Go Back
LIVE: Air quality in NYC is worse than any other city on Earth. See the latest on the smoke. Chevron right

Ashburn, VA

68°F
Location Chevron down
Location News Videos
Use Current Location
Recent

Ashburn

Virginia

68°
No results found.
Try searching for a city, zip code or point of interest.
settings
Ashburn, VA Weather
Today WinterCast Local {stormName} Tracker Hourly Daily Radar MinuteCast Monthly Air Quality Health & Activities

Around the Globe

Hurricane Tracker

Severe Weather

Radar & Maps

News

News & Features

Astronomy

Business

Climate

Health

Recreation

Sports

Travel

Video

Podcasts

Winter Center

Top Stories AccuWeather Early AccuWeather Prime Astronomy Climate Travel Health Recreation Business Sports
2
Air Quality Alert

News / Recreation

Pro bass angler prodigy credits AccuWeather app for $100K tournament win

Brandon Palaniuk sat down with AccuWeather to talk about the big win and how a quick glance at the app helped him with a split-second decision that catapulted him to tournament victory.

By Monica Danielle, AccuWeather senior producer

Published Dec 16, 2021 4:25 PM EDT | Updated Dec 16, 2021 5:46 PM EDT

Copied
Live Coverage For all things weather, 24 hours a day.

Being a pro angler may seem like a pretty straightforward gig, but as bass fisherman Brandon Palaniuk shares, making a living with a rod and reel, knowing a lot about the weather is an absolute must.

Fishermen are legendary for telling tall tales about the fish they catch, and one pro bass angler is sharing a whopper of a true story about the AccuWeather app and a happily-ever-after involving a cool $100K.

Based in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, 34-year old Bassmaster Elite Series angler Brandon Palaniuk knows a thing or two about fishing. He's been doing it all his life, recently finishing up his 11th season fishing professionally on the Bassmaster league series.

Palaniuk's incredible tale took place at a fall tournament last year at the Santee Cooper Lakes in South Carolina. "We had a bunch of thunderstorms and wind and mixed weather and had some cooler mornings," he told AccuWeather in a recent interview. "I was sitting in the top three going into the final day, and I was sitting there in my boat at the very final day and I was kind of going through the weather."

Palaniuk explained that he opened the free AccuWeather app to ascertain weather conditions, and what he saw caused him to change his entire strategy for the day. "I had been going out of our takeoff and turning right and running up the lake," he recalled. But after that quick check of the app, "I decided to turn left and go to this other area where I thought that the conditions would play out better."

Brandon Palaniuk reels one in at Santee Cooper Lakes in South Carolina. (YouTube/BmpFishing)

The move caused him to land three of the bigger fish that day from that area, and he ended up winning the tournament.

"That split decision, living in the moment, deciding to turn left instead of turning right based on what the weather conditions were essentially [what] won me 100 grand," he declared.

Palaniuk can sound like a meteorologist when describing how the weather is inextricably linked to fishing and says every angler he knows uses weather apps every day. They don't just check them before fishing to know what to wear and when to go but also during fishing to know which strategies to use.

Brandon Palaniuk at Santee Cooper Lakes in South Carolina celebrating his fifth Elite victory which earned him the top prize of $100,000. (YouTube/BmpFishing)

"There are so many variables. You've got the weather conditions of what is happening above the water, but then you've also got what's happening below the waterline ... So you could have had torrential downpours two or three days ago that muddied up a bunch of the backs of the creeks in the water." When that happens he said, fish in those muddy waters "are going to react differently than fish that are in cleaner water because they can see better. Your techniques and the targets change based on clarity, water temperatures; all of those things are determined essentially by the weather."

Pro bass angler, Brandon Palaniuk, talks to AccuWeather from his home in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

The more accurate the weather forecast, the better he can game plan, Palaniuk explained.

"It's crazy how much weather plays into it and how little it gets talked about, even though every single fisherman uses it."

Palaniuk knows he's lucky to be able to make a living doing what he loves. His passion for the sport is obvious, his face lighting up when he describes his favorite part of fishing.

"The moment that I live for and what I love is the split second that it takes for your brain to register from your fingertips to your brain that you have a bite." He pauses, smiles then continues. "You get a bite. It hits your fingertips, it travels up your arm, it hits your brain and your brain says, 'Hey you got a bite, set the hook.'"

You can find Brandon Palaniuk's YouTube channel here.

See also:

Imagine living in this place ... during winter
What happens to city rats when biblical flooding hits?
Jaw-dropping photos show homes buried in ash from La Palma volcano

For the latest weather news check back on AccuWeather.com. Watch the AccuWeather Network on DIRECTV, Frontier, Spectrum, fuboTV, Philo, and Verizon Fios. AccuWeather Now is now available on your preferred streaming platform. 

Report a Typo
Comments that don't add to the conversation may be automatically or manually removed by Facebook or AccuWeather. Profanity, personal attacks, and spam will not be tolerated.
Comments
Hide Comments

Weather News

Hurricane

Why people are flocking to one state often struck by hurricanes

Jun. 5, 2023
Weather News

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupts, USGS reports

Jun. 7, 2023
Weather Forecasts

'June gloom' to persist in Southern California

Jun. 7, 2023
Show more Show less Chevron down

Topics

Top Stories

AccuWeather Early

AccuWeather Prime

Astronomy

Climate

Travel

Health

Recreation

Business

Sports

Top Stories

Live Blog

LIVE: NYC’s worst air quality in decades amid wildfire smoke

LATEST ENTRY

Wildfire smoke spotted from space

29 minutes ago

Weather News

Worst air quality in 20 years grips New York City

6 hours ago

Health

How long will the bad air quality continue in NYC, Northeast?

6 hours ago

Hurricane

Reed Timmer recounts his top 5 most memorable hurricane interceptions

9 hours ago

Hurricane

This metric is a reliable measure of hurricane season’s intensity

1 day ago

More Stories

Featured Topic

Your Local Asthma Forecast

Featured Stories

Live Blog

AccuWeather’s Hurricane Week: An inside look at these destructive forc...

LATEST ENTRY

How wind shear influences tropical cyclones

3 hours ago

Weather News

How inhaling wildfire smoke can wreak havoc on your health

7 hours ago

Climate

Arctic sea may have ice-free summers by the 2030s, new study warns

9 hours ago

AccuWeather Recreation Pro bass angler prodigy credits AccuWeather app for $100K tournament win
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect Podcast RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
Company
Proven Superior Accuracy About AccuWeather Digital Advertising Careers Press Contact Us
Products & Services
For Business For Partners For Advertising AccuWeather APIs AccuWeather Connect Podcast RealFeel® and RealFeel Shade™
Apps & Downloads
iPhone App Android App See all Apps & Downloads
Subscription Services
AccuWeather Premium AccuWeather Professional
More
AccuWeather Ready Business Health Hurricane Leisure and Recreation Severe Weather Space and Astronomy Sports Travel Weather News Winter Center
© 2023 AccuWeather, Inc. "AccuWeather" and sun design are registered trademarks of AccuWeather, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Do Not Sell My Data checkmark Confirmed Not Selling Your Data

We have updated our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy.

I Understand

Get AccuWeather alerts as they happen with our browser notifications.

Notifications Enabled

Thanks! We’ll keep you informed.

FEEDBACK