Is Fred's Big Bag at Sabbatia Enough for AOY?

Due to low water levels at Quaboag Avid had to scramble at the last minute to find a substitute location for our final tournament of the 2015 season. After much discussion and the luck of the draw, Lake Sabbatia in Taunton was selected as the substitute.

Sabbatia is small and not many tournaments are held there. Because it's local, many club members have fished it before and knew going in that it wasn't likely to produce big bags, especially during post-spawn. No one really expected much but we were in a bind. And, sure enough, dozens of shorts and barely-keeper sized fish were caught.

Apparently Fred didn't get the memo. His 13.88 pound limit left the rest of the club in the dust, and it was anchored by a 4.67 pound lunker. Even without that fish, the rest of his bag averaged 2.3 pounds per fish. Mighty impressive results for Sabbatia. And that despite a strong north-northeast wind that made half the lake virtually unfishable.

The second and third place weights were good as well, as both Matt Lucas (11.83 pounds) and Paul Carvalho (11.22 pounds) finished well into double digits with five fish limits. In fact, Fred's lunker barely edged out Matt's big fish of 4.53 by just .14 of a pound.

Overall there were 5 limits caught and, for the second tournament in a row, every angler caught fish. So, despite the many smaller fish that were caught, I think many of us were at least a little impressed with the lake.

With the first place finish Fred powered his way to the 2015 Angler of the Year title, dethroning last year's champ Paul, who finished second. This year's race was tight gong into the last event with as many as four anglers having a legitimate shot at the title. In fact, just 50 points separated first through fourth place.

On the co-angler side, the race is still up in the air. Last year's defending champ John Boudreau holds the lead as I write this, but if Jeff Lin — currently second — acquires points for participation in a youth event on June 27, it will be enough to put him into first place and his first CAOY title.

As for other season-ending notes: The 2015 Big Fish award goes to Bill Wright for his 5.92 pound largemouth lunker at Mashpee. That fish also now holds the club record for largest fish. The fabled six-pounder still eludes us after 11 seasons!

Next up, we will be kicking off the 2016 season with our annual two-day event, this one at Winnipesaukee.