The Berry’s Team Tournament Trail just cannot get a break from the weather. The first two tournaments of the new season have endured rain, and in the case of the tournament on Saturday, Jan. 11 at Lake Sinclair, there was the threat of tornados in the area. Fortunately anglers only had to deal with heavy rain and a short period of high winds.

The bad weather did keep many anglers away; however, 83 two-man teams showed up at Little River Park to compete to see which team could catch the largest bag of largemouth bass. Normally more than 100 teams would have competed but the weather forecast certainly caused some anglers to stay home.

The weather has been a real factor in fishing success lately as the area has been deluged with heavy rain for the last few weeks. Both Lake Sinclair and Lake Oconee are high, and the water is stained and in some cases very muddy. Those conditions impact the anglers more so than the fish as many anglers have stayed off the water lately.

Considering the awful weather encountered by the anglers at this latest tournament, you would think that fishing success would have been impacted negatively but just the opposite happened. There were fewer anglers competing but the fish were in a biting mood for those anglers who were able to figure out a successful pattern.

The winning pattern might have gone against most predictions for a tournament in early January, but all the top teams used shallow running crankbaits to catch their fish. The first of the Berry Team Trail tournaments back in December was won by anglers using buzzbaits. That was also a pattern that you would not expect to capture a tournament in December.

The tournament on Jan. 11 at Lake Sinclair was the second of eight tournaments for the 2013-2014 tournament year for the Berry’s Team Tournament Trail. Had it not been for the inclement weather, likely more than 300 anglers would have been present to compete.

Wayne Garner from White Plains and Brian Garner from McDonough used Shad Raps and square bill crankbaits in shallow water areas to catch an impressive five fish limit that weighed 20.19 pounds. That pair of anglers took home $2,792 for their winning catch.

Finishing in second place with another good catch was Shane Stokes from Lizella and Richard Bell from Gray. The team caught a five fish limit weighing 17.81 using shallow running crankbaits around docks to earn a check for $1,396.

Rounding out the top three places with a five fish limit weighing 16.50 was the team of Tony Green from Macon and Davey Montford from Lizella. The team also used crankbaits to earn them a check for $870. The biggest bass of the tournament weighing 6.32 pounds was caught by Gregg Thomas from Madison and earned him $830.

The 83 teams participating in the tournament caught a total of 269 fish weighing more than 591 pounds. The trail now moves 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 still have time to enter and compete for that large payday with six tournaments remaining.  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 the website 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.