It has been several years since an angler claimed two victories on the same fishery, the last being Rick Clunn when he won the St. Johns River in 2016 and 2018. Brandon Palaniuk is trying to do just that this week at the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite Series on Santee Cooper Lakes, where he won in October 2020, the last time the Elite Series was here.
Palaniuk entered the day in second-place with 76-6 and is trying to chase down the leader Drew Cook. The five-time Elite Series champion is off to another good start this morning, landing a 4-2 before switching to an X-Zone worm and catching a 6-0 according to BassTrakk.
“It would be pretty dang cool,” the Idaho native said yesterday after weigh-in. “I’m glad to be in the position to have the opportunity to do it. The thing I have realized about when you win in communities like this that have really good fans, you kind of become part of those people. I saw that happen at Waddington and now they are my people. It is the same thing here. You gain that with those people and I hope we can do it again.”
With two fish for 10-2 unofficially, Palaniuk holds the lead after the first hour of fishing. Throughout the day, Palaniuk has been rotating between several offshore areas in the morning and has mixed in some sight fishing as well.
He left what he believes is a really big bass on bed yesterday after fishing for it for two hours and will attempt to catch her again today.