Brandon Palaniuk won the 2022 Progressive Angler of the Year title. He did this by being disciplined, diverse and ever willing to learn. We just watched BP doing something we haven’t seen done on Bassmaster LIVE yet, as he tracked his glide bait come over a brush pile using his Humminbird MEGA LIVE Imaging.
“I just saw his tail turn down into the pile,” said Palaniuk. “Gosh that was a big one.”
The bass followed his glide bait out of the brush pile a ways and then drifted down below. Another cast saw a repeat performance from the fish, until it faded away.
“He’s down on the bottom, he’s lost interest. That was a magnum.”
For whatever reason, the bass chose not to commit to his oversized offering. Glide bait fishing can be a lot of fun, but also very frustrating, especially in tournaments when you have fish follow your bait to the boat and turn off at the last second. With LIVE imaging now, it’s perhaps even more disheartening to be able to see the lookers that don’t even follow the bait in.
“I’m just a little confused why they’re not rolling up and slurping my lure. The glide just lets you know they’re still in there.”
Palaniuk remains optimistic, as he looks for silver linings. Other anglers are experiencing tougher mornings than they expected as well, with Drew Cook and Drew Benton both starting on bedding bass that are yet to bite. The conditions are cloudy, with a little wind. Far from ideal for sight fishing. Both Benton and Cook have been able to relocate the beds they found in practice, and can see the fish, but are surprised by the unwillingness of their bass to bite.
