When all anglers are catching fish as they were last Saturday, April 24, tournaments can be decided by only a few ounces. That was the case in last Saturday’s last regular season Berry’s Trail tournament on Lake Sinclair. There were 107 teams competing and at the end of the day 90 teams brought five-fish limits to the weigh scales.

The top two teams were separated by only .13 pounds and the top five teams were separated by only two pounds. The 214 anglers caught 460 fish weighing more than 870 pounds. The majority of the teams caught their fish on several different lures but one common thread was that all the fish were in shallow water. The fish were abundant but on the small size. The average size of the fish caught was just under two pounds each.

Many of the largemouth bass in Lake Sinclair had finished spawning but another batch of fish were in shallow water awaiting the next full moon to spawn. Many teams reported catching several limits and having to cull through a lot of small fish. Many of the biggest fish had already spawned prior to the tournament.

The winning team of Roger Stubbs and Will Paszkiewicz from McDonough brought a five-fish limit weighing 17.67 pounds to the weigh scales at Little River Park to take home $3,360 in prize money. Paszkiewicz also landed the big bass of the tournament and that one bass weighed 6.58 pounds to give him an extra $1,070 in prize money. Stubbs and Paszkiewicz caught their winning bag of fish including the big fish on Shakey Head worms.

Second place with 17.54 pounds went to Kip Carter from Loganville and Nathan Fuller from Monticello. Carter and Fuller caught their fish casting topwater plugs and spinnerbaits early and then flipping worms around grass and docks later in the day. They took home $1,680 in prize money.

Rounding out the top three places was the team of Mike Brown from Jenkinsville and Paul Weathers from Grantville. They managed to catch 16.54 pounds of largemouth bass using topwater plugs and Sweet Beavers and worms. Their third place finish was worth $1,050 in prize money.

This tournament was the seventh of eight regular season tournaments conducted by the Berry’s Tournament Trail on Lakes Sinclair and Oconee. The eighth and final regular season tournament will be held at Lake Oconee’s Sugar Creek Marina on May 15.

Anglers are required to compete in at least five regular tournaments to qualify for the season ending two-day classic that has a potential $10,000 payday for the winners. The classic will be held on the weekend of June 5-6 with anglers fishing Lake Oconee on June 5 and Lake Sincalir on June 6.

Good fishing and see you next week.

Outdoor Columnist Bobby Peoples can be contacted via e-mail at

brpeoples@windstream.net.