Brandon Palaniuk Wins Bassmaster Elite Lake Champlain

Looking back, Lake Champlain Bassmaster Elite Series winner Brandon Palaniuk wishes he hadn't kept a couple of largemouths for the weigh-in scales. "They weren't much bigger than the smallmouths I culled," he said. "It would have been cool to win with all smallmouths."

Lake Champlain multi-day tournaments are not often won with all of one species or the other. The frequent situation is an angler brings in a nice bag of smallmouths anchored by a big largemouth or two, or a bag of mostly largemouths that includes a limit-filler smallmouth or two. Palaniuk is a fierce competitor so he kept the two largemouths for the few ounces gained, to assure himself every advantage at a venue where outcomes are often determined by ounces. He ended up winning by a margin of 1-03 over runner-up Seth Feider. Here's how it all played out.

Practice:

Under cloudy and windy conditions in practice, Palaniuk found a good number of areas that he felt had the potential to produce during competition. Some were places he knew from previous visits while others were new. All of them had the right combination of rocks, bait, and bass that he either saw on his graph or caught to verify that the size was right. His Humminbird MEGA 360 Imaging unit was a key component of his scouting efforts, as he could identify active versus barren areas just by electronically looking around, and do some experimentation to see how the fish that he saw on his electronics would respond to his lure presentations. "I had so many places I found in practice that I knew I couldn't fish them all in one day," he said. "One of my biggest hurdles was going to be to try not to fish them all or I'd fish too fast."

Competition:

Palaniuk started out strong, piling up enough weight to land in 8th place at the conclusion of day 1. "I had so many places I wasn't sure where to start," he said. "I picked a place I felt had healthier (heavier) fish on it, and I caught 17 or 18 pounds in the first hour. "That allowed me to move around freely and check other things from practice. I dialed into which areas were holding bigger fish and how they set up." He weighed all smallmouths on day 1.

Day 2 was his toughest day. "I didn't get as many big bites, had to grind it out," he noted. "The bait had moved, and I had to fish more places to get my weight." That was his lightest bag of the tournament and it dropped him to a tie for 10th (officially 11th due to the tiebreaking system in which the heaviest one-day bag gets the advantage). Again, he weighed all smallmouths.

The sunny, calm conditions that prevailed on day 2 continued on day 3. "I started in the same place as I did (on day 2), and caught a few," he said. "Then I expanded on that area, using the Humminbird MEGA 360 Imaging to find rock veins and a few sweet spots that weren't getting as much (fishing) pressure. "I think the pressure might have pushed them to those out-of-the-way spots," he added. "I moved around near the end of the day and caught a couple largemouths (one on a Neko rig and one on a glide bait) that culled up just ounces. Those were the only two largemouths I weighed all week." His day-3 effort pushed him back into the Top 10 at 5th place, enabling him to make a run for the win the next day.

Day 4 was a magical, though blustery day for Palaniuk. He put on a gleeful clinic for about 90 minutes in the afternoon, catching bass after bass in the 4-pound range. "Every boulder I saw on the MEGA 360 had fish on it," he said. "The wind that morning pushed the bait up and the (bass) followed them. Those were not resident fish, but had moved with (the bait)." He followed the bass that followed the bait that followed the wind, catching them in 20 to 32 feet of water. Most of the fish were fooled by an X-Zone Finesse Slammer on a dropshot rig. "(That bait) floats which gives it a horizontal presentation, and the flat body gives it the right action without having to work it much at all," he said. "(On day 4) they hit it immediately, as soon as it got close to them. "When the wind blows bait into that kind of area, the smallmouth get set up on high places and boulders where they feed," he noted. "I was able to catch a little bigger fish and they were more willing to bite." So willing that he sacked up his best bag of the tournament, enabling him to collect his fourth blue Elite Series trophy.

Winning Gear:

Dropshot gear: 6'10" medium-action Alpha Angler DSR rod, Daiwa Exist 3000 spinning reel, 15-pound Seaguar Smackdown flash green braid (main linke), 8-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon leader (about 15 feet), 3/8-ounce VMC tungsten dropshot weight about 12 to 18 inches below either a No. 44 VMC Neko hook or No. 2 VMC dropshot hook, X-Zone Finesse Slammer (green pumpkin/blue flake or big limit).

He fished the Slammer threaded onto the Neko hook the first 2 days, then went to a nose-hooked approach on the dropshot hook for the last 2 days.

Neko rig gear: 7' medium-action Alpha Angler Wrench rod, same reel and line, 3/16-ounce half-moon VMC wacky weight, No. 11 weedless VMC Neko hook, VMC Crossover ring, X-Zone MB Fat Finesse Worm (summer craw).

Glide bait gear: 7'9" extra-heavy Alpha Angler Wide-Glide rod, Daiwa Zillion HD casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 25-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon, Storm Arashi Glide Bait (oikawa mesu).

Bassmaster Elite Tour Lake Champlain Winning Pattern - BassFan 8/5/20 (Jonathan Manteuffel)

Seth Feider was one big bite shy of the win despite not losing any fish that would have helped and executing his plan without a hitch. "I committed to practice up north in the Inland Sea part of the lake because it takes too much time and there's more risk running south to Ticonderoga," he said. "It turned out to be a good decision since it didn't seem like the guys who made that run had more than 15- or 16-pound limits. "I was looking for good largemouth spots, places with milfoil that was topped out, and I found six or seven good spots," he noted. "I mixed in some dock-fishing too. "After I had some good (largemouth) areas I went and found a couple good smallmouth spots too, since the largemouth fishing didn't get good until late morning," he added.

On day 1 he weighed all largemouths, as the smallmouth spots didn't provide any specimens over 2 1/2 pounds. "I stopped fishing hard around 1 p.m. and went looking for other areas, but I didn't find any," he said. He landed in 4th place.

Day 2 was bright and calm, perfect for his largemouth plan. To his surprise, the smallmouths were active early and he got most of his weight before going to the green fish. He upgraded with a big bite before the day was over and turned in his best day of the event. He rose to 2nd place, partly on the back of the 6-06 brute largemouth he caught from a boat dock. That ended up being the big fish of the tournament.

Day 3 was a carbon copy of day 2, and again the smallmouth turned on. He left them at 8:30 a.m., but never upgraded much on the largemouths and sank again to 4th place, having made the all-important cut to the Top 10.

Day 4 was overcast with shifting, sometimes strong winds, and between the weather and his waning faith in his largemouth spots, Feider elected to chase smallmouth all day. The brown fish cooperated enough to again lift him to 2nd place to finish the tournament.

His smallmouth spot was a grass point in 10 to 12 feet of water on a big flat. He caught them on a dropshot and a crankbait. His biggest fish on day 4, a 4 3/4 pounder, ate a Carolina-rigged craw. The largemouths ate a jig and a Texas-rigged craw-style bait pitched to grass and boat docks.

Gear:

Dropshot gear: 7' medium-light Daiwa Tatula Elite Cody Meyer Edition rod, Daiwa Exist 4000 spinning reel, 8-pound Sufix 832 braid (main line), 8-pound Sufix Advance fluorocarbon leader, 3/8-ounce Woo! Tungsten dropshot weight, No. 4 VMC Neko hook, unnamed fluke-style bait (green-pumpkin).

Crankbait gear: 7'4" heavy-action Daiwa Tatula Bladed Jig rod, Daiwa Tatula 100SV casting reel (7:1 ratio), 12-pound Sufix Advance fluorocarbon line, unnamed medium-diving crankbait (ghost minnow).

Jig gear: Daiwa Tatula Elite Brent Ehrler 7' MH rod, Daiwa Steez SV 8:1 reel, 30-pound Sufix 131 braid main line to 20-pound Sufix Advance fluorocarbon leader, 5/8-ounce Outkast Tackle Stealth Feider jig (money craw color), unnamed chunk-style trailer.

He used a fluorocarbon leader because the clear water and somewhat sparse grass allowed the fish to see the braid too easily.

Texas rig gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Daiwa Kage rod, Daiwa Tatula SV casting reel (8:1 ratio), 30-pound Sufix 832 braid (main line) 20-pound Sufix Advance fluorocarbon leader, 1/2-ounce Woo! Tungsten flipping weight, 4/0 VMC heavy wide-gap ringed hook, unnamed craw style bait (green-pumpkin).

Carolina rig gear: 7'5" medium-heavy Daiwa Steez Bottom Contact rod, Daiwa Zillion casting reel (7.3:1 ratio)l, 20-pound Sufix Advance fluorocarbon (main line), 14-pound Sufix Advance monofilament leader (3'), 5/8-ounce Woo! Tungsten flipping weight, 2/0 VMC round-bend worm hook, unnamed craw-style bait (green-pumpkin).

He likes a monofilament leader on the Carolina rig because the leader is prone to develop knots when casting at times, and mono will not break as easily as fluoro when knotted. Also, sometimes the mono will help float the bait off the bottom a little, whereas the fluoro sinks.

Bassmaster Elite Tour Lake Champlain 2-5 Patterns - BassFan 8/7/20 (Jonathan Manteuffel)

Jamie Hartman weighed the tournament's biggest bag on day 1 to take a lead he would not relinquish until the final day. Battery issues on day 3 may have torpedoed his shot at the win, as he lost over 90 minutes of prime fishing time and weighed his lightest bag of the event. He's a native of the area and had fished Champlain a fair number of times. "I know the lake pretty well, so I didn't have to practice real hard," he noted. "I had an okay practice. I caught one here and one there, just checking spots I knew about mostly. Once I caught one and graphed a little, I left. I never knew how many were there or if they'd stay (until competition rounds)."

Many of those places were steep drops with rock and some grass on top in 12 to 15 feet of water and they produced mixed bags of smallmouths and largemouths. In practice they'd hit a swimbait, but they refused the offering on day 1 of the tournament. Instead, he dragged his Carolina rig at a steady pace until he contacted the grass, then popped the weight over it. That's often when the fish would take the bait, though it was often a mushy bite. "I lost a lot of fish last week at the St. Lawrence River event," he noted. "I felt they'd get the bait and stay on better with the Carolina rig." He was right, but he lost 8 ounces due to two dead-fish penalties over the course of the tournament, since the fish took the bait so deeply.

He also weighed a few fish he caught on a dropshot setup, when the action on the Carolina rig slowed or he saw a fish on his graph that he could drop straight down to. A rocky point he'd fished in years past, near the Plattsburg Marina launch site, became one of his key spots after a last-minute stop on the way back on day 1 produced a 4-pounder.

Gear:

Carolina rig gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Cashion Rods flipping stick, Shimano Chronarch casting reel (8.2:1 ratio), 15-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon line (both main line and 3' leader), 1-ounce Reel Tungsten weight, 3/0 Owner Wide Gap Plus hook, unnamed craw-style plastic (green-pumpkin).

Dropshot gear: 7'3" medium-action Cashion 7'3" rod, Shimano Stradic 2500 spinning reel, 10-pound Hi-Seas braid (main line,) 8-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon leader, 3/8-ounce Reel Tungsten dropshot weight 18 inches below an unspecified hook holding an unnamed shad-style bait.

Bassmaster Elite Tour Lake Champlain 2-5 Patterns - BassFan 8/7/20 (Jonathan Manteuffel)

Lost fish left a sour taste in David Mullins' mouth as he left Champlain. "It was really bad (on day 4)," he said. "I should have had over 20 pounds and won the tournament by 2 pounds. I just couldn't keep them on." Wind and clouds during the championship round fired up his shallow crankbait fish, so much so that the smallmouths acted like finned brown rockets once hooked.

"They cartwheeled, they jumped like tarpon, they porpoised," he said. "They had nowhere to go but up in that shallow, warm water." He found the 10-foot deep flat in the first hour of the first day of practice when fish pounced on his crankbaits, but without fishing them hard he didn't know how much weight was possible there. On the second practice day he ran around looking for largemouths but without luck, so he spent the rest of the day idling for hours looking for schools of smallmouths and found three groups. The last practice day he went south to Ticonderoga, but couldn't generate much action in the famed grass beds, and so wrote it off for competition.

"I started deep on day 1 and caught a couple on a dropshot, then went shallow and caught 19 pounds," he said. "So I started shallow on day 2, but they didn't turn on. Then on day 3 I started deep and got 18 or 19 pounds real quick. The crankbait fish didn't bite when I tried them that afternoon." Day 4 brought the wind and the overactive shallow fish that proved how heartbreaking competitive fishing can be.

Gear:

Crankbait gear: 7'3" medium-action Doomsday crankbait rod, unnamed casting reel (7:1 ratio), 12-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line, unnamed crankbaits that ran 6 to 8 feet deep (chartreuse/brown)

Dropshot gear: Prototype 7' medium-action Doomsday rod, unnamed spinning reel, 12-pound Sunline SX1 braid (main line), 7-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon leader, 3/8-ounce unnamed tungsten weight, No. '1 unnamed dropshot hook, unnamed bait.

Mullins thanked Cory Johnston onstage for helping him a couple years ago by giving him some lessons on Lake Simcoe on how to pattern and fish for northern smallmouths.

Bassmaster Elite Tour Lake Champlain 2-5 Patterns - BassFan 8/7/20 (Jonathan Manteuffel)

Williamson recorded nearly identical weights on days 2, 3 and 4, with day 1 being a pound off the average. "I lost a few fish the first day," he noted. "Other than that, I fished a clean tournament. I didn't lose anything that cost me the win." He found his key spot during practice.

"I covered a lot of water and felt like by the second day I'd found all I needed for the tournament," he noted. "The main place where I caught most of my weight (during competition) I found with my Lowrance SideScan. I made three drops and caught three fish. They weighed from 3 3/4 to 4 3/4 pounds. "I knew there were a lot of fish there and when it got slick (like it did on days 2 and 3) I could use the trolling motor to move around until I saw them, and drop right down on them," he added. "The last day with the wind I had to use the Lowrance SIDE Active Imaging to see them and cast to them." His best spot was a breakline with a few shell beds and scattered boulders. Most of his fish were in water 20 to 30 feet deep and all were fooled by a dropshot rig.

Gear:

Dropshot gear: 7' medium-action Phoenix Ultra MBX dropshot rod, size 30 Abu Garcia MGXtreme spinning reel, 6-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 3/8-ounce Titan tungsten weight, No. 1 Owner Mosquito hook, nose-hooked Zoom Z-Drop (green weenie) or Zoom Super Fluke Jr. (white ice).

Bassmaster Elite Tour Lake Champlain 2-5 Patterns - BassFan 8/7/20 (Jonathan Manteuffel)