Nine down, one to go!
This morning, twenty-four brave souls launched into the cold, wind, and rain on Billington Sea. It wasn’t pleasant out there today, especially those first few hours before the rain let up and the clouds broke, but we powered through it.
I started my day in the back “pond,” looking for rock piles and a big rocky flat. It’s been a few years since I fished Billington, so they weren’t quite where I remembered them being. I managed to catch two as I puttered around looking for them. Finally, I saw a swan stand up and flap its wings, which pointed out the flat. I caught my third and fourth fish there, then my fifth came close by on a point.
At this point I had 60 inches and was sitting in third place, with John Ferreira in first, and Mike Morcone in second. At 1 PM, when I turned off the standings, we were still the top three, in that order.
But as usual, by the end of the tournament, things changed…
Mike Morcone couldn’t find any upgrades, so his limit of 13-inchers wasn’t enough to keep him in second place, but it was enough for fifth place and a little scratch.
Making a late-day run, Bruno Casagrande twitched his crankbait (seriously, I thought he was throwing a jerkbait or a blade bait) and enticed a few bass to hoist him up into fourth place! Whatever works, right?
Spending most of the day drop-shotting in what we call “Don’s Spot,” John Ferreira looked poised to win his second event of the year, as his 71.50 was well ahead of the rest of us for a good part of the day…
But I crushed those dreams when I caught two upgrades by trolling a white chatterbait, bumping me up to 72.25 and first place! Hell yeah! Wait…what?
Just as I was quasi-celebrating my victory (“quasi” because I suck at math), I bumped into Ryan Pierce, who had just caught his fifth bass, a 15.75. That fish, caught at 2:57 PM, with three minutes to spare, launched Ryan from seventh place right into the winner’s circle with a resounding 76.50!
Congrats to everyone, but especially Ryan, who notched his first MAKB win! And he did it from an old sit-in! Great job, buddy. Very happy for you!
The lunkers for this event went to Gerard Elias, who nabbed a 19.75 largie fairly early. Honorable mention goes to Sean Dwyer, who had a 19.50 that was just a sliver away from 19.75.
Joseph Daddeo landed the day’s pickerel lunker, with a state-pin-size beast that took up the entire 26-inches on the Ketch board, and then some.
Good stuff, fellas!
No one caught a smallmouth, so I will refund everyone.
Take a gander at the final results over on TourneyX.
I appreciate everyone coming out, especially in that kind of weather. Full field! Awesome.
And a shout out to those who joined us for the first time—Steve Hedges, Mike Morcone, Doug Wiebers, Josh Carvalho, and Blake Navarrette. Sorry for not properly introducing myself; it’s a bit hectic in the morning and we haven’t done any post-event results or anything like that in person this year, so the end of the day isn’t like it usually is, with everyone hanging out, talking smack and whatnot.
Hopefully we can get back to that next season. I definitely miss it.
Anyway, our final event of the regular season is next Saturday at Snipatuit Pond in Rochester. Registration for it will go live tomorrow night at 7 PM on TourneyX. Set your alarms!