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Palaniuk’s Secret Sauce

Category: Tournament

 Aug 14th, 2013 by OutdoorsFIRST 

Modified Aug 14th, 2013 at 12:00 AM

No worries, the winner of the recent Bassmaster Elite Series event on the St. Lawrence River, Rathdrum, Idaho’s Brandon Palaniuk, didn’t take a fast-food joint’s burger topping and rub it on his lures. Nope, Palaniuk used some secret sauce developed by Berkley to marinate his tasty smallmouth bass treats.

	Palaniuk soaking his PowerBait with Gulp Alive Minnow Marinate (Joel Shangle)

 
“I used a combination of Berkley products when I was drop-shotting,” said Palaniuk. “I used the PowerBait 3-inch Twitchtail Minnow in either green pumpkin or clear silver shiner. I would take the Gulp Alive Minnow Marinate and dump some into the bags and seal them. I’d let it marinate overnight. When I dropped the baits down to the smallies it looked like a chum slick like they have in shark fishing.”
 
Palaniuk used a Fenwick Elite Tech spinning rod and Abu Garcia Revo Premier spinning reel loaded with 8-pound Fireline Crystal and a 10-foot leader of 6-pound Berkley 100% Fluorocarbon. Palaniuk fished anywhere from 20-35 feet deep on Lake Ontario.

	One of Palaniuk’s winning PowerBait Twitchtail Minnows (Joel Shangle)

 
“All of the fish I weighed in the tournament came from the drop-shot,” said Palaniuk. “I did have a second pattern though, I just could never fully exploit it.
 
“That pattern was using reaction baits in shallower water. Anywhere from 8-12 feet deep. I used jerkbaits and spinnerbaits. I think those fish may have all been the same size as the deeper fish, but the deeper fish seemed to be more stable for the tournament. Wind and sun, etc., seemed to impact the shallower fish more than the deeper fish.”