Anchor Man
Posted by Pete Robbins on Mar 10th 2021
My Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing teams have struggled so far this year, not because I’ve made bad picks across the board, but because in each of the first two events I’ve been hurt by picking someone who bombed. At the St. Johns, I picked four-time Classic winner Rick Clunn, who’d won Elite events there in 2016 and 2019, and he failed to weigh a keeper. In Knoxville, I picked Chris Zaldain, who had the single biggest Tennessee River bag at the 2019 Classic, and he blanked on Day One before bouncing up to 94th place on Day Two.
Neither of those guys have anything to prove. Clunn even joked about it on social media, apologizing to those who picked him in Fantasy for his subpar performance.
Nevertheless, the person they should be paying closest attention to is Brandon Palaniuk. At 12th in the standings (versus 94th for Zaldain and 100th for Clunn), Palaniuk is currently in very little danger of being overtaken by the other two, but he can offer them a concrete lesson that all is not lost. That’s because both of them were on the Elite Series when he won the AOY title in 2017, despite finishing a putrid 105th (out of 110) at the season-opener on Okeechobee. The 110th place spot was occupied by Clunn, and Zaldain finished 98th. A few weeks later Palaniuk was 49th out of 52 at the Bassmaster Classic at Conroe, but despite that miserable two-tournament start, once Jordan Lee claimed his big trophy BP went on a tear – he was 5th at Toledo Bend, 18th at a Central Open on Ross Barnett, and won at Sam Rayburn. He added two 3rd place Elite finishes up north, and the only check he missed the rest of the way was in a Northern Open.
Neither Clunn nor Zaldain is likely to win AOY this year. It’s not mathematically impossible, but it’s statistically unlikely. Nevertheless, it’s a long season, with lots of likely twists and turns, and a top 10 or two changes the dynamic quickly. Even just two or three decent finishes could allow them sneak back inside the Classic cut. You’d be foolish to send them both to the end of your team’s bench for good.
