Boudreau Gets First Win, at Sabbatia Mystery T

Avid’s fourth annual Mystery tournament was held at Lake Sabbatia in Taunton. We had fished there only once before so, despite it being in the same town in which the club is based, it was still considered by most to be a somewhat unfamiliar body of water. Even those who had fished it previously rarely ventured out this late in the season, so it truly was a mystery how the lake would produce this time of year.

In addition to anglers’ relative unfamiliarity, the weather threw a curveball that made the fishing pretty darned tough. For three days prior to the tournament the wind blew hard from the east under rainy and cloudy skies at speeds between 10-20 mph, with gusts as high as 53 mph! During that time daytime air temps were in the low 60s but nighttime lows dipped into the low 30s, quickly chilling the waters from just a couple of weeks prior when most lakes were still hovering around 70 degrees. The water temp on tournament day had dropped to just 57 degrees. While the evening air temperature held true to form for the tournament (the day started at 39 degrees), it didn’t top 50 degrees until about noon so was much chillier than previous days. To top things off, the strong wind diminished to little more than a slight breeze, and it was a cloudless bluebird sky. As one might expect under such conditions, no one had an easy time of it.

That said, the lake isn’t known for giving up monsters--or many of them--so the fish that were caught were few and far between. But the event did produce a winning limit (the only limit of the day) and a big fish of 4.38 lbs. so the conditions weren’t an obstacle for those anglers.

The names attached to those two bags are coangler John Boudreau who finished in first with his limit of 8.97 lbs, including a big fish of 3.29 lbs., and Joel Anderson, who finished in second with 3 fish weighing 7.55 lbs and included the 4.38 lb. lunker. The event paid out two places because of the relatively small field, but featured 100% payback. Even with the tough conditions it was a fun and crisp fall day on the water to close out our calendar year. Next up is the 2020 Easter Bunny Open. Have a great winter!