Winter 2021
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feeling as catching the five biggest ones. It was just catching even though we were going to run seven weeks straight, I
a bunch of fish, any size and climbing up the leaderboard.
wouldn’t of had it any other way.
WB: After the schedule was announced, how were you feeling about the 2020 COVID forced changes?
PALANIUK: Initially, I was somewhat bummed, because the bodies of water that we were going to –at the times we were going to them – we’re probably going to be amazing and then, they got changed to much later in the year.
Going into the fall meant a lot of unknowns. Most likely tougher fishing and less hunting for me. But the positive of it was that B.A.S.S. was still willing to give us a full schedule. It would’ve been much easier for them to just cancel the rest of the season and let guys be done for the year. That wasn’t anything that any of us wanted, so they worked really hard to put together a schedule for us. They got it to a point where
WB: When you finally saw the re-schedule dates and fisheries, where are you confident? Did you feel like… oh yah, I’m going to win two of these?
PALALNIUK: I thought I would have a shot up north because those are bodies of water that I’m fairly confident on. I’ve spent more time on those bodies of water and they just suit my style. You can’t ignore the statistics and over the years I just consistently have had better finishes on the lakes up north – the smallmouth fisheries. But you can’t ever expect to win. You just go into those events knowing that you are more comfortable and more confident.
Champlain has always been a place that I can kind of figure out and the week that we were there, I felt like I had it pretty dialed in. I thought I had a good idea of what they were doing and that was super-special because that was the first win that I’ve had since 2017. It was special because I had just come back to B.A.S.S. and I got all of those feelings back – those feelings that I came back searching for. I think that was the most important thing there – for me – because, it really just solidified that I was exactly where I was supposed to be
And then at Santee Cooper I had no idea no idea that that I was going to win. I did not expect that. I think the fact that I didn’t expect it and I was battling it out with Carl made it an even more awesome event, because if there were a bunch of people betting in Vegas, they would not been betting on me at Santee Cooper.
WB: If you were going to judge the impact of one event win, compared to the impact of these two wins coupled together, how would you say they were different?
PALANIUK: The impact is different for everyone, depending on where you are in your career. I would like to say that at this point in my career everyone is like… hey we
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