MOBRIDGE, S.D. — After three days of practice this week, Brandon Palaniuk said he was more nervous for the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Lake Oahe than he’d been for any of the previous seven tournaments this season. Now we know why. Palaniuk missed the Day 2 cut – by a lot – here Friday. He finished 66th. Palaniuk’s previous worst finish this season was 26th at Florida’s Harris Chain in the second event of the year.
“It’s going to be very interesting now,” he said of the Progressive Insurance Bassmaster Angler of the Year race. “I don’t know what to expect. I’m just upset that I had an opportunity where I could have closed the deal, and I left it wide open.”
It was a good news/bad news situation for Palaniuk at the end of the day. The good news? His closest AOY competitors coming into this tournament – David Mullins, who was 41 points back, and John Cox, 51 points behind – finished lower than Palaniuk on Day 2 at Lake Oahe. If Chris Johnston is able to hold onto first place, where he is now, he would go into the final event on the Mississippi River at La Crosse, Wis., in second place in the AOY race, trailing Palaniuk by 45 points.
But there are at least three other anglers who could trim Palaniuk’s lead even more. Making the cut at Lake Oahe were Chris Zaldain in 25th place, Drew Benton in 30th place and Brandon Lester in the final spot at 47th. They trailed Palaniuk by 99, 85 and 66 points, respectively, before Oahe. For instance, if Benton were to win Sunday, the 100 points awarded to first place would give him 627 points after eight tournaments, and he’d trail Palaniuk by only 20 points. AOY points are awarded based on Sunday’s final standings. There are still lots of moving parts here, but Palaniuk isn’t one of them. He’ll have 647 points for the season going into the final event.
The bad news? Palaniuk has a mediocre record at La Crosse. His best finish in four previous tournaments there was 34th in 2016. His other results were as follows: 55th in 2018, 77th in 2013 and 59th in 2012.
“I’ve not caught them real great there in the past,” said the 34-year-old Rathdrum, Idaho, angler, who won the Bassmaster AOY title in 2017. “I was hoping I could catch ‘em real good here and have somewhat of a cushion going into that one. But we’ll see. I’m going to approach it a little bit different than I have in the past, and see if I can’t come out of there with a win, or at least a Top 10.”
