Latest news with Brandon Palaniuk

Towards the end of January I headed out to the Dallas area to get the boat and truck wrapped at Tyler Wrap Company.  Unfortunately, the weather changed some travel plans.  We made it through Idaho and Montana without problems, but were held in in Wyoming due to dangerous road conditions.  I’m ready for warmer weather and less snow.  

We were able to get on a flight and make it to our next outdoor show for the busy month of January.  I attended the Sportfishing Spectacular again this year as a promoter which was in Schaumburg, IL.  As always, it was a fun time and it's always I show I look forward to.

It was a pretty crazy few weeks leading up to the first event of the season.  I had to organize not only my boat and tackle, but the camper for the season.  The truck was at body shop getting some work done and then we had to take the camper to the dealer as well.  It was a bit of a time crunch, but fortunately we were able to get it all ready.

Shortly afterwards we flew out to shoot a commercial with Minn Kota which was definitely a fun deal. The next day, I headed to do a boat show with Don’s Marine and then on Saturday night we headed to do a Bass University.  We even got to speak at a Bass Federation deal which is always something I enjoy.  All of these stops were enjoyable and got me even more excited hit the water this season.  

We picked up the new look boat and truck from Bobby and the guys at Tyler Wrap Company.  I'm very impressed with how everything turned out and look forward to sharing more about some new partnerships for the season.  I'm really looking forward to kicking off the 2018 Bassmaster Elite Series season on Lake Martin this week.

It’s a new year and we have our new boat.  Picking up my new Skeeter at Nixon Marine was a  nice Christmas present.  It’s been a great holiday, we were able to spend time with Tiffany and both of our families and friends.  We went to her parent’s house this Christmas.  Her parents had just built a new house with a giant heated garage that I can pull my whole rig into which was pretty cool.  

The family all helped over the holiday as we heated up the wrap and peeled it off in preparations for our 2018 one.  It’s always nice to be able to work of this kind of stuff while also being able to spend time with everyone.  They were all a huge help.

When we went to break in the new boat, it was quite the adventure.  As you can imagine, Idaho in December can be pretty cold and snowy.  We hit the water while the temperature hovered around twenty four degrees.  Luckily, people hadn’t been using the ramp much so going in wasn’t the hard part.  But, after driving around the lake and putting it on the trailer, it was a sketchy time to say the least.  We posted a video of the whole escapade.

In other news, different from last year, we won’t be having much of a transition sponsor wise.  However, the one that will be changing is a big one.  We’ve worked with Rigid Industries for a while now and it’s been a great relationship that I’m thankful for.  Rigid will still be involved with what we are doing, however we are currently working out a new title sponsor deal in 2018 and will announce a couple other new deals this month.

The season is fast approaching and although it’s been a slower month past, we’ve still been chipping away everyday behind the scenes getting ready.  I made it out hunting a couple times for elk and mule deer; including my first muzzleloader experience which was pretty old school, but fun as well.  Other than the couple hunting trips, we’ve been working on the sponsor deals, organizing tackle, and rigging the new boat as all the accessories trickle in.  

Also, I was able to approve a new bait with Storm that we’ve been working on for the past three years and I’m very excited to get it out on the market.  We’ve been constantly tweaking until finally it’s the way I want it to perform.

Now that we are into 2018, things are going to get a lot busier as the season nears.  I’m headed out for my first boat show on Thursday in Illinois.  It’s the exact same show that I kicked off with last year in Collinsville and I’ll be representing Skeeter/Yamaha for Dupo Marine Center.  Every weekend in January is booked up with boat shows and it looks like I’ll only be home a grand total of ten days all month.  We’re on a tight schedule for a lot of these shows, so I’m hoping we don’t get any weather delays.

Both the new year and new season are here and it’s about to be going full force.  Before we know it the Bassmaster Elite Series season will be kicking off and I can’t wait.

It’s been a whirlwind since finishing up the year at Mille Lacs and taking home the Angler of the Year trophy.  I’ve been on the phone and traveling nonstop until this past week.  It’s still a pretty surreal experience.  We had a big party over the weekend over at a buddy’s parent’s place.  They turned a big shop into a bar with flat screen and the works.  It’s a pretty cool place and it was a great time getting to share the experience and my gratitude with all of my family and friends; especially ones that I hadn’t seen since the Mille Lacs event.

After getting the job done at the Angler of the Year championship, I felt a huge relief.  Going into the event as the hunted and being able to get the job done was a great feeling. 

The first day of the event I knew I did enough to at least not shoot myself in the foot.  I wasn’t very happy going into weigh in, but afterwards, seeing that I was still ahead of Jason helped.  Day two started off a bit slow.  I was covering water because I didn’t feel like they were really stacked up anywhere very well.  After making some adjustments, I knew it would just be a matter of time before I ran into enough of them.

Once we got to the midway point on day two, I started catching them.  With about six minutes left I got the bite that I needed.  The six pounder not only culled me up about three more pounds, but more importantly brought a sense of calm.

Saturday was a day off the water with the expo.  It was a fun and I got to talk to a lot of folks.  It was kind of a recharge day and it was just what I needed going into Sunday.  On Sunday, I woke up with this feeling like I was going to win.  It was a sense of calm and confidence that took until then to feel.  However, my day on the water did not start out in winning fashion.  At 10:30am I only had one fish.  I decided to make a move to an area that I had hit multiple times throughout the event, but had yet to get a bite out of.

I pulled up to the isolated rock and with my 360 imaging, pitched right to it and caught one immediately.  I quickly hit my spot lock and proceeded to catch almost all of my weight from that individual spot.  I made some more stops afterward but had nothing more to show.  I had one more area I had high hopes for.  The first couple days it didn’t produce for me, but this time it was a game changer.  I finished up by catching back to back four pounders.

When I got back to weigh in, I didn’t have any idea of the points or how Jason had done.  Not until I heard Mercer say that I only needed nine pounds did it sink in.  A lot of emotions hit me at that point.  The past twenty ones years, since I was eight years old, I’ve been thinking about it and working for that moment.  It was pretty special to be able to share the experience with Tiffany and all of my family and friends that were able to make it out.

Since that event, I think I’ve been out fishing maybe four hours total.  I’ve been traveling a lot and doing a lot of interviews, trying to make the most of it all.  I got to go down to South Carolina to give a speech before the BASS Nation National Championship which was a great experience.  That’s where it kind of all started for me and seeing all those guys, I knew a lot of what was going through their heads. 

One of the coolest things I think was getting to go on a hunt with Mark Geist and shoot my first antelope.  If any of you are familiar with the movie Thirteen Hours, you may know who he is.  The guy is a war hero, but extremely humble and down to earth.  But, I can tell you, he would be one of the last guys you would want to mess with.  That was all set up through Weatherby and Leupold Optics.  It was an important trip, because it was truly the first time I was able to reflect and kind of reset after being so laser focused all season.    

We just wrapped up a great shoot here at home with Huk Fishing.  It’s always a pleasure working with those guys and the level of professionalism across the board is excellent.  We’re just getting ready now to head out for the SEMA show in Vegas.  It’s going to be a cool new experience this year as my truck will actually be on display inside of the Dick Cepek tires booth.  It’s always a good time and I’m looking forward to catching up with everyone there.  SEMA is a massive show and really the place to be if you are a gear head.   In the meantime, we’ll be trying to soak up and enjoy every moment of the post-Angler of the Year experience.

We couldn’t ask for a better way to end the season than on one of the best smallmouth fisheries on the planet.  We’re in the driver’s seat in the Angler of the Year heading into Mille Lacs and this fishery definitely suits my strengths.  After practice, I can tell that it’s fishing a bit tougher than it was last year.  Despite that, I wouldn’t expect the weights to be far off from last year.  This place is full of giant smallmouth bass.

This one will be all about executing and making good decisions.  Twenty pounds here is not good enough.  In order to have a chance, you have to get up to that twenty pound plus range.  I’m kind of anxious to see what the weights are after day one.

St. Clair was a tricky one.  I was really close to screwing up the entire year there.  That first day, a lot of my big fish seemed to have disappeared on me and I scrambled to catch what I did.  On day two, I decided to go in a completely different direction.  I made the long run up to Huron and it ended up paying off.  I caught a five and four and a half pounder before running back down to St. Clair.

Once I returned to St. Clair, I put three more in the well in the four to four and a half pound range.  It was crazy because it was a spot I’ve had success in the past on, specifically in 2013, but had not gotten one bite off of in practice or the first day of the tournament.  Apparently, our timing was spot on.  My day two weight vaulted me back up where I needed to be heading into day three.

Day three brought more challenges.  I decided to run all the way back to Huron, but this time, it failed to produce anything.  At 11am, I didn’t have anything in the livewell.  I ran back to St. Clair once again and caught a four pounder on fifth cast.  I started thinking maybe there was a school there.  I had ended the day before by catching back to back fish off of it.  However, that didn’t end up being the case.

I left there after a bit and ran to the spot I had caught the few four pounders off of on day two.  Unfortunately for me, Ike was sitting on it so I kept running a few other places before I realized I had to settle in.  With one four pounder in the well at 1:30pm, I knew I couldn’t just go flailing around in the grass.  I ran to an area that I knew had more rock in it so I could fish a little more precisely.  I hopped from rock pile to rock pile with a drop shot and scraped together a seventeen and a half pound bag to save my year.

All of that has kept me where I need to be.  I haven’t looked at the points because my focus is to go out there and try and catch twenty two to twenty three pounds each day here at Mille Lacs.  The weather looks pretty good for us as that can always be a wild card.  I’m excited to kick off the last Elite Series event of the season.