I thought that Brandon Palaniuk had lost his edge. He all but disappeared from sight last year and has had his longest dry spell without winning a major tournament. Perhaps he couldn’t compete with a new generation of anglers? However, he’s now won the last Bassmaster elite tournament on Okeechobee by a convincing margin. The prodigy is back. Form is temporary, but class is permanent. Perhaps they are the main take aways from his latest victory. With the Classic up next the timing couldn’t be better and he seems set to be a favourite for that event. However, there are other lessons. One is the unfortunate truth that Okeechobee is not what it was. Fish are thin on the ground. The last two Elites have now been won from the Kissimmee river rather than from the lake itself. The fishing is hard at Okeechobee. There are still big fish; but sometimes that is a result of fish numbers being low so that there is more food for those that remain. of course its not just Okeechobee that’s suffering this seems to be a tend across a lot of lakes. Worrying times.
Once again too persistence has paid and a small number of big fish has has won a tournament. However, whereas Bill Lowen won on St. John’s through sticking with one area and one method Palanium took a more varied approach to tactics . he regularly rung the changes to get fish to bite. however, he stick to one area whereas other anglers left when fishing was slow. This is a perfect example of what I discussed in the last post. You might have to wait 2 hours for the right bite. The best anglers have the confidence and skill to stick with a method. Of course it’s a bit more complicated here in that he was changing his bait regularly. But then that is what makes fishing more interesting than other sports. What is the right method is not fixed, but can change according to time of day, weather, location, fishing pressure and a million other variables. One of those is what you’ve just been fishing. Ringing teh changes is a tactic to stick with as well.
