SHELBY COUNTY, Ala. — For a guy who caught the heaviest limit – 19 pounds, 7 ounces – anchored by the day’s biggest bass – 5 pounds, 14 ounces, Brandon Palaniuk claims to have no idea how he’s going to catch bass Friday during Day 2 of the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lay Lake.
“I’ve spent four days on this place now, and I still don’t feel like I have a clue, even though I’m leading,” Palaniuk said Thursday.
The 35-year-old, two-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year did have one big clue when he started Day 1. Even though the vast majority of bass in Lay Lake have already completed the spawning process, there are a few still on beds. And Palaniuk found a big one in practice. He went back to that spot Thursday, and it made his day.
“I rolled up, and I could just barely see the bed,” said the 35-year-old, two-time Bassmaster Angler of the Year, from Rathdrum, Idaho. “They’re really, really hard to see. I could see a little bit of a light spot. I thought I saw a fish roll and move, and then I saw them (the male and the female) swim off. I couldn’t tell if they ever came back. So I pitched up there, didn’t see anything move, shook it, shook it and reeled back in.
“I looked 90 degrees to the right, 40 feet from the bed, and I see these two bass swimming. I said, that’s them. That’s that little male and that giant female. They’re heading back to the bed. They were two inches under the surface.
“I threw my dropshot on the bed and held it there and just waited. I felt a bite, it started swimming off, I set the hook.”
Palaniuk estimated the bass weighed 6 ½ pounds when he saw it in practice. He said he could tell by the noticeably skinnier fish he lifted in the boat that she had dropped her eggs since. Palaniuk caught it on an X Zone Deception Worm in green pumpkin/blue.
“It’s my go-to,” he said. “It’s the same thing I caught my 7-12 on at Santee (Cooper Lakes) when I won there. It catches them everywhere – brushpiles, docks, stumps in four feet of water.”
But Palaniuk had to throw a variety of lures to complete his 19-7 limit Thursday. One more came on the X Zone Deception Worm, two came on an X Zone Adrenaline Craw and one came on a topwater frog.
“I thought the froggin’, swim jig bite would be awesome,” he said. “It’s what the Coosa River is known for, and that sucked.”
That’s what had him feeling clueless about Day 2.
“I’m going to have to fish new water,” he said. “I knew today was super important. I was hoping to catch enough today to carry me through a good event. I have no idea what’s going to happen (Friday). I’ve got a brushpile I think I can catch six pounds of spots out of. That might be my starting spot, and that may be what I weigh (Friday).
“It’s too hard to get a bite fishing – doing anything. I ran around a lot today, trying to look at new stuff, fishing different depths, different types of cover, just trying to get a clue of what the majority of the fish are doing.”
And the Day 1 leader of the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lay Lake claims he’s all out of clues.
