Unfortunately, that one set the tone! I ended the day with 151.50 inches of keeper bass, and approximately 572 inches of dinks.

That landed me in fourth place. With only 18 anglers registered, though, we’re only paying out two spots and lunker, the latter of which went to Donald Davis, who put up a tank 21.50! Awesome.

We also ran an optional pickerel lunker pool. Out of the ten anglers who opted in, only Derek Brundle submitted one, which was surprising but great for him!

Steve Scott, Mike Morcone, and Domenic Eno were on top all day, each one pacing each other fairly evenly from what I recall seeing.

Mike’s bite seemed to die at some point, though, and in talking to him after, he said he moved from his area to let it rest, only to come back and find multiple bass boats on it. A fatal error on his part, it would seem. His 235 inches landed him in third place, just shy of the money.

Steve Scott has a spot. We all know this. The spot produces, as it doesn’t get heavy fishing pressure. Domenic’s answer to this was to fish a puddle, a less-than-20-acre lake.

I’ve always said, focusing on a smaller body of water for these events is a smart move…

In the end, though, maybe this one was too small. Domenic’s 240.75 just wasn’t enough to beat Steve’s 309.75, giving Steve his third Catch ‘Em All Brawl victory!

Congrats, man! Great job, everyone.

Check out the full results here.

Our Fall Brawl goes down on October 30. Steve is the man to beat, no doubt, so if you plan on taking him down, I’d start scouting new bodies of water now.

Another Record Falls

July 29, 2021 0 Comment

July’s Monthly Online Challenge is in the books, and Joseph Daddeo came out on top with the biggest limit yet in the series: 100.5 inches! Joe’s massive limit was anchored by two over 20 inches, rounded out with three over 19 inches.

Not far behind was Matthew Conant, who is no stranger to the top the top of the leaderboard. Matt put up 99 inches.

The top four anglers had over 90 inches, in fact, and five bass topped the 20-inch mark, the biggest being Joe’s 21.50!

Great job, gentlemen!

The final results can be found here on Fishing Chaos.

Fireworks Came a Month Early This Year

June 29, 2021 0 Comment

July is usually the month of fireworks, but there were plenty in Week 2 of June’s monthly online challenge!

No one entered fish during Week 1, so the game was wide open when Week 2 started. Matt Conant set things off quickly, putting up nearly 90 inches his first day out, but Ken Wood laid a hefty 92 inches on the board on my first day out, overtaking Conant for the lead. He was able to increase that total to 97.50, naively thinking he had a good shot at winning it all.

But with his work week starting on Sundays and Week 2 not ending until Monday evening, Ken gave Matt too much time on the water unopposed, and he retook the lead with 99.75. Joe D’Addeo wasn’t far behind with 95.75, and Derek Brundle and Christopher Alves were making runs with 90.75 and 89 inches, respectively. But when Week 2 ended, Conant still had the lead.

Four anglers took to the water during Week 3, but none could catch the leader. Five more tried in the final week, but last month’s winner Steve Hedges was the only one to break 90 inches. Unfortunately his 91.75 wasn’t enough and Conant wins his second monthly online challenge of the year (he won the first of the season in April).

Matt and Ken tied for lunker, with both of them putting up 20.75-inch tanks. Their second biggest bass determined the tie-breaker, though, with Ken’s 20.50 besting Matt’s 20.25 for the lunker win!

Check out the final results here on Fishing Chaos.

Newcomer Slays the Giants

May 30, 2021 0 Comment

The Online Challenge for May has come to a conclusion!

Bruce Levy took lead in Week 1, but only by default since he was the only one with a ticket. Matthew Conant had the lead after Week 2, but Joseph D’Addeo overtook him by an inch the night before he headed down to Candlewood Lake for the KBF Trail Event.

We know those three anglers, and many others who fished the first three weeks, but Week 4 consisted of the “unknowns,” anglers who are new to MAKB.

Ray Figueroa made a statement with a tank 20.25, which took over the lunker leaderboard, but Steve Hedges kept chipping away, inching his way closer to the top. On the final day of the tournament, fishing two different lakes, he put up a 19.75 and a monster 20.50 to not only take over the lunker leaderboard but the overall lead as well, giving him the win for the month.

As I mentioned in my Lake Nippenicket write-up, Steve has had a good week. He placed fourth at the Nip, had pickerel lunker, won his round two Knockout Series match, plus took lunker and the victory in the Monthly Online Challenge Series for May. Great job, man!

For the full standings, click 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.)

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.

Over 32,000 Inches of Bass!

September 7, 2017 0 Comment

Okay, folks, here it is, the official results for the first ever Northeast No Limit Showdown!

Once again, sorry for the delay in getting everything judged. The amount of fish submitted exceeded our expectations by quite a bit. We had been judging every submission each day, but once we got behind there was just no way to catch up.

Because a TON of fish were caught!

We had 40 anglers sign up, and 38 of them submitted fish—2,288 fish, to be exact, for a ridiculous grand total of 32,592.50 inches! Crazy.

Anyway, without further ado, here are the top four and lunkers:

1st Place: Chris Marty (4,212.75)
2nd Place: Ken Wood (3,400.75)
3rd Place: Edmar Junior (3,123.00)
4th Place: Tom Kringle (2,741.75)

Lunker Largemouth: Edmar Junior (21.75)
Lunker Smallmouth: Chris Marty (20.00)

Huge congrats to everyone! That was a hell of a tournament! You can check out the final results here on TourneyX.

Next year we’re not sure if we’ll do a month-long tournament. Some were able to remain competitive by fishing very productive bodies of water, but it’s clear that those who can fish more have a big advantage over those who cannot and those who do not have access to lakes/ponds with an abundance of fish.

Not to take anything away from those who fished their butts off this month, of course; we simply think a 2-day or 3-day no limit tournament would prove to be much more competitive and rewarding for all involved.

So, at a minimum, we will do a few short ones next year, and maybe one month-long (but don’t count on it). We will be upping the minimum length to 15 inches as well.

Anyway, thanks to all for signing up! We appreciate it. And thanks to Dwayne Walley and TourneyX for making this kind of tournament possible!

To those who placed, we will send payments in a few hours to the PayPal address through which you paid your entry fee. If you would like it sent elsewhere, please contact Ken.