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!
