Brandon Palaniuk hasn't had the season he was hoping for on the Bassmaster Elite Series. He's starting to like the PAA Series events, though.
After posting a 3rd-place finish at Douglas Lake in late March, he's off and running with the day-1 lead at the Ft. Loudon/Tellico PAA Series. His 20.51-pound stringer was the lone 20-pound bag of the day and has him ahead of 2nd-place James Watson (19.40) by a little more than a pound.
"I thought after practice that if I had a perfect day that I'd have a shot at 20 pounds," Palaniuk said. "Everything had to go right and everything did. I had three 5-pounders and two 2 1/2-pounders. To catch three 5-pounders on that system is dang impressive. There's just not a lot of them. I thought I could catch 20, but I didn't think I'd do it with three 5-pounders."
The weather was cloudy most of the day with a bit a breeze as the anglers dealt with dirtier, colder water following the rains the fell during the final 2 days of practice. He said his weigh fish came on five separate baits.
"The conditions changed a little bit today so I switched up from what I was doing in practice," he said. "There wasn't a period of time that seemed to be better than any other.
"I think the whole lake is spread out in terms of what the fish are doing. I think the fish are as lost as we are. This year, everywhere we go, it seems like the fish don't know what they're doing just as much as we do. They don't know if they want to be up shallow or out deep. I'm going to have work hard to catch another 20-pound bag. I think it's possible, but I don't think it's likely."
Tommy Brown is 3rd with 19.27, followed by Whitney Stephens, who has 17.26 in 4th. Wesley Strader rounded out the Top 5 with 14.55.
For complete day-1 standings, click here.
