It’s been more than two months since the final Elite event of 2015, and the anglers have spread to the winds. Many take it easy at home while others go hunting or on a deep-sea fishing trip, etc, etc, etc. Brandon Palaniuk, for one, has done all that … and a bit more.
“The offseason, it’s kind of getting back to living a normal life for me,” Palaniuk said. “When I leave home I usually don’t get back home, except for maybe a week or two, for nine, 10 months.
“You miss out on a lot of things. You don’t get to see a lot of your friends and family. It’s good to come back and do the things I love to do in Idaho. I love to hunt and fish here. Being able to get home and actually enjoy some of the offseason has been pretty nice.”
Palaniuk was back in Rathdrum way before his usual Thanksgiving timeframe, and he visited some then struck back out to some pretty cool venues. A key element to the offseason is having time to build relationships with sponsors, and Palaniuk said he’s done some real connecting.
“I went elk hunting with the guys from Nomad, I went tuna fishing with the guys from Huk, went with the guys from Rigid to SEMA,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of free time during the year. This time of year is important to build those long-lasting relationships.”
Palaniuk said the SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) show in Las Vegas was a neat experience as he got to see souped-up vehicles and tons of new automotive stuff, some he might even use. That came after some serious times in the elk woods. It’s nothing new to Palaniuk – he’s killed eight elk since his first 14 years ago.
“Elk hunting here is like guys deer hunting in Alabama,” he said. “I’ve grown up doing it and I’ve really missed out on it the last few years. I haven’t had the opportunity to get out and go. I’m really taking some time this year to go and had some really close calls and not been able to put anything on the ground.”
He didn’t get one with the Nomad crew but scored a nice bull late last month. Palaniuk wrote on his Facebook page, “The amount of respect that I have for these animals runs deep. Words can’t describe how thankful I am to be able to make this happen on my final DIY hunt in Montana!!”
His offseason also included the largest fish of his life. Just off Canada’s Prince Edward Island north of Maine, Palaniuk fought and landed a 700-pound bluefin tuna with the crew from Huk, a new premium sponsor of B.A.S.S. that makes performance fishing apparel.
“I’ve always wanted to do that,” he said. “You can’t even put into words what a trip like that is like. An hour and half standup battle — you’re fighting a fish so long with so much weight that your legs actually go numb. It was a giant.”
He was outdone by Huk’s marketing director Drew Herman, who caught one weighing more than 1,000 pounds. Palaniuk might have gotten back on top — he fought another giant for an hour – but it pulled the hook.
“It’s pretty devastating when you fight one that long and never see it,” he said.
Palaniuk has more fishing trips on the radar, and preparing for the 2016 season will keep him busy. There’s a new Skeeter on the way, a new Toyota Tundra and a bunch of work to get done on both. Being so far away, he said it’s unlikely he’ll prefish any of the lakes on the 2016 schedule.
“I’m trying to work it out to make it to Grand for the Classic, other than that, most likely not,” he said.
Palaniuk said he’ll be seeking a little redemption on Grand, where he finished second to Cliff Pace in 2013.
“Maybe this time it will be my time,” he said. “That one I walked away doing everything I was able to do in my power and it just didn’t work out. I’ll go in with the attitude to win, and if it’s my time, it will happen.”
Da-da-da, bass-bass-bass
Last week, a team from B.A.S.S. went to Bristol, Conn., to visit ESPN headquarters and discuss the Bassmasters show along with other projects.
B.A.S.S. CEO Bruce Akin, show producer Mike McKinnis, digital VP Jim Sexton and Laura Rush also received an in-depth tour.
Rush, who does sales planning for the TV show and Bassmaster.com, and Sexton (above) sat down on the SportsCenter set and talked about hosting a regular Bassmaster segment on SportsCenter. Sexton said they actually discussed who is going to make the 2016 Elite Series (the full field is being announced today), and that the last Classic spot will be awarded at this week’s Team Championship.
“But then we got into a heated discussion about the college football playoff, and trash talked about the relative merits of our two school’s fight songs. I’m Tennessee, she’s Alabama,” Sexton said. “In the hall near SportsCenter there’s a board where you can play the fight song for any Division 1 school.”
Sexton left amazed at the number of live shows being produced for TV and radio during their 2-hour tour – they peeked in on more than a dozen. He also was impressed with the respect and loyalty ESPN had for the Bassmasters show. It was clear that the work Jerry McKinnis and son, Mike, as well as co-owner Don Logan, have done over the years carries clout at ESPN.
Hoping for justice
It’s been two years since angler Jimmy Johnson was murdered at a Jackson, Miss., hotel during a Central Open. The youth Johnson caught burglarizing his boat shot him dead, and the incident sent shockwaves around the bass fishing world.
The perpetrator was recently allowed to plead down to second-degree murder, and his sentence handed down last week was 25 years. A number of anglers have expressed their displeasure, saying it’s not enough.
Since most fisherman are more politically aligned with Clint Eastwood than Clinton, it would behoove anglers to stand with those in the next election who stand for justice. It’s not too late to take back our country. Your vote is important.
Tough talk for Niggemeyer
It’s all relative, and James Niggemeyer realized that quickly after moving to the Elites.
“What I learned my rookie year is their definition of tough is not my definition of tough,” he said.
Niggemeyer sat at a table during registration for the 2007 event with a who’s who of anglers, and each agreed Clarks Hill was fishing tough. That made him believe his Day 1 was starting quite well.
“I had a limit by 9:30 and I thought if it’s as tough as everyone was saying, I’m going to get ‘em,” he said. “At the end of the day, I was just inside the top 50, and I found myself pretty frustrated because I believed them and backed off a little bit to save some for tomorrow.
“Then they caught them. These guys were all talking about how horrible it is – their idea of horrible is not my idea.”
Was the new guy getting played? He doesn’t think any of them had any bad intentions; conditions change and then all the Elites usually catch them, he’s come to learn.
Caught from behind
Someone finally caught Aaron Martens from behind – no, not in a tournament, on a roadway. Martens’ truck got rear ended “pretty good a month ago. I’m so glad that Nationwide is on my side… ”
Sure enough. Martens and the insurance company decided it was cheaper for all that they just replaced the frame on his truck instead of totaling out the vehicle.
“It was my choice,” Martens said. “I have a lot of money in aftermarket products on the truck that would have been a total loss.”
Guy’s gotta do what a guy’s gotta do.
Culling
- Our Photo of the Week again doubles as our gratuitous Big Bass of the Week. The dual honor goes to this sweet shot from the fifth Annual Bobby Lane Kids Cup. That’s an impressive fish, lil’ lady. Ya think she told that boy to get his hands off? This year was the biggest Kids Cup yet, with 76 high school teams and 24 youth teams fishing out of Camp Mack on the Kissimmee Chain. Check out all the photos on Lane’s Facebook page.
- Trevor Lo is the Carhartt College Series representative in the 2016 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro. If you want to get inside his head, check out “Get to know Trevor Lo.”
- Lake Guntersville again serves as a huge stage this week when the 400 anglers from across the nation fish as two-man teams for the Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship on Dec. 9-10. The following two days, the six anglers from the top three teams compete individually in the Bassmaster Team Championship Classic Fish-Off for the final Classic berth. See the complete story here.