Anglers competing in the Berry’s Tournament Trail once again had to deal with less than ideal conditions during their latest tournament March 5 at Lake Oconee.

The rainy, windy and cool weather did affect the anglers, because only 36 teams out of 119 managed to catch a

five-fish limit.

This was the second straight Berry’s tournament at Lake Oconee hampered by bad weather. Prior to the weekend tournament, fishing for largemouth bass had been improving on a daily basis but the passing weather front shut down the bite for many of the anglers.

A few anglers always come up with a pattern to catch fish even in bad weather, and this tournament was no exception.

Jay Wall from Perry and his partner Rusty Hack from Macon caught a five-fish limit weighing 16.71 pounds to take first place and earn $3,600. Wall and Hack caught their fish on plastic lizards.

Second place and $1,800 went to the team of Stan Jenkins from Forsyth and Brent Moye from Macon with a five-fish limit weighing in at 15.49 pounds. Jenkins and Moye caught their limit of largemouth bass using small plastic worms.

Tony Couch from Buckhead and George Goodman from Monticello finished in third place with a bag of fish weighing 15.36 pounds. Couch and Goodman caught their fish pitching Zoom worms around boat docks and took home a check for $1,130.

Kevin Thornton from Woodstock caught the tournament’s big bass. The 5.94-pound largemouth earned Thornton a check for $1,190. The big bass hit a shakey head worm.

 The weather made for some very uncomfortable conditions for the anglers and presented them with very tough fishing. The 119 two-man teams only managed to catch 321 largemouth bass and that comes out to only 2.7 fish per boat or just over one fish per angler.

The tournament was the fourth of eight regular season tournaments conducted by the Berry’s Tournament Trail on Lake 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 continues to be with anglers.

The fifth tournament of the season for the Berry’s Trail will return to Lake Sinclair’s Little River Park April 2, and that should be an excellent tournament if weather conditions are good. The largemouth bass should be spawning or getting ready to spawn for the April 2 tournament.

The sixth and eighth tournaments are scheduled for Lake Oconee’s Sugar Creek Marina April 23 and May 21. The seventh tournament will be held at Little River Park on Lake Sinclair May 7.

Anglers who fish at least five of the eight tournaments will qualify for the season ending two-day classic, June 4-5,  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 contact Berry’s Trail tournament director Bobby Berry by phone at (770) 787-6179 or go to www.berrysbass.com.

See you next week.     

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