Great weather on March 22 influenced 146 two-man teams to fish the Berry’s Team Trail tournament at Lake Sinclair. Previous Berry’s tournaments this year had seen rain, cold temperatures and fish with lockjaw but this tournament saw temperatures in the 70s and the fish were ready to bite a variety of lures.

The tournament anglers were not disappointed as 118 of the 146 teams were able to bring a five-fish limit to the weigh scales at Little River Park. A total of 626 fish were caught weighing more than 1,400 pounds and that produced an average weight of more than 2 pounds per fish, which was excellent.

This was the fifth tournament of the eight tournaments that make up the 2014 Berry’s Team Trail that is evenly divided between Lake Sinclair and Lake Oconee. Anglers come from all across Georgia and even travel from other states to fish this successful tournament trail. 

The good weather of late had the largemouth in pre-spawn and ready to move toward spawning beds. Several fishing patterns were working but anglers who were able to find the largemouth that were ready to move up to spawn did very well and it was just a matter of which anglers were able to put the bigger largemouth in their livewells.

Many anglers said the last two hours of competition were the best as the fish really bit well during those last two hours. The winning angler stated that he only had a single fish in his livewell at noon but caught most of his fish in that two hour window at the end of the tournament. Less than four pounds separated the top five teams when the competition day was over.

First place and $4,080 went to Walker Smith of Milledgeville who fished by himself but caught a five-fish limit weighing 20.61 pounds. That was an outstanding four pound average for his five fish. Walker caught his limit of largemouth using soft plastic baits.

Close in second place was the team of David Whyte and Bobby Gaston with 19.67 pounds. They traveled from Augusta to fish the tournament and went home with $2,040. Whyte and Gaston caught their fish using Zoom soft plastic baits.

Gaston also caught the tournament’s big bass that weighed 8.05 pounds and earned him an additional $1,460. Gaston was flipping a jig into a brush pile when the big bass struck.

Coming in third with 19.49 pounds was Kevin Joost and Mike Coursey from Covington. They took home $1,280 and they also used Zoom soft plastics baits to catch their fish. Due to the large angler turnout, the tournament was able to award money to the top 24 teams. 

The trail now moves to Lake Oconee on April 12 and that tournament will be held out of Sugar Creek Marina. There will then be two additional tournaments to end the 2014 season. The season’s seventh tournament will be at Lake Sinclair on April 26 and then the eight and final tournament will be at Lake Oconee May 17.

Anglers who register and have competed in at least five regular tournaments will qualify for the season ending two-day classic on June 7-8. The anglers will fish Lake Oconee June 7 and Lake Sinclair June 8. The two-day classic has a potential $10,000 payday for the winning team.

Anglers can also choose to just fish the remaining 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 and want to fish in the remaining tournaments, 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.

Good fishing and see you next week.

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