TULSA, Okla. — Prior to Wednesday’s official practice day at Grand Lake, Brandon Palaniuk was experiencing a pair of conflicting emotions.
“I have somewhat of a game plan, however I don’t have a ton of confidence in it,” he said. “But I’m oddly calm, and I don’t know why.”
Maybe it’s an omen of things to come. Or maybe it’s just experience. Only Greg Hackney with his 18th Bassmaster Classic appearance has more time in this pressure cooker than Palaniuk, who is competing in his 13th Classic, which includes a second-place finish at Grand Lake in 2013.
The 36-year-old Rathdrum, Idaho, pro explained his mindset going into today’s official practice day of the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors.
“You better already have a pretty good game plan,” he said, referring to the Friday through Sunday pre-practice periods. “Wednesday for me is always just trying something off-the-wall maybe or looking at an area you haven’t got a look at yet.”
Palaniuk believes this 46,500-acre lake is somewhere between the 2016 Classic, which Edwin Evers won with 60 pounds, 7 ounces, on March 4-6, and the 2018 Elite Series event here, which Kevin VanDam won with 83-4 over four days on April 26-29.
“It seems like it’s set up perfectly between the two,” he said. “And it could go either way. The ’16 Classic was heavy prespawn with no chance of spawning. The (2018) Elite was here in late April, but it was a really cold winter so they were later to spawn.
“It’s just not ready now (for a spawning pattern), and it’s not going to get all the way there this week.”
Palaniuk predicted a winning weight of 58-7, saying, “Kevin (VanDam) won it with over a 20-pound average. But that was as good as I’ve ever seen it. It’s hard to be consistent with 20-a-day here unless there’s a lot of fish coming to you.”
Several anglers at registration referred to Grand Lake as a “classic pattern lake,” which means if you find a lure-structure-depth combination working at one place, it’s usually repeatable throughout the lake.
“But the pattern that works on Friday might not be the one that happens on Saturday,” Palaniuk said. “That’s the problem.”
And there’s another problem that hinders multiple-day success on Grand Lake. Palaniuk called it “the craziness of the Classic,” and it will be cranked high this week.
“If you’re catching them, you better know how to manage spectator boats,” he said. “Grand has always been a venue where people show up (on the water). It’s one of those communities that’s fueled by a lot of bass fishing fans. And they show up. The weather is going to be nice, so that’s going to have even more people out.
“A lot of these places are skinny and narrow. You’ve got to manage that. If you want to fish down one side and out the other, you can’t have 40 or 60 boats follow you into a pocket that doesn’t fit 40 or 60 boats. You just have to learn how to manage that stuff. If you’ve never seen it or dealt with it, you don’t know what to expect. It’s a whole different ballgame.”
