Weather man was not nice to tournament anglers

By Bobby Peoples

The weatherman had predicted temperatures in the mid-60s for last Saturday’s Berry’s Tournament Trail on Lake Sinclair. If you were outside last Saturday, Jan. 23, you know that the temperature hardly got pass the 45 degree mark and a cold wind blew all day. It was a miserable day for fishing, even for diehard tournament anglers.

Even with the foul weather, more than 250 anglers representing 129 two-man teams showed up to fish the tournament at Little River Park. Only eight of the teams managed to catch five-fish limits, and the 129 teams only managed to bring 181 fish to the weighing scales. That equates to way less than one fish per angler for more than eight hours of fishing.

Considering the bad weather we have had in the last few weeks leading up to the tournament and then the awful weather conditions that developed on Saturday, I guess it was not such a bad fishing tournament after all.

All the teams that finished near the top of the leader board reported that their fish were caught on small crankbaits that were fished very slowly in the mid-lake area. In fact, the top four teams reported that pattern was responsible for their catches.

The winning team of Mike Cochran from Newnan and Hawk Cochran from Senoia managed to catch only two fish but one of those two fish weighed 7.68 pounds and not only vaulted the pair of anglers into first place but captured the Big Bass prize.

The Newnan’s weighed in a total of 11.45 pounds to take the first place prize of $3,700 and then won an additional $1,290 for the biggest bass. Not bad prize money even on a bad weather day!

Second place and $1,850 went to the team of Johnny Lindsay of Eatonton and Morris Smith of Milledgeville. The pair of anglers caught a five-fish limit weighing 11.16 pounds.

Third place and $1,200 in prize money went to Matt Ferman from Greensboro and Kim Carver from Milledgeville. They caught three fish weighing 10.38 pounds.

The tournament was the second of 12 regular season tournaments conducted by the Berry’s Tournament Trail on Lakes Sinclair and Lake Oconee. Berry’s Tournament Trail is the top tournament trail in middle Georgia and this past Saturday proved just how popular the trail is to anglers.

Any tournament that can draw over two hundred and fifty anglers to compete in weather conditions like those experienced this past Saturday demonstrates the success of this tournament trail.

The third tournament of the season for the Berry’s Trail will be held on Lake Oconee Feb. 6. That tournament will be held out of Sugar Creek Marina. Future dates for tournaments on Lake Oconee are March 6, April 10 and May 15 and on Lake Sinclair they are March 20 and April 24.

Anglers still have time to register and compete in at least five regular tournaments, which will qualify anglers for the season ending two-day classic that has a potential $10,000 payday for the winners. Anglers can also choose to just fish individual tournaments and compete for prizes in those individual tournaments which pay anywhere from $3,000 to $4,000 depending on the number of anglers.

If you are interested in fishing competition with other anglers, you can call Berry’s Trail tournament director Bobby Berry at (770) 787-6179 or go to their Web site at www.berrysbass.com. Good fishing and see you next week.

Outdoor Columnist Bobby Peoples can be reached via e-mail at brpeoples@windstream.net.