Brandon Palaniuk comes to La Crosse, Wis., this week seeking to exorcise some demons from his last visit. In the 2013 Elite there, he suffered pain few other tournament anglers have experienced.
He led the event by a wide margin after two days, but an odd no-cull rule in Minnesota and not realizing an odder state boundary more than likely cost the Idaho angler his second Elite title.
“I can’t say I would have definitely won, because you don’t know what would have happened,” Palaniuk said, “but I don’t think I’ve ever been on the fish to win like there. It would have been tough to lose.”
After a Day 1 big bag of 18 pounds, 4 ounces, Palaniuk backed it up with 19-3 to total 37-7 and lead Aaron Martens by 6 pounds. But because he unknowingly culled in Minnesota waters, his Day 2 weight was disqualified and he fell outside the cut to 77th. Tommy Biffle went on to win with 64-2.
To Palaniuk, maybe the worst part was losing his best chance to qualify for the Classic. Palaniuk was too far down the Toyota Angler of the Year standings to climb into Classic contention, but a go-for-broke approach could do the trick with the win-and-you’re-in feature of the day.
Although Palaniuk was forthcoming and concise in describing his misfortune, he seemed somewhat stunned as he explained what happened.
“I made one cull today — just one — in Minnesota, in an area that I believed was in Wisconsin. It was only in Minnesota waters by less than 100 yards,” he said. “I had 18 1/2 pounds before I made that one cull that just cost me, possibly, $100 grand and a Classic berth.”
Everything had been going fantastically for him on that Friday night. In the process of moving hotels, Palaniuk was stoked about his prospects until he received a call from tournament director Chris Bowes, who was taking over for Trip Weldon that week. A call after 10 p.m. is seldom good.
“He asked if I fished this area. ‘Yep.’ He asked if I culled there. ‘Yep.’ He asked if I knew where the state line was. I thought it was the middle of the river,” Palaniuk said.
In the area Palaniuk was fishing, just south of the I-95 bridge, the state line zags away from the main river channel, cuts across and around the islands. Bowes had Palaniuk look at a map to confirm the spot then said he’d call him back.
“It seemed like it was weeks, but he called probably 35 minutes later saying they had to DQ my Day 2 catch,” Palaniuk said. “Meant I didn’t make the cut.”
Or have a great chance to get in the Classic, his biggest nightmare. Even though Palaniuk had won the B.A.S.S. Nation title several years earlier, the Elite on Bulls Shoals in 2012 and had some top finishes in Classics, he at first thought it might be career shattering.
“I just sat there in my chair for an hour and half,” he said. “I called my parents and girlfriend to tell them then tried to get some sleep.”
It was a rough night trying to sleep, but he knew media would be calling bright and early. He said he wanted to get out in front of the story and be straightforward so he answered the calls. He didn’t want anyone to have an impression that he somehow tried to cheat.
Then Palaniuk spun it as positively as anybody could spin such a disaster: “It kind of made a good story, because I said I’d just have to go win the next one.”
And he did.
Knowing he had to swing for the fences, he went to Waddington, N.Y., and opted against fishing in the St. Lawrence River. Instead, he made long runs to the big fish in Lake Ontario.
“I just looked at some past tournaments there and it seemed the bigger fish all came from the lake,” he said. “In practice, I fished in the lake two days then spent the final day making the run in the river.”
He said his best time to his spot in flat, calm water was 2 hours, 23 minutes, so he fished less than half a day in compiling his four-day total of 88-12.
“I don’t care about the money, just give me the Classic berth,” Palaniuk said at the time. “It’s been one of my goals since I started (the Elite Series) to never miss a Classic. The Classic is our Super Bowl, so you don’t want to miss it.”
Palaniuk is 19th in AOY points, comfortably inside the cut to make his seventh consecutive Classic. He’d love nothing more to exact some revenge this week in the season-ending Plano Bassmaster Elite at the Mississippi River presented by Favorite Fishing and take some momentum into the AOY Championship.
“The thing I’m worried about is more people are going to be targeting smallmouth,” he said. “Last time, I was among the few. It’s also a different time of year and the fish will be in different places. I’m just going to go all out and do everything I can to win this, get some redemption.”
