Matt Henry and his partner, Justin Kimmel, caught the winning limit in the Dec. 10 tournament of the Berry’s Team Tournament Trail on Georgia’s Lake Sinclair and he is hoping the strategy they discovered that day will take them to the winner’s circle in the second tournament of the year next Saturday.

“In December four of our fish came on a Shakey Head and the fifth one we caught on a jig,” said Henry who founded his college fishing team at Georgia State College in Milledgeville. “And every one of those fish came after lunchtime.”

Henry said they put two fish in the boat all morning while fishing a pattern they developed in practice. That did not work for them in the tournament so they made adjustments at midday.

“Within an hour we had 16 pounds in the boat and we caught one more in the last 45 minutes to put us on top. All our fish came in about 10 feet of water.”

Henry and Kimmel, a singer and guitar player, primarily in Christian music who recently published his first CD and is developing a new CD, weighed in 18.92 pounds to win $3,500 in the December tournament.

“It seems like fishing should be fairly similar next Saturday,” Henry said. “It all depends on the weather. There will be a cold snap Monday and Tuesday and then it will warm up again into the 60s. They are staying close to shallow water so they should fish very similar.”

Although Henry had not had a chance to get on the water and check things out he planned to take a buddy fishing this Friday.

“He’s just back from being deployed in Afghanistan. Hopefully, we will find something out that won’t change too much before the tournament,” he said.

Bobby Berry, who founded the trail with his two sons, said he hopes to have 100 boats again on Jan. 7.

“In December, we had 116 bots, just three boats less than the year before and about 15 less than the year before that. We are down some, but Thank God we are doing better than most tournament series.”

Berry said 15 new teams fished the December tournament, which is positive for the series.

“Hopefully, we will get those back for the next tournament and also some of the old ones who were out Christmas shopping in December,” 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.

“It equalizes things,” noted Berry who started the series on Oconee and Sinclair when local anglers tired of driving all over Georgia to compete in bass tournaments. Most of the participants in his series are all local anglers.

And the classic itself, which will be held June 2-3, will start off on Lake Oconee on the first day and move to Sinclair for the second day.

“We will hold a barbecue after the classic on Sunday and feed everybody,” Berry said.

Entry fee for the Berry’s tournaments is $160 per team, with 87.5 percent payback to one in every six boats. Berry said he encourages a family atmosphere at the tournaments and welcomes children to come and fish and to help return the weighed-in fish to the water.

“We have a lot of excellent fishermen and a lot of good people fishing with us,” Berry said. “It’s a pleasure to conduct a tournament where everybody enjoys it.”

 

Berry’s Team Tournament Trail

Sat, Jan 7, 2012

Lake Sinclair

Little River Park

Call 770-787-6179

www.berrysbass.com