The problem is, he said, although he caught several nice bags of fish in tournaments off the area last year it has not produced all year long this tournament season.

“It’s been like a dead sea so far this year,” said the Buckhead, Ga., angler, who has been a force in local tournaments for decades.

“Last week they started biting there a little bit,” said Couch. “This morning I got just one bite in one narrow little strip there, but they are still dead in the best stretch.”

Couch said he plans to keep checking the area until the tournament.

“I know the fish are going to be there and they have to start biting sometime. They can’t be dead forever,” he said. “I know it is going to get better. I just hope it gets better by next week.”

He said it will probably take 31 to 33 pounds to win the championship which will start Saturday, June 2, on Lake Oconee and finish Sunday, June 3, on Lake Sinclair.

“My opinion right now is that the biggest sack of fish will come from Oconee and the smaller sack will come from Sinclair,” he said. “Somebody who does pretty good on both lakes will probably win it.”

Couch said he believes most of the fish will be caught shallow, although there are some fish being caught deep on both lakes.

“I think the ones who do best will catch a few fish on topwater early and the spend the rest of the day flipping docks or dragging points with a Carolina rig.”

Couch teamed with George Goodman of Monticello, Ga., to win the Berry’s Team Trail points championship in 2011. They were leading the 2012 points going into the final tournament last weekend on Lake Oconee, but slipped to second place when they weighed in 14 pounds and Matt Henry and Justin Kimmel weighed in a 20-plus pound limit to fish to claim the championship.

He fished a number of FLW Outdoors tournaments, winning more than $441,000, from the mid-90s until a few years ago when he went back to fishing local tournaments only.

“Sponsorship money ran slim when times got hard in this economy and I could not afford to fish without it,” he said.

The Berry’s Tournament Trail is somewhat unique in that all eight of the tournaments, plus the season-ending classic, are held on Oconee and Sinclair. Four regular season tournaments are held on Oconee and four are held on Sinclair, with anglers having to fish at least five tournaments to qualify for the classic, which means they have to fish both lakes at least once.

 

Berry’s Team Tournament Trail Classic

Jun 2-3, 2012

Lake Oconee (Sugar Creek Marina)

Lake Sinclair (Little River Park)

www.berrysbass.com

Phone: 770-787-6179