September 19, 2026

Billington Sea

Conditions

Air Temp: 65 deg F

Water Temp: 71 deg F

Wind: NE 5-10 mph

Sun: Mostly Sunny

Winning Pattern

Coikes on offshore brush piles

As soon as the day got started, Justin Canada went to work slinging a Coike (urchin style bait) around off-shore cover.  With dozens of waypoints accumulated over the last two years, Canada worked all of them to perfection.  Bouncing from one to another and analyzing each with his Forward Facing Sonar, Canada was able to see big largies hugging the bottom near clumps of brush and weeds.  And by making the right casts with the right bait, he tempted those fish into striking.  It was a pattern he repeated throughout the day until he had accumulated a solid bag.  But it was when he pulled up to a waypoint and noticed a large rock next to a weed clump that things really went his way.  The combination of cover seemed like an ideal spot so he fired his Coike to the juice and began his retrieve.  To his surprise, the "rock" started moving...it charged up and crushed his Coike!  The "rock" turned out to be a 5.94 lb Billington Brute that brought his bag up to the winning weight of 15.12 lbs and won lunker for the day (and probably for the season)!  Congratulations to Justin Canada for another great victory!

Mike Elson took the opposite approach to Canada and fished shallow cover all day.  After a slow morning skipping senkos around the shoreline, Elson landed a solid keeper flipping pads with a Texas-Rigged Creature bait.  Following that pattern, he made a milk run around the pond flipping any pads or overhead cover that he could find.  And it was one small group of lily pads that made his day by giving up two 4lb hawgs and a 3lb chunk.  WIth that, Elson had 14.66 lbs which was good for second place, just behind Canada.

Not to take anything away from Canada and Elson, but the real action of the day happened in the 3rd and 4th place spots as Bill Barrett edged Jim D'Ambra for 3rd place, pushing Jim to 4th.  By finishing ahead of D'Ambra, Barrett jumped into first place overall in the AOY rankings for the season!  But, he's only 3 points ahead of D'Ambra heading into the final tourney of the year at Lake Winnisquam on October 17.  The AOY race doesn't get any closer than this, so stay tuned to see if Bill Barrett can hold off Jim D'Ambra and take home the 2026 AOY Trophy!