Palaniuk powers to opening-round lead at Bassmaster Elite Series event

From Bassmasters news services

SHELBY COUNTY, Ala. — Benefitting from a quick start, Brandon Palaniuk claimed the Day 1 lead at the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lay Lake with a 19-pound, 7-ounce limit of largemouth.

Palaniuk has no idea if he can come close to repeating that performance. But for now, the Rathdrum native holds an 11-ounce lead over South Carolina’s Bryan New and a 2-pound lead over North Carolina’s Matt Arey.

“I knew today was super important with what I had and what I found,” said Palaniuk, the former star wrestler at Lakeland High and North Idaho College. “Literally, I was hoping to catch enough today to carry me through a good event. I have no idea what is going to happen tomorrow. I have a brushpile I think I can catch 6 pounds of spotted bass out of. That might be my starting spot.

“I have spent four days on this place and still don’t feel like I have a clue.”

The two-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year also claimed the award for Big Bass of the Day with a 5-14 lunker largemouth he caught sight fishing. Palaniuk said that bass weighed at least a pound more when he noticed it in practice on Wednesday.

“She dumped her eggs from yesterday to today. Yesterday she was super wide,” he said.

When he went back this morning, Palaniuk noticed it 40 feet away from the bed.

“It bit on the second cast. I pulled up and could barely see the bed, and I thought I saw a fish swim off. I couldn’t tell if it came back so I pitched up there and didn’t see anything move,” Palaniuk said. “I reeled it back in and I looked 90 degrees to my right, and 40 feet from the bed, I just see these two bass swimming. It was that pair, the little male and that giant female, and they were heading back to the bed.”

Palaniuk pitched his drop shot, rigged with an X Zone Lures Deception Worm, back in and held his bait steady until he saw the female reach the bed. With one shake, the bass ate and swam off.

That was part of a limit that the six-time B.A.S.S. winner achieved by 10 a.m. Along with the Deception Worm in green pumpkin/blue, he caught bass on a frog and an Adrenaline Craw from X Zone.

Palaniuk believes the bass are on the tail end of their spawning cycle.

“I don’t know if there are more coming. I highly doubt it,” Palaniuk said. “I don’t even have a 3-pounder I can run to tomorrow and be like, ‘I saved that one.’ Maybe a 2-pounder.”