If you’re watching “Bassmaster LIVE,” you know that Angler of the Year points leader Brandon Palaniuk’s day started with a heartbreaker. On his first cast with a topwater bait Palaniuk hooked a 4-pound smallmouth bass, fought it all the way to the boat, then watched it jump over his hand and come unhooked as he tried to land it.
“You’ve got to be freakin’ kidding me,” Palaniuk said. “Jumped right over my hand.”
After so many anglers talking about how skinny the post-spawn smallmouth bass are in Lake Champlain right now, that’s a particularly tough pill to swallow first thing in the morning.
He’s since added two keeper-size fish.
“It’s just not easy to get those four-pound bites here,” Palaniuk said.