The weatherman predicted a 90 percent chance of rain on Saturday, Dec. 14, and we definitely got the entire 90 percent and maybe more. At my house on the Lake Sinclair my rain gauge registered 2 ½ inches of rain. Not only did it rain, but we also had thunderstorms mixed in and that makes you wonder why more than 200 anglers would show up at Lake Sinclair’s Little River Park in December to participate in a fishing tournament during such weather.

The answer is they wanted to compete in what has become the premier fishing tournament trail in all of Georgia. This was the first of eight tournaments for the 2013-2014 tournament year for the Berry’s Team Tournament Trail. When anglers turn out in those numbers you know something good has got to be happening.

Had it not been for the inclement weather, likely more than 300 anglers would have been present to compete. The Berry family runs the tournament trail, and the tournament trail’s success begins with Bobby Berry, the family father who has created respect from anglers for his down home style and his simple and honest to goodness personality.

Even when anglers encounter bad weather as they did during this tournament, there is always an angler or a team in this case who figures out the lure or pattern that it takes to bring the winning weight to the scales. Anglers have to often think out of the box and that was certainly the case during this tournament.

Who would have thought about using buzzbaits, a lure normally meant for other parts of the fishing season except the two anglers who brought an incredible weight to the scales to win the tournament. Todd Lowe from Greensboro and Scott Bassett from Atlanta caught a five-fish limit on buzzbaits that weighed 25.42 pounds.

Catching a five-fish limit weighing more than 25 pounds anytime on Lake Sinclair is amazing but catching that weight on buzzbaits in a December rainstorm makes the catch even more improbable. The team of Lowe and Bassett took home a check for $3,260 for their first place finish and Bassett also caught the tournament’s big bass that weighed 7.85 pounds and that earned the team an additional $1,040.

Finishing a distant second and earning $1,630 but with a good weight of 17.45 pounds was the team of Scott McDaniel from Kathleen and Clay Johns of Covington. Earning $1,020 and rounding out the top three places was the team of Kip Carter from Loganville and Joe Ellington from Oxford with a catch of 16.49 pounds.

The second and third place teams caught their fish on the more traditional winter season lures, crankbaits and jigs. The 104 teams weighed in a total of 468 fish that weighed 944 pounds and 82 of the teams weighed in a five-fish limit — a good catch any day of the week, but more importantly the catch was an excellent catch on a dreadful rainy day.

The second tournament of the season for the Berry’s Team Tournament Trail will be right back at Little River Park Jan. 11. The trail will then move to Lake Oconee Feb. 8 and that tournament will be held out of Sugar Creek Marina. Future dates for tournaments on Lake Oconee are March 1, April 12 and May 17, and on Lake Sinclair they are March 22 and April 26.

Anglers who register and compete in at least five regular tournaments will qualify for the season ending two-day classic that has a potential $10,000 payday for the winning team. Anglers can also choose to just fish individual tournaments and compete for prizes in those individual tournaments where total prizes can easily exceed $10,000 depending on the number of anglers.

If you are interested in fishing competition with other anglers, you can contact Berry’s Team Tournament Trail director Bobby Berry by phone at 770-787-6179 or go to their website at www.berrysbass.com. 

Georgia Power will be accepting/collecting your used Christmas trees for a fish habitat project on Lake Sinclair. I encourage anyone who is interested to bring your tree after Christmas and drop the tree off in the big parking lot in front of Plant Branch on Highway 441. The area to drop off your tree will be marked.

Georgia Power will place the donated trees throughout Lake Sinclair to create good fish habitat and they will create GPS readings for all the trees placed in the lake. Once the project is complete, I will provide all the GPS locations through a future article. Why not help to improve the Lake Sinclair fishery by donating your old Christmas tree? Good fishing, Merry Christmas and see you next week.

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