Berry’s Team Tournament Trail completed another season with a season ending two-day fishing classic June 14-15. Ninety-nine teams completed the first day Saturday, June 14 at Lake Oconee and 95 teams competed on Sunday, June 15 at Lake Sinclair. The combined weight for the two days determined the winner and the first place prize of $10k.

On Saturday at Lake Oconee the team of Mark Holloway from Lizella and Pat Fisher from Colbert led the tournament with 20.57 pounds. The team ended the tournament in second place, however, when the tournament moved to Lake Sinclair. They finished with a two-day total weight of 37.07 by catching only 16.50 at Lake Sinclair on Sunday. Second place was worth $5k for the two anglers who flipped jigs and used topwater plugs to catch their fish at both lakes.

The two-man team of Rusty Cohen from Lizella and Justin Lanier from Macon caught 19.12 pounds at Lake Oconee on Saturday and then followed that with 18.72 pounds at Lake Sinclair for a two-day total of 37.84 pounds to take the top prize of $10k.Their winning weight was by less than one pound over the second place team. Cohen and Lanier caught their fish over the two-day tournament using topwater baits, deep crankbaits and flipping jigs.

Rounding out the top three teams was the two-man team of Hilbert Lowery and David Lowery from Columbus. The pair of anglers caught 34.08 pounds on spinnerbaits, jigs and crankbaits to take home $3k in prize money.

All total, the teams caught 424 fish weighing more than 900 pounds at Lake Oconee on Saturday and followed that with 355 fish at Lake Sinclair on Sunday that weighed more than 800 pounds.

Another successful year for Bobby Berry and his family who have developed the best tournament fishing trail in all of Georgia.

Now for some personal advice for the men that read my column. I have an annual physical every year and one of the tests performed is a PSA or Prostate Specific Antigen blood test that measures a protein in the prostate. It is used as a marker for potential prostate cancer.

A few weeks ago my PSA number had risen significantly from previous tests and the doctor ordered a biopsy. The biopsy came back positive for cancer and on June 3, I underwent a robotic prostatectomy to remove my prostate. The prostate surgery went fine but I developed other complications from the surgery that kept me in the hospital for 13 days.

I am now home recovering but that is the reason my articles have been missing over the last few weeks. I am telling you men this to encourage you to have a simple annual PSA blood test because it might save your life. Statistics from 2012 indicated that there is over 240k new cases of prostate cancer each year and 28k men will die each year as a result of the cancer.

One in six men will have prostate cancer during their lifetime and now with the marvel of robotic surgery, men can have a less invasive type of surgery with a fast and more complete recovery.

The staff of nurses on the ninth floor at the Medical Center of Central Georgia took great care of me, and I am now well on my way to recovery. I cannot wait to get back in my boat.

Next week, I will complete the final article in a series I began several weeks ago on nonconventional ways to catch fish.

Good fishing and see you next week.