Brandon Palaniuk's Pattern, Baits & Gear
From a final-placement perspective, Brandon Palaniuk came relatively close to his third victory of 2020. Not weight-wise, however, as he ended up more than 35 pounds behind Walters. "The biggest thing was I'd never really fished Fork at this time of year, so I had to figure out how the fish positioned themselves, what they lived around and how they really use that body of water. I spent a lot of time idling (during practice), looking around out deep, at the mid-depths and shallow. I was trying not to be married to any one thing. "What I ended up finding out was that there were a lot of fish that were very spread out and there were a lot of different ways to catch them. For me, the most consistent thing was shell bars in 10 to 12 feet of water where fish were transitioning in and out of the creeks. I had that stuff virtually all to myself - there weren't locals and there weren't other Elite guys fishing it and those fish were a lot less pressured and a little more willing to bite."
He waypointed half a dozen places, but only three ended up being productive during the tournament. Those had fish that remained group up, whereas at the others they were suspended in timber or more widely dispersed. "It seemed like when they got grouped up they were more aggressive. I could see them on my (Humminbird) MEGA 360 when they slid up on the shell bars to feed and I could almost call my shots." He caught about half of his fish on a swimbait and the others on a Rapala DT14 crankbait. He enticed the biggest one he weighed - a 6-15 - on a DT16.
Gear:
Swimbait gear: 7'6" heavy-action Alpha Angler Hitter rod, Daiwa Tatula Elite casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line, unnamed 3/4-ounce swimbait head, 5 1/2" X Zone Pro Series Mega Swammer (cisco).
Cranking gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Alpha Angler Mag Rebound fiberglass rod, Daiwa Steez A casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 12-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, Rapala DT14 or DT16 (penguin, cisco or Caribbean shad).
He threw the penguin and cisco baits under the bright sun of days 1-3 and Caribbean shad during the cloudy final round. "We had a lot of low fog that hung around longer and it seemed like they reacted better to the brighter color."
Bassmaster Texas Fest Lake Fork 2-5 Pattern - BassFan 11/11/20/20 (John Johnson)
