By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
Brandon Palaniuk took over the lead in the Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year (AOY) race with his runner-up finish in the recent event at Lake Fork in Texas. He's striving to become the 12th competitor to capture that title more than once, having also won it in 2017.
His pursuit of the crown could suffer a big setback next week, but it'll be for the best of reasons. The due date for the birth of his first child arrives on Monday and it could impact his participation in the June 2-5 event at Pickwick Lake in Tennessee.
He wants to be present in Idaho for the birth of his daughter – his first child – more than he wants a second AOY.
"It could happen this week, next week or the week after," he said on Wednesday. "I'm gonna do my best to be there, but there's no way to get from Tennessee to Idaho real quick. We knew going into the season that I'd potentially have to miss Pickwick. My thinking was that if it happened, I'd better catch them good enough in the other events to still make the Classic.
"(Wife) Tiff wants me to fish and she obviously wants me to be there (for the birth), too. We've talked about it and she's said that I need to be fishing, especially being in contention for the Angler of the Year, because she's that supportive. She's willing to sacrifice that for me to chase my dreams.
"In a perfect world," he continued, "I'll go and win at Pickwick and drive home and she'll have the baby the next day."
Rolling Right Along
Palaniuk had a disappointing finish in this year's Classic (49th at Lake Hartwell), but he's been sizzling ever since. He posted a 3rd in the next regular-season event at Santee Cooper Lakes and then was 12th at Chickamauga before finishing behind only winner Lee Livesay at Fork.
He began the campaign with a couple of solid showings in Florida – 20th at the St. Johns River and 26th at the Harris Chain. He'll take a 20-point lead in the AOY standings into the Pickwick event.
"No doubt about it, I want to win it bad, but I know that you win it one day at a time," he said. "You can't look all the way to the end of the season quite yet.
"Winning it twice, you just put yourself in an even more elite group," he continued. "When I won the first time I think there'd only been 21 guys who'd won one, so that's not a big group to start with, and the group that's won two or more is even smaller. For me, it's a way to pay back all the sacrifices that my family goes through and all the sponsors who've stuck with me the entire time."
He said the season to this point has felt different than his AOY season of 5 years ago, when he had to overcome a bottom-of-the-pack finish in the opening event.
"I don't really know how to explain it, but me and Kyle, the guy who films for me, were talking about it the other day. Every event I've kind of pieced it together day by day. At Santee I felt good about my practice, but the rest I've kind of put together as the events have happened."
Notable
> Palaniuk and his wife don't yet have a name selected for their daughter – they'll wait to see her before they decide.
> He picked up his first career Century Belt at Fork with a 102-02 total over 4 days and did it without catching a fish weighing 7 pounds or more. "I'd been close several times before and I was only 2 pounds away at Santee."
> The list of multiple-time B.A.S.S. AOY winners consists of Roland Martin (nine), Kevin VanDam (seven), Bill Dance, Mark Davis and Aaron Martens (three each) and Guido Hibdon, Davy Hite, Jimmy Houston, Gary Klein, Larry Nixon and Gerald Swindle (two apiece).
