Gazaway and Millsaps win final Berry’s Tournament

Published 8:00 am Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The eigth and final Berry’s Tournament Trail regular season tournament took place on May 21 at Lake Oconee. Anglers Rick Gazaway and David Millsaps from Ranger, Georgia won that tournament in a large way by outdistancing their closest competition by more than six pounds. They caught their fish around bream beds using jigs.

Gazaway and Millsaps caught 22.83 pounds and almost duplicated their earlier win on April 23 at Lake Oconee where they caught 22.51 pounds. In both tournaments, the two-man team also landed the big bass. In the most recent tournament this past Saturday, the big bass was caught by Millsaps and weighed 6.97 pounds. Back on April 23 Gazaway caught the big bass that weighed 6.20 pounds.

Gazaway and Millsaps took home winnings from the May 21 tournament totaling $3720. The pair of anglers took home almost $5000 from their April 23 win at Lake Oconee and were in the running for the Angler Team of the Year which has not yet been determined. The Angler of the Year Award of almost $4500 goes to the two-man team with the highest total weight caught during the eight regular season tournaments.

Second place at the May 21 Lake Oconee tournament went to Lamar Moody from Canton and Verland Best from Villa Rica with 16.48 pounds. Moody and Best used crankbaits and fished shallow points to catch their fish and were awarded a check for $1430.

Richard Parson from Lithia Springs and Barry Forrest from Acworth finished in third place with 14.09 pounds. They used topwater plugs and plastic baits to catch their fish and earned $890 in prize money.

Eighty-six teams competed in the final regular season tournament. The weather was perfect but cooler weather prior to the tournament had many teams scrambling to catch a five-fish limit. Only twenty-eight teams were able to bring five-fish limits to the weigh scales at Sugar Creek Marina. There were 286 bass caught weighing just over 486 pounds.

One event remains on the schedule for the Berry’s Tournament Trail and that is the concluding two-day classic event. The two-day classic will occur on June 4-5 with anglers competing at Lake Oconee on June 4 and at Lake Sinclair on June 5. Teams are required to compete in at least five of the regular season tournaments to be eligible for the classic event that could result in one team taking home a check for $10,000.

Credit for the success of the Berry’s Tournament Trail goes to Bobby Berry and his family who work tirelessly to provide anglers in middle Georgia with a well-run and high quality-fishing trail. Why not plan to stop by and see the fish weighed at the June 4-5 Classic. The weigh-in will be at Lake Oconee’s Sugar Creek Marina on June 4 and at Lake Sinclair’s Little River Park on June 5.

The weather forcast is for summer like weather to continue now, so it is a good time to be on the water. However, this upcoming weekend will be one of the busiest boating weekends of the year on both lakes and everyone should use caution and practice the upmost safety while on the lakes so that everyone can have an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend. Good fishing and see you next week.   

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