Palaniuk’s powerful Semifinal Sunday

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Photography by
Dalton Tumblin
Watch Brandon Palaniuk’s massive Semifinal Sunday at the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes.
Palaniuk pulled up to his first spot this morning and immediately started to find some big bass.
Meanwhile trying to land this fish, Seth Feider passes through in the background.
It’s a good one! A strong start to the day.
Fish number one is going in the livewell.
Palaniuk returns to fishing that same school of fish in search for more of that same size.
And almost immediately, he has another one on.
Palaniuk is able to lock eyes with it, realizing it’s another big one.
Fish number two and Palaniuk has rolled to the top of the leaderboard on BassTrakk.
Palaniuk immediately throws back into the same school of fish, using his graphs to locate them and throw directly at them.
It doesn’t take long before Palaniuk has another one at the end of his line.
But this one gets away.
Palaniuk selects another rod from the box, making a small change before getting back out there.
After a little while longer, Palaniuk decides to let that school of fish rest and decides to change locations.
A few minutes into the next spot, he has one on.
With this fish, Palaniuk and Drew Cook continuously back and forth between the first place spot on BassTrakk.
After getting that fish in the livewell, he quickly casts back out to his school of fish.
And instantly hooks up on another one.
In the boat it goes. Palaniuk has a limit of fish, and it’s a big limit!
And it’s back out to the school. Palaniuk is using a variety of baits and presentations to keep these fish fired up and interested.
After that school settled down, Palaniuk began to wander the cove a little in search for more schools and underwater structure.
After some wandering and searching, Palaniuk stumbles upon a bass bedding in the lily pads. It looks like a big one.
And ends up catching the buck after a little while of trying.
After a long while of trying to get the bedding female to bite, Palaniuk leaves her behind for later and uses his push pole to quietly sneak out.
As the afternoon approaches, he decides to bounce around to a few areas in search for upgrades.
And immediately after pulling up to this next spot, he hooks into one.
And it’s an upgrade! Palaniuk now has around 25 pounds on BassTrakk and continues to climb in weight and hover around the first-place position.
Palaniuk continued to search around and eventually started looking for bedding fish. This way he can judge the size before trying to catch it, and accurately target fish that will only help his livewell. Be sure to tune into weigh-in to see Palaniuk’s Semifinal Sunday weight at the 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes.