Tag: Tournament Results

Green Giants!

June 1, 2019 0 Comment

Another one down!

We hit Wequaquet Lake with a full field of 24 anglers today, and while no one knocked it out of the park, we all scored fish. Like our Cook Pond event, one or two decent upgrades for more than half the field would have been an express pass to the top of the leader board.

The weather was partly sunny and the wind wasn’t an issue at all. The water temps were 64 to 66 degrees, which is ridiculous for June 1. Some fish were still on beds! Unreal.

Anyway, we like to mix it up from time to time and offer an optional lunker pool for a non-bass species—pickerel, crappie, etc. Today we did a pike/pickerel pool. If no one caught a pike, it would default to the biggest pickerel. Well, no one caught a pike. But get this…

Eight anglers caught a state-pin-sized pickerel over 25 inches today. That’s right, EIGHT of us caught a monster pickerel big enough for a state pin. Ridiculous!

The biggest of those eight was Allan Seniuk’s 25.75-inch snot rocket. With some slight adjustments, it probably would have touched 26 inches. Congrats, man, and to anyone else who’s submitting their catch for a pin.

With smallmouth present, we had an optional smallie lunker pool. No giants were caught, but Domenicio Enos’s 15.75 got the job done well enough. Cha-ching!

He also hauled in a 19.50-inch largemouth, which, due to an unfortunate deduction given to another angler, also gave him lunker largemouth (it would have been a tie otherwise, and he would have lost the tie-breaker). Cha-ching!

As I mentioned previously, if any angler down to probably sixteenth place (68.50 inches) caught one or two solid upgrades, they’d have risen to the top or very close to it. Just 2.5 inches separated first place with fifth place, the lowest paying spot.

Troy Brown took that fifth spot with 76.25. Way to go, bud!

I spoke with Lee Kennon late in the day after he’d put a solid 17.50 on the board. He expected a top ten finish, but the lower half. He was wrong. That late-day 4.5-inch upgrade bumped him up into the fourth-place spot with 76.50! A nice surprise, I’m sure.

After a second-place finish at Cook Pond last week, Peter Arruda still had some tricks up his sleeve, resulting in 76.75 inches of bass and a third-place finish. Great job!

An inch ahead of Peter, Paulo DeMorais took second place with a solid sack of largemouth, one small upgrade away from the top. Great stuff, man!

And then there was first…

With 79 inches and his second first-place finish of the year—Domenicio Enos! CHA-CHING! Hell of a job out there, sir! Congrats again.

Click here for the full results.

Nearly 200 fish were submitted today, and that doesn’t count all the fish we didn’t measure/submit. Most of us went home empty-handed, but speaking for myself, I had a great time.

Well, except when I donated a spinning rod to the Goddess of the Lake. That part kind of sucked. Really sucked, actually.

Thank you, Sarah, for judging all those fish! And thanks to Donald for the help with payouts and everyone who helped make the unloading and loading go as smoothly as possible. We lucked out in that I don’t think the Cape Cod season is in full swing just yet. Can’t complain about that.

And no one got yelled at! At least, I don’t think anyone did. That’s a rare fine day on that lake. Haha.

Anyway, fellas, thanks for coming out! Our next event is in two weeks, June 15, on Lake Cochituate. We have two permits for this one, two different launches, allowing for 40 anglers total, and I’m working on getting access to another launch. I’ll probably open up registration for this one early, as we’ll have plenty of room.

Post-Spawn Funk

May 25, 2019 0 Comment

Cook Pond is in the books and…well, it was a close one. And when I say close, I mean one big upgrade or two decent upgrades could have bumped someone up to the top from nearly 20 places down. That close.

But those bigger fish were hard to come by.

We had 22 anglers show up for this one. The weather was great (and the water was pretty clear, believe it or not), but the fish were in a bit of a post-spawn funk (though there were still some bass on beds). There was no shortage of 12- to 15-inch bass today, but separating yourself from the pack was difficult.

We paid out five spots, plus smallmouth and largemouth lunker. We also held a 50/50 raffle, which was won by Gerard “Gerald” Elias. Congrats!

The smallmouth were a bit more tight-lipped than the buck largies today, but Peter Arruda threw a solid 16.50 on the board, the biggest of the day, thus good enough for lunker.

Troy Brown plucked from the lake the day’s biggest largemouth, an 18.75 on a Tokyo rig. Well done, bud!

The top half of leaderboard changed all day, with anglers jumping several spots with every small upgrade. John Ferreira hauled out a quintet of 15-inchers and 77 inches—a quarter inch over Donald Davis—taking fifth place.

Troy Brown added to his lunker winnings by nabbing a fourth place finish with 78 inches.

When I turned the standings off at noontime, Valber Santos had jumped up into first place. Two other anglers scored some late-game upgrades, though, knocking Valber down to third. A great finish either way.

It is sometimes difficult judging fish on a phone—small screen, glare, etc—and anglers have the same problem when submitting fish. One of Peter Arruda’s bass was entered as a 17.50, but to me it looked like a 17.75, which would have tied him with the leader (though it wouldn’t have changed the outcome, so I didn’t worry about it there at the ramp).

After I got home, though, I verified the fish on my computer, and it is indeed a 17.75, giving Peter a second place total of 80.25. His knowledge of the lake paid off today!

But Peter wasn’t the only angler fishing today who knew the lake well. Kevin Amaral Jr. is very familiar with this body of water as well, and, like Peter, he put 80.25 inches of bass on the board—but with an 18.25 kicker caught in the last two hours, giving him the tie-breaking victory!

(EDIT: Scratch that. I made a mistake on another one of Peter’s fish. He’s back down to 80 inches. Haha.)

And there you have it! Congrats, everyone. Great job out there today.

Check out the full results here.

The top five also received a pair of sunglasses, a hat, and a bag of soft plastics courtesy of Michael Sales and MGC Fishing Equipment and Supplies. Mike has always been good to us, so please return the favor when you’re in the need for new gear or tackle—especially swimbaits. Thanks again, Mike!

Thanks to Sarah for helping out with the judging today, even though she was out with the kids and family and certainly didn’t have to.

And thanks to Donald and Bruce and Mike and everyone else who helps out before and after the tournaments. It is greatly appreciated.

Anyway, it was good seeing everyone again. Always is. Great to finally meet you, Paulo!

Our next event is this coming Saturday (not sure how I managed to schedule two in a row) at Wequaquet Lake in Barnstable. A bit of a haul, but an excellent lake! HUGE pike in there as well. Please read the tournament description as we cannot park at the ramp.

We will have a back-up location in mind, though, because Wequaquet can get nasty if it’s windy. Either way, registration will go live tomorrow night at 7 PM.

Thanks again, fellas!

Thirty-Two Anglers, Two Lakes, and…Two Limits

May 4, 2019 0 Comment

The second MAKB tournament of the year is over, and speaking on behalf of nearly everyone who fished today—praaaaaaaaaise Jeebus! Holy crap, what an awful day. Haha. Rainy, windy, cold. It’s spring, right?

We did another split-location event today, to accommodate everyone who wanted to fish, with 10 anglers choosing to fish Ashumet Pond, while the remaining 22 chose Johns Pond.


Ramp etiquette? What’s that?

One could argue choosing Johns was a better choice, and that was probably true today, but only for a few. Just three fish were caught at Ashumet, compared to 33 at Johns. But with twelve more anglers there, and 19 of those 33 bass belonging to the top 5, it’s safe to say it was a pretty brutal day at Johns as well.

Thirteen anglers caught one or two fish, while 15 blanked. But with as much talent we have in this group, someone always puts it together.

With just two fish—one being a hefty 19.50 and his new PB smallie—Kevin Amaral found himself in the winner’s circle for the second tournament in a row, this time nabbing fifth place. Not bad for two fish!

Sticking it out in a small back pond with giant, tight-lipped bass swimming all around him, Gerard Elias racked up 42.75 with three fish, which was enough for a fourth-place finish.

Bruce Levy got on them early and plucked four solid smallies off of beds by 10 AM, taking a commanding lead, which he was still holding when we turned the standings off at 1 PM.

As is often the case, though, in those last two hours some anglers made big moves, and ultimately Bruce fell to third place with 62.50.

Though that fifth bass eluded Bruce, he would have needed a big one for it to make a difference, because Kevin Amaral Jr. came on strong at the end. By shifting out to deeper water, he was able to pull out three bass for a limit, including an absolute TANK of a smallie, which went 20.75 and scored him a nice chunk of change for smallie lunker. Not to mention second place by nearly 20 inches.

Speaking of lunker and a nice chunk of change, Michael Curreri’s lone 19-inch largemouth scored him a thick wad of cash.

Domenicio Enos got everyone’s attention around mid-morning, when he slapped two big smallies on the board—a 20.25 and a 19.25. He added another 19 a few hours later, then rounded out his limit with two smaller largemouth. His five went 85.75, good enough for the victory!

Great job, fellas! Congrats!

Check out the full standings here.

With 32 anglers, we were able to award three KBF National Championship slots. Kevin previously qualified at our last event, so Domenicio and Bruce qualified this time. Awesome!

(The NC is on Guntersville next year. FYI. =) )

Thanks to everyone who came out, especially the new guys, under such less-than-pleasurable conditions. And of course Mike Oharra and Bruno Casagrande, who fished our last tournament but I failed to mention. Glad to see you guys again!

Our next event is on Cook Pond in Fall River on May 25. I am going to try to get a small increase to the number of anglers we can have at this one, but as of right now it’s capped at 24. Registration will go live on May 19 at 7 PM.

Dinkathon 2019

April 20, 2019 0 Comment

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!

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!

Big Win on a Tough Day

October 21, 2018 0 Comment

Yesterday concluded our official 2018 season!

Twenty-three anglers braved a very windy day on the notoriously stingy Singletary Lake. And it lived up to its reputation: the fishing was tough.

Only seven limits were caught!

With a talented field of anglers, even on tough days there are usually a few good fish caught. Chris Diranian and Chris LaCourse caught the two biggest bass of the tournament, both of which were largemouth and clocked in at 18.25 inches. The tie-breaker went to Diranian, whose second biggest fish went 16.50 to LaCourse’s 15.25. Tough break, but both deserve a tip of the hat.

We ran an optional smallmouth pool and 20 anglers opted in. Ari Stonehill took home that prize with a solid 15.50 smallie, which bested my 14.50 that had been the biggest for most of the day. So rude! Haha.

One thing I love (and hate) about our tournaments is turning off the standings two hours before the end of the tournament. It’s great being able to see where you stand throughout the day, but at the same time leaving the last few hours a mystery adds a bit more excitement to the day because everything changes in those last two hours.

Prior to 1 PM, I was sitting in third place and just two inches or so separated me from second. Right before I turned off the standings, though, I’d been bumped down to fourth. Ultimately, I landed in fifth with 61.75. Not great, not going to pay for my Toledo Bend trip this week, but I did manage to catch a limit, which was my minimum goal for the day. I caught a limit in all but the Neponset Reservoir tournament this year, which I didn’t fish. I think that’s pretty cool!

John Ferreira was having a good day right from the start, sitting in first, then second for most of the day. But in those last two hours he was booted down two spots to fourth place. He had a very respectable 67.50.

The person who initially bumped me down to fourth was Bruce Levy, courtesy of a 17.75 largie. Well, karma is real, folks, and in the final two hours he was bumped down to third. He had a pathetic 68.75 inches.

I kid! I kid! Good job, man.

Hot off his victory at Neponset Reservoir, out of nowhere Donald Davis sprinted into the top five in the last two hours with a few key bass. Not enough for the win, but 70 inches was enough for second place!

Besting the field by six inches is quite a feat on a good day of fishing, but even more so when the fish aren’t in the mood to chew. Chris Diranian did just that with a hefty 76 inches of Singletary bass, a spinnerbait being the unlikely hero of the day. Congrats, sir! Excellent win!

And everyone else, great job, and thanks for coming out on a less-than-pleasant day. Much appreciated!

Check out the full results here

We had a great season this year! It started off on a sour note, but we rose above the childish nonsense and exemplified what a fishing group, a community, SHOULD be about: respect, honesty, camaraderie, and fun, among other things. So thank you all for that!

A huge thank-you to everyone who chipped in for the gifts! Unnecessary, but Sarah and I appreciated it all very much.

Speaking of Sarah, I have failed to thank her so much this year it’s kind of a running joke at this point. Haha. But Sarah has saved us so much time by judging the majority of the fish we have submitted to TourneyX—over 16,000 inches of bass. Her contribution to this group may happen behind the scenes, but the impact is immeasurable. So THANK YOU, Sarah! Finally.

Anyway, I’ll put up a year-end stats threads, like I did last year, soon. Some pretty impressive numbers overall.

In the meantime, be on the lookout for an upcoming tournament notification. We’d like to run another one or two before it gets too cold, all depending on the weather. So it’ll probably be a last-minute kind of deal, but we should be able to get at least one more in. We’ll do a team format for the first one, random draw for teams. Something different. Hopefully we can do another after that. We’ll see.

Again, thanks for another kick-ass year! Already looking forward to 2019. We have some cool things planned.

Back on Top!

October 7, 2018 0 Comment

Our twelfth tournament of the season was held this past Saturday at Neponset Reservoir. Twenty-two anglers showed up and we submitted 80 fish on the day.

The weather started off cool and cloudy with a slight breeze that constantly changed directions. The sun came out for a couple hours, then the clouds came back. I don’t think anyone had a great day, myself included. The bite was just plain tough.

Bob Pierce caught a nice one early—20.50 inches—and took home lunker, while Troy Brown caught a five-fish limit of 62.75 inches for fifth place.

Chris Diranian had a five-fish limit of 64.75 inches for fourth place. Gerard Elias also had 64.75 inches, but his next biggest was a 19.75, bumping him to third place.

Gabe Portes hauled in 65.75 inches for second place, and my five fish went 68.50, good enough for 1st place—my first MAKB victory since 2016!

Full standings can be found here.

Thanks for coming out!

—Don Davis

Throwin’ Down

September 30, 2018 0 Comment

Today, thirty anglers threw down at the Three Lake Throwdown!


Honey, I shrunk the photographer.

The Three Lake Throwdown was an idea Donald Davis suggested while we were all up in Maine fishing the KBF Trail event on Lake Messalonskee. We needed to change locations for one of our dates, so he suggested we fish three lakes—Oldham Pond, Robbins/Stump Pond, and West/East Monponsett—on the same day. What lake you fish would be a random draw the morning of the event. We thought it was a great, unique idea.

So yesterday we all met at a central location—the Walmart parking lot in Halifax—paid our entry fee and then picked our location from a hat.

The day almost got off to a very bad start with me sleeping through my alarm clock. Luckily my wife’s alarm went off at 3:15 AM and I was out the door about 5 minutes later. Can’t say I smelled too good, but I got there on time.

For those of us who drew Stump Pond, the day started slightly foggy and chilly…and then the fog grew thicker, the wind kicked up, and it got cooooooooooold! The forecast certainly did not mention 20 mph winds. Luckily it died down around 8 AM or so.

The bite was very tough at Stump and Monponsett today. Those who drew Oldham were the lucky ones, I think.

I hear Jay Sebastian caught a smallie at Oldham, but he didn’t take a photo. (What the heck, Jay?) So everyone in the smallie lunker pool got their money back.

Jay made up for that, though, by hauling in the day’s biggest largemouth—a 21-inch tank! Congrats!

Bob Pierce also had a 21, but Jay had the next biggest for the tiebreaker.

We paid out five spots today, and fifth place went to John Ferreira, who sore-lipped 77.50 inches of largemouth.

Fourth place and the Best Dressed Angler award went to newcomer Gabriel Portes, who coaxed into his canoe 82.50 inches of stubborn Stump Pond bass.

The day started slow for me, but I was able to work a spinnerbait pattern for a short period of time when it was windy, then work a similar pattern with a chatterbait at the end of the day when the wind picked up again. I ended up with 83.25, good enough for third place.

Coming in just a quarter inch a head of me was Jay Sebastian, adding a nice chunk of change to his already big lunker winnings.

First place went to MAKB first-timer and Knockout Series runner-up Nick Booth, who flipped jigs to Oldham docks all day and pulled in a hefty 88 inches, adding a bold 4.50-inch exclamation point to his victory. Great job, man!

And congrats to everyone else. We’ll do this again next year!

Click here for the full results.

Our next tournament is just a week away, Oct 6, at Neponset Reservoir, 7 AM to 3 PM. It’s already full, but I will create an alternates list in case anyone backs out.

Thanks for coming out, guys!

Last Minute, No Limit

September 10, 2018 0 Comment

Yesterday Kevin P Amaral and I fished our round-four Knockout Series match at Cook Pond. I was lucky enough to narrowly take the win with 47.75 to his 45.50. Pleasure fishing against you, sir!

The last match of this round takes place today between Steve Scott and Jason Gardner. The winner will be meet me and Nick Booth in the finale. Good luck, guys!

Anyway, on Thursday I checked to see if there were any tournaments scheduled at Cook yesterday, and there weren’t. So I asked Kevin if he wanted us to put together a last-minute no-limit tournament and invite others. He said, “Sure why not.” So we did…

And everyone was like, “Pffft! Screw that. Losers.”

We had seven people show up, including Tyler Lehane, fishing his first-ever tournament. It was chilly and windy. Not the best combination, but there was a decent bite early in the morning. Not great, but we put fish on the board.

In the past, our no-limits events have been pointless because the fishing sucked. It wasn’t great yesterday, but seven people put up 39 fish compared to last year at Lake Rico where 21 could only manage 61 fish. Slight improvement.

Though we had just seven anglers, we paid out three spots and lunker for largemouth and smallmouth.

Peter Arruda nabbed lunker largemouth with a 17.75, and I landed the biggest smallmouth, a 16.75, my biggest to date there, caught on the smallest lure I’ve ever thrown there. Go figure.

Kevin Amaral took third place with six fish coming in at 87.25 inches.

Rob Harnish put seven fish on the board for a total of 104.25 and second place.

Despite the cool temps and cloudy day, I kept going back to an area of dying lily pads, tossing the frog. I managed to catch five fish in there throughout the day, which allowed me to pull ahead of the pack with 11 fish and a total of 156.50 inches, which was good enough for the win.

Great day on the water despite the cool breeze and tough bite for most of the day. Always a good time, no matter how many people show up.

Congrats, fellas! Great meeting you, Tyler. Hope to see you at another one.

Our next tourney is on September 29, our first ever Three Lake Throwdown. It’s gonna be a fun one!

Beware of Rats!

August 19, 2018 0 Comment

Okay, I am definitely keeping it short this time. I have another tournament in five hours.

Tonight was pretty awful weather-wise. There was a short delay to the start of the tournament, fifteen minutes or so, due to a storm rolling through. The rest of the night was pretty much wet and windy. No fun at all.

We had 18 anglers and paid out four spots.

We also did a side pool for pickerel lunker, which I won with an 18-incher. I also placed fourth with 67.25. I had one good bass and a bunch of dinks.

Third went to John Ferreira, who had 67.50.

With 69.50, Bruce Levy nabbed second place.

As for first…well, Peter Arruda almost went home after a 19.25 was DQ’d for facing the wrong way on the board. (Rookie mistake for a MAKB veteran! Shame shame shame.) Before leaving, though, he decided to tie on the Spro Rat 50, and within about 20 minutes hauled in two giants—a 20.50 and a 21.50!

Even with three dinks rounding out his limit, those two beastly bass were plenty to give him the win by nearly six inches! And lunker, of course.

Congrats, man! And everyone else. Great job.

Find the full standings here.

Gotta give a nod to Normand LaChapelle and Ryan Demers, who were both fishing their first ever tournament and stayed until the end! Hope to see you guys at another one.

Our next tournament is the Three Lake Throwdown on September 29. Before that, though, is the KBF TRAIL event we’re hosting on the Charles River.

Congrats again, fellas!

(Thanks for the tomatoes, Donald!)