Palaniuk making a comeback

Brandon Palaniuk was not a happy man at Thursday’s weigh-in. The St. Lawrence River, where he won in 2013 and finished 19th in 2015, is one of his favorite fisheries. And Palaniuk came into this event with Angler of the Year aspirations, although he’d never acknowledge that. A win at BASSfest on Sam Rayburn has been the highlight in his third-place AOY points total after six events.

Then came his 15-15 bag on Day 1, which left Palaniuk in 72nd place.

“By far it was the worst day I’ve ever had here,” he said. “Missed opportunities. Then it got really tough for me, and I don’t know why. But I did have the opportunities to weigh probably close to 20 pounds.”

Apparently Palaniuk is taking advantage of those opportunities today, as BASSTrakk shows him with a 19-3 limit that has him up to 15th place.

Palaniuk offered this as to why Day 1 overall surpassed pre-tournament expectations, saying, “The fish are more spread out. There are more opportunities to catch them different ways, deep and shallow.”