Tag: Tournament News

2023 Schedule Reveal

February 5, 2023 0 Comment

If you missed our Facebook Live schedule reveal, here it is:

EASTERN DIVISION

Apr 1 – Wequaquet Lake (Barnstable)
May 13 – Cook Pond (Fall River)
Jun 10 – Snipatuit Pond (Rochester)
Jul 1 – Charles River (Roadrunner)
Aug 26 – Long Pond (Plymouth)
Sep 16 – South Watuppa Pond (Fall River)

WESTERN DIVISION

Apr 22 – Connecticut River – Oxbow (Easthampton)
May 13 – Lake Rohunta (Athol)
Jun 17 – Onota Lake (Pittsfield)
Jul 22 – The Route 57 Run (Roadrunner)
Aug 26 – Connecticut River – North (Roadrunner)
Sep 23 – Ashmere Lake (Hinsdale)

CENTRAL DIVISION

Apr 15 – Webster Lake (Webster)
May 13 – East/West Waushacum Ponds (Sterling)
Jun 10 – A-1/Stump Pond (Westboro)
Jul 22 – Tully Lake (Athol)
Aug 19 – Flint Pond (Shrewsbury)
Sep 23 – Singletary Lake (Millbury)

NORTHERN DIVISION

Apr 29 – Chebacco Lake (South Hamilton)
May 20 – Lake Cochituate (Natick)
Jun 17 – Sudbury River (Roadrunner)
Jul 8 – Merrimack River (Roadrunner)
Aug 5 – Lake Attitash (Merrimac)
Sep 16 – Nashua River (Roadrunner)

CHAMPIONSHIP

Oct 7 – Mashpee-Wakeby Pond (Mashpee)

ONLINE SERIES

Mar 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Apr 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Apr 16 – The Catch ‘Em All Spring Brawl*
May 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Jun 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Jul 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Jul 16 – The Catch ‘Em All Summer Brawl*
Aug 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Sep 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Oct 1–28 – Monthly Online Challenge
Oct 22 – The Catch ‘Em All Fall Brawl*

*Sunday event

We will also have a few “fun” events, but we’re still working out those details. The Thursday Night Throwdowns will also return, but we won’t have any dates until the weather warms up.

As for the Knockout Series returning, that’s still up in the air. If it does return, it will likely revert back to the original format: Massachusetts only, anglers compete head-to-head on the same body of water. We’ll make a final decision soon…

More details were revealed in the live stream, which you can still view at the link above. Otherwise, you can find all this info on the individual event pages on Fishing Chaos.

If you have any questions, please reach out.

BIG NEWS!

December 5, 2022 0 Comment

Starting in 2023, Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ will have four divisions: Eastern, Western, Central, and Northern!

We’re excited to bring Anthony Campbell and Patrick Brown on as directors for the Northern Division, and Jonathan Medina, Bill Galeckas, and Joseph D’Addeo for the Central Division. All of them have history with MAKB and are friends to many of us, so we have no doubt they’ll be a great asset to the group.

Welcome aboard, fellas!

Below shows the general area in which these divisions will host their events.

We don’t have any dates or locations for next year just yet, but we’ll begin working on that soon. We’ll be doing a poll to choose locations for at least the Eastern Division, as has been tradition for the past for years or so. Look for that shortly!

Anyway, we’ll have a few additional announcements coming soon, but 2023 should be another great year for MAKB!

If you have any questions, let us know.

And the 2020 Knockout Series Champion Is…

November 8, 2020 1 Comment

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.

Big Changes for Kayak Bass Fishing

March 17, 2020 0 Comment

Been some shakeup over in KBF Land the last week or so. If you haven’t watched any of the videos or aren’t in the Members Only Facebook group, here’s a list of the more significant changes that affect us…

KBF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

They held on for as long as possible, but the KBF National Championship has been postponed. Tentatively, they’re looking at the first week in November. Nothing concrete yet, but that’s what they said.

Obviously this will mean that some of us who had qualified and planned to fish it will no longer be able to, but maybe it will open the door to some others who couldn’t fish it this month but can in November.

Disappointing, though, for sure.

PARTNER/CHALLENGE/TRAIL SERIES CHAMPIONSHIPS

Originally, the Partner Championship and Challenge Series Championship were to take place concurrently on October 17–18 on Caddo Lake, followed by the Trail Championship the next weekend on Kentucky Lake.

Not ideal for someone who may have qualified for and wanted to fish all three.

Well, now everything is combined. Again. Like last year. There is a Youth Series Championship somewhere in the mix there, but I don’t know much about it and it doesn’t really apply to any of us in this group. But that’s also been combined with it.

Assuming they wanted as much time between these events and the National Championship (if the November dates stand), these combined championships will take place on Caddo Lake, October 17–18.

PRO SERIES

The Pro Series has been dissolved into the Trail Series. All previously scheduled Pro Series events are now Trail Events.

This includes the Pro Open that was scheduled for May 2 on Hopatcong Lake in NJ. It is now a Trail Event for the northeast region. Great for us. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and all that fun stuff, this one is in jeopardy of being postponed. More on that below…

REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Regional Championships are no more. I have yet to wrap my head around this one. These events are now rebranded as SuperTrail events and you do not have to qualify to fish them.

I have no idea if this means there will no longer be a Regional Champion or Regional Angler of the Year or what, but I feel like some of the shine has been scrubbed off of this one. There’s something to be said about earning your way to a championship and winning it. Now anyone can fish it. Just gotta be a KBF member.

This SuperTrail will be worth points and a half in the Angler of the Year race. So going into the Trail Championship, if you’re gunning for overall Angler of the Year or the TEN, your best three Trail events and SuperTrail event points will count.

POSSIBLE ADDITIONAL EVENT POSTPONEMENTS

In addition to the National Championship postponement, KBF has tentatively postponed all live events in the next 60 days. That puts our brand new Hopatcong Lake Trail event inside the bubble. If things change for the better out there and all these quarantines and travel/social gathering restrictions are lifted, then the show will go on, nothing changes. But as of right now, the May 2 event is slated to be rescheduled. Bummer.

If things get worse…well, now you’re talking about the Lake George event as well, which is just outside that 60-day window.

STATE CHALLENGE SERIES

A bit of good news among all this: the KBF State Challenges are still going to happen as scheduled. The Massachusetts state challenge starts on April 1, and registration is open on TourneyX now, so go on and sign up. You’ll still need to adhere to any local restrictions imposed by the state or whatever, but you should be able to compete.

Lord Hoover did say that, if your state does not reach five or more anglers, it will not be combined with another state and there will be no challenge. They simply do not have the time to do that at the moment. So make sure your state gets at least five anglers. Massachusetts won’t have this problem, of course.

Anyway, can’t say I’m happy about all of this, but it’s all out of my control. When things change, and I’m sure they will, I’ll let you know…

A Sweet Victory Turned Sour

July 13, 2019 0 Comment

Thirty anglers fished our annual Three Lake Throwdown today, nine of which were at Lake Sabbatia, ten at Lake Nippenicket, and eleven at Neponset Reservoir.

The weather was hot, mostly sunny, but at least at Nippenicket it was pretty windy at times, which took the sting off the heat somewhat.

I don’t know all the details on how the other lakes fished, but it seemed like there was a decent bite going on at all three lakes until about 9:45 AM, when it just shut off. It was a struggle after that (and before it for some).

But for three lakes known to be tough, 125 bass were put on the board. And a few pickerel.

(For the love of God, stop submitting pics of pickerel! Sarah texts me every time to make sure it’s not a bass! Haha.)

Speaking of pickerel, Lee Kennon had to leave early due to a work emergency, but not before he landed a state-pin-length pickerel at 25 inches, which was more than big enough to take the pickerel lunker prize.

Big bass of the day went to John Ferreira and his 19.50! Good job, fellas!

Sitting on a weedbed for most of the day paid off for Donald Davis, who hauled up from the depths 73 inches of Sabbatia bass. In the money for the first time since his win at Neponset Reservoir last year. Congrats, bud!

And never placing in the money with MAKB before, Chris LaCourse worked the far back channel and river outlet at the Nip to the tune of 74.25 inches and a fourth place finish. Great job, man!

John Ferreira is having a great year in KBF events and he’s making a habit of finishing in the money at our events, either by landing in the top five, winning one of the lunker pools, or, like today, doing both. John frogged his way into third place with 74.75 inches. Awesome!

My kids like to use my soft plastic baits as toys. At first they were content with my ripped and torn baits discarded after tournaments, but eventually they wanted to “go shopping” in my tackle closet. Instead of continuously giving them baits I liked and used, I started letting them each pick out a cheap pack when at Walmart or Bass Pro. Whatever they wanted, usually the brightest, ugliest baits on the shelf.

Well, as many of you saw from my post yesterday, my daughter made me promise to use her “beautiful worms” (aka ugly, sparkly silver senkos) today. I pinky swore because she said they would “make me win.” Well, after an hour and a half with no bites, I grabbed that rod and tossed that beautiful worm to the edge of some weeds and—KAPOW!—I had 16.50 on the board.

I proceeded to catch at least a dozen more bass on those senkos before the last one broke in half (I only had two). I caught one other fish on a frog, and another on a chatterbait. The rest came on those two senkos—which I’ve since learned were Yum Dingers, “tinfoil” color. I know this because I now own three packs. Haha.

Anyway, I didn’t win it all, but I did win second place with 78.50, all thanks to my daughter. The most joy I’ve ever gotten from throwing a damn senko!

And it was all ruined by a cheater…

Originally this part detailed someone else’s win, but due to some questionable submissions and an extensive investigation later that day, it was determined that the angler in question willfully and shamefully cheated. Ultimately, when all was said and done, this gave me a rightfully earned victory, and a sweet one it should have been. Should have, but wasn’t…

Check out the full adjusted results here.

As always, thanks for coming out. Great to see some new anglers fishing with us—Liriano John, Medicen Rexx, Jim Silva, Derek Ramsey, and Angelo David. Hope you had a good time and come back and fish with us again!

Thanks to Sarah for judging once again! You rock!


Cheater removed courtesy of Photoshop.

We venture to the north shore (or as close as we’ve ever been to it) for our next event at Upper/Lower Mystic Ponds on August 3. Hope to see you there!

2018 Schedule and More

January 29, 2018 0 Comment

All permits have been approved! Barring any unforeseen circumstances, this is our 2018 schedule.

Apr 14, 7–3 – Santuit Pond (Mashpee)
Apr 28, 7–3 – Dark Brook Reservoir (Auburn)
May 19, 6–2 – Agawam Mill Pond (Wareham)
May 26, 6–2 – Great Herring Pond (Plymouth)
Jun 16, 6–2 – Snipatuit Pond (Rochester)
Jul 1, 6–2 – Ponkapoag Pond (Canton)
Jul 7, 6–2 – Taunton River (Taunton)
Jul 21, 6–2 – Charles River (Waltham)
Aug 4, 6–2 – A-1/Stump Pond (Westborough)
Aug 18, 4–12 – Whitehall Reservoir (Hopkinton) *
Sep 23, 6–2 – Neponset Reservoir (Foxboro)
Sep 29, 6–2 – Lake Cochituate (Wayland)
Oct 6, 7–3 – Norton Reservoir (Norton)
Oct 20, 7–3 – Singletary Lake (Sutton) **

* Annual night tournament.

** First annual Tournament of Champions.

Next year’s trail is laid out so that it does not conflict with the number of KBF events up this way in 2018. If you’re interested in fishing those tournaments, the dates are as follows:

Jun 2 – Lake George (New York)
Jun 9 – Cobbossee Lake (Maine)
Jun 23 – Lake Oneida (New York)
Jul 14 – Peconic River System (New York)
July 28 – Susquehanna River (Pennsylvania)
Aug 25 – Chautauqua Lake (New York)
Sep 1 – Charles River Basin (Massachusetts) ***
Sep 14/15 – Lake Erie (Pennsylvania)

*** KBF Trail Event hosted by MAKB.

The Lake Erie event is one of five new KBF Regional Opens for 2018. It’s a two-day event, Friday and Saturday. The others are single-day Trail Events.

The KBF State Challenges will run from May to September in 2018. Chad Hoover has mentioned the possibility of starting the state challenge series earlier (April) and ending it later (October), though only the challenges between May and September would count toward AOY.

If they do not start the series in April, we will likely host our own state challenge in April. We will mirror the KBF challenges—same rules, cost, etc.—so that anyone new to the challenges can get a little experience under their belt.

The KBF Trail Event that we’re hosting will take place on the Charles River on September 1. The boundaries will be from Millis to the Esplanade in Boston, roughly 50 to 60 miles of water. Should be awesome!

A few other things…

We will be using TourneyX for all our events again next year.

The ramp at Cochituate will be closed for renovation starting Sep 1. It’ll remain closed for the rest of the year, so that’ll be good for us. It’ll be a roadrunner event, but I’m hoping to get approval to launch from the beach next to the ramp as well.

The Taunton River and Charles River tournaments (including the Trail Event, of course) will also be roadrunner events.

Our annual night tournament will likely be at Whitehall on August 18.

The Singletary Lake tournament will be our first ever Tournament of Champions. We’re still banging out some of the details, but to qualify for this tournament you must win one of the other thirteen throughout the season.

Initially we weren’t going to allow roll-downs (meaning, if someone wins two tournaments, we roll that slot down to the next angler in that second tournament), but after discussing it with Donald, Bruce, and Mike, we decided to allow them.

Speaking of Mike, he is now on the MAKB staff and will be working toward bringing sponsors aboard so that we can offer some additional perks and prizes to everyone. =)

We will have a new payout structure for next year. Don is working on it now.

I’m sure there will be some other announcements coming, but we’ll get to that. Any questions? =)

Register for the Lake Winnipesaukee KBF Trail Event

June 26, 2017 1 Comment

Okay, folks, the registration and tournament info pages for the KBF Trail event we’re hosting on Lake Winnipesaukee on July 8 are live!

Lake Winnipesaukee KBF Trail Event

This event is open to KBF members and non-members, though non-members pay an additional $25 admin surcharge on top of the $50 entry fee. This surcharge can be used toward a KBF membership within one week of the end of the tournament.

At 30 anglers, AOY points will be awarded to all participants who are KBF members at the time of the event, and at least five National Championship slots will be awarded. Payouts go to 10% of the field (not a 10% payout overall, as the graphic kind of suggests), and the minimum payout for first place is $1,000! It goes up from there. If we reach 100 anglers (or possibly 50), NuCanoe will award to the winner a brand new NuCanoe Pursuit. Expect additional prizes and raffles as well.

The host venue is Funspot in Laconia (579 Endicott Street North). We will meet there in the parking lot on July 8 at 5 AM for a brief Captain’s Meeting, and then again at 5 PM (inside, second level party room) for check-in and the awards ceremony.

Please register as early as you can. The more anglers who sign up early, the more it encourages others to do so as well. And I would suggest finding lodging as soon as possible, as this is event is very close to July 4 and places to stay nearest to Winnipesaukee will likely become harder to find the closer we get to July.

For all the tournament info you need, click here. To register, you can do so here on TourneyX.

If you have any questions, let me know!

The Season Kicks Off on Saturday, April 15!

April 13, 2017 0 Comment

Our first tournament of the year is coming up on Saturday, April 15 at Billington Sea in Plymouth. If you would like to participate, REGISTER HERE at TourneyX.

Use the code in the description to bypass the entry fee requirement. We will be taking payment at the ramp. Hope to see you there!

Knockout Series Sign-Up Is Live

February 1, 2017 0 Comment

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.