Brandon Palaniuk Wins the Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest

While several of his competitors boasted about the sheer numbers of fish they were catching each day during the Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest, Brandon Palaniuk was more than happy to take quality over quantity. His best fish were consistently stationed around deeper brush piles and suspended along standing timber. He also mixed in an area each morning where he caught some key fish on a topwater bait, but the majority of the fish that counted for him came out of 20-plus feet of water. He was fortunate to find such areas because the fish were scattered from the bank out to 30 feet as they were transitioning through the post-spawn. Competitors could basically pick their poison and fill up their scoresheets doing just about anything they wanted to around the lake that has easily surpassed neighboring Toledo Bend in the minds of most as the premier bass fishing lake in east Texas and possibly anywhere in the United States. To trigger the deeper fish, Palaniuk employed an old-fashioned technique named for the state he was competing in as well as an emerging finesse tactic on spinning gear.

It also helped that he had posted a 5th-place finish at the Toledo Bend Elite Series last month. Following that tournament, he parked his camper at Rayburn and did some pre-fishing as he had not competed there previously. Rayburn hosted the second-ever Elite Series event in March 2006, but this marked the first visit since for B.A.S.S.' premier circuit. "I came in with a little bit of confidence," Palaniuk said. "I caught 'em well doing the same thing I did at Toledo Bend. I caught 30 pounds throwing a (ChatterBait) so I was really excited to get back. I started there when I came back and I had bites, but I wasn't catching the big ones." That put him back into search mode and he ultimately discovered the fish weren't completely into their summer time pattern yet. "I figured out the fish were in a transition zone," he noted. "I think where a lot of guys missed the deep fish was they weren't all the way out on their summer time places. They were not on the tips of points. "My best stuff was little, off-the-wall and out-of-the-way brush piles on the steepest banks I could find close to a creek or river channel. It had to be close to the bank." He said that also applied to the shallow areas he fished. "It had to have that edge," he said. "The shallow fish related to places with a good, sharp edge to it, whether it was grass or an underwater bluff." Following are more details about how Palaniuk cracked 93-12 at Rayburn.

Practice:

Generating bites in practice was not an issue for Palaniuk. The challenge came when trying to pare down his game plan and what he figured would work for the types of conditions he expected to face. He had areas he felt would be resilient to wind from any directions. He tried to key in on deeper spots since that's where he suspected the bigger fish could be, but he also had shallow options, too. "It was a weird practice," he said. "I got bit doing everything, but my big bites definitely came out deeper." Most of them came on a Neko Rig, a finesse tactic similar to a wacky rig that employs a small weight inserted into one end of the chosen soft-plastic bait being used. In Palaniuk's case, it was a Zoom Magnum Trick Worm. "I haven't played around with it a ton or as much as other techniques, but I knew I'd be really comfortable with a spinning rod," he said. "I got really excited when I started catching them on it."

Competition:

Palaniuk's last Elite Series win came in August of 2013 at the St. Lawrence River, where he opted to make a treacherous run out to Lake Ontario each day, prompting B.A.S.S. to institute boundaries the next time the Elite Series visited the border waters in northern New York. At Rayburn, he didn't need to venture all that far. The Idaho native, who's 5 1/2 months shy of his 30th birthday, fished most of the time north of the Highway 147 bridge. He carded only six keepers on day 1, but the kingpin was an 8-04 that fell for the Neko Rig. He lost a number of fish around brush piles and thinks he had a chance to have a stellar day. "I really thought I could only catch 10 or 13 or I could catch 30 or 35," he said. "The challenge is capitalizing on those big bites. When you get them, you have to land them." He had most of his weight early and he was able to start charting a milk run of spots. Ultimately, he logged 24-07 and opened the event in 2nd place, about a pound behind Brent Ehrler. "I didn't know what I had until the tournament started," he said. "I got it figured out in practice to the point I could look at map and if I could find a brush pile I could get bit." Even after racking up 23-07 on day 2, Palaniuk still didn't have that vibe that he was on the winning spots despite saying he was fishing as relaxed and worry-free as he had in years.

"Every single fish could be a 4-pounder or a 10," he said. "That's what we're targeting." He recycled some water from day 1 and caught fish out of the same areas, but also discovered a couple new brush piles where fish were starting to congregate. "It was definitely a good feeling to feel like I know what to look for a little more," he added. The brush pile fish ranged from 18 to 30 feet deep and he would utilize his Humminbrid 360 Imaging to locate them either around the piles or suspending close to standing timber. "There were a few places where there was a hard bottom transition change," he said. "Even though those fish weren't on the bottom Ð they were suspended on the trees, they were still related to hard bottom." When he'd see on his electronics, he'd pitch his Texas-rigged worm or the Neko Rig to the trees and hope it would fall in the fish's line of sight. "They may have been around one tree because it was bigger than the rest," he said. "If you didn't cast on top of it, I didn't get bit nearly as well. They wanted it dropping down right in front of them." When fishing the big worm, he's slowly slide it through the brush pile while the Neko Rig was his top choice for the suspended fish and when probing around the brush.

He lost another 8-pound caliber fish on day 3 right at the boat, but his 24-07 was enough to overtake Ehrler by two ounces. "If I'd have caught that one on day 3, I would've felt way more confident on the final day," he said. "I'd have six more pounds on my total weight." On Sunday, his big bass spot didn't produce again after coughing up a 4-pounder early in the day. He ran to a nearby bank where he'd gotten consistent bites on a walking bait. That didn't pan out. At one point, he went back to one of his best brush piles and found a local angler trying to retrieve a crankbait he'd snagged there. Palaniuk said the man told him he'd only caught three bass there before getting hung up. "It started running through my mind, 'Am I going to have to change and go run my stuff down south,'" he said. Instead, he kept rotating through the spots that had gotten him to that point and with less than 30 minutes to go he idled over a brush pile he hadn't fished before. He got lined up and caught a few smaller fish before leaning into a 5-14 that changed his mood and the outcome in his favor. "Every time this week I've got them going this week, there's been a big one in there," he said on stage after clinching the win. "Without that fish, there'd be a different dude up here right now."

Winning Gear:

Worm gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Alpha Angler Rods Zilla casting rod, Abu Garcia MGXtreme (ZPI-tuned) casting reel, 15- and 17-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 1/2-oz. VMC tungsten worm weight (pegged), 5/0 VMC heavy duty wide gap worm hook, Zoom Ole Monster worm (plum). He fished mostly with 15-pound line, but upped it to 17 on the final day.

Neko Rig gear: 7' medium-action Alpha Angler Rods Wrench spinning rod, Abu Garcia MGXtreme spinning reel, 15-pound Seaguar Smackdown braided line, 10-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line (leader), VMC 1/0 weedless Neko Rig hook, Zoom Magnum Trick Worm (green-pumpkin), 3/32-oz. VMC half moon wacky weight. The Neko Rig was his big fish producer all week, even in practice. "When they wouldn't bite anything else, they'd bite that," he said. "Several times on days 1 and 2 and on Sunday, I'd make 30 casts with the big worm and not get a bite, but I'd get bit on my first cast with this every time."

He also fished the Storm Arashi Top Walker in the mornings and caught several fish in the 4- to 5-pound range on it. "The best place for that was I'd found a unique underwater bluff that started as a bluff on the bank and rock had fallen off of it so it made some riprap," he said. "There was a shelf out to 9 or 10 feet and then it dumped into the channel. The fish would be on top of the shelf in the morning and get up against those boulders."

The Bottom Line:

Main factor: "That decision on day 4 to stick with what I had."

Performance edge: "The Lakemaster chart and Humminbird 360 and Mega Imaging. It got to the point where I could drive around and tell exactly where I could catch fish. That's where my confidence came from. I was able to be more efficient by looking at my map and saying, 'This is where they should live.' It was very precise where the fish would be."

BASS Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest Winning Pattern BassFan 5/23/17 (Todd Ceisner)

Brent Ehrler didn't see the need to expend more time out deep in practice than he already had. He searched for a couple hours on the first day at Rayburn and within 10 minutes of poking around the shallows, he'd a 4-pounder. "I could only beat my head against the wall out deep for so long," he said. "So I decided to just go shallow." Despite catching a bag in the high teens on his best day of practice, he was comfortable with the relying on the patterns he started to see emerge. "It was fun and I caught a lot of fish, but I wasn't catching any big fish," he said. "I had areas that were more productive than others and I ended up being right, but it's not like I had a 5-plus each day." He keyed on hard edges of hydrilla coming off drains or points.

"Looking back on days 3 and 4, I knew where I'd catch one," he said. "It was so patternable. I had areas where the better fish were, but I knew where it would happen. The best places were where a drain came in and bottlenecked down. They were in the last stretch of deep grass before it got all wadded up." His two best baits were an Evergreen/Z-Man ChatterBait along with a Lucky Craft jerkbait that have previous been stowed in a box at his home in California. "At Toledo Bend, John Murray told me they liked the (Slender Pointer) 127, but I didn't have any," he said. "When I went home, I dug out the box of 112s and 127s. I tied it on and had a couple bites." The 9-01 on day 1 that eventually won Ehrler a new Toyota Tundra for being the big fish of the tournament came on the jerkbait.

"My whole plan was to throw a topwater, the vibrating jig and the jerkbait," he said. "I was fishing around and catching them on the vibrating jig. Then I pick up the jerkbait and catch a 9. At that point, I got off topwater and started more with the jerkbait and ChatterBait." With his boat sitting over 5 to 8 feet of water, Ehrler would probe the edges of the grass with jerkbait and would cast the vibrating jig into or over the grass and pull it back out. Also, he said there was no reason to introduce long pauses during his jerkbait retrieve. "It was a simple twitch, twitch," he said. "I never paused it for very long. I'd snap it and they rod would double up. The was the 127. For some reason, they were biting it like crazy."

Jerkbait gear: 7' medium-light Daiwa Cronos casting rod, Daiwa Tatula SV casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 14-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 127 (aurora black). Ehrler swapped the stock hooks on the jerkbait for #4 round bend Gamakatsu trebles. He typically opts for 10- or 12-pound fluorocarbon when fishing a jerkbait, but felt 14 was the right choice at Rayburn. "Because I was around grass, I just wanted heavier line," he said. "With the big fish and grass, it was safer to go with heavier line."

Vibrating jig gear: 7'4" medium-heavy Daiwa Tatula Elite Brent Ehrler fiberglass casting rod, Daiwa Steez A casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), same line (20-pound), 1/2-oz. Evergreen Z-Man Jackhammer ChatterBait (green-pumpkin), Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits Zako trailer (green-pumpkin).

Main factor: "Patterning the fish and having the confidence to know I'd be getting a bite in certain areas. I didn't get keyed into the drain or key point deal until days 1 and 2 Ð that's when it really clicked for me."

Performance edge: "I had a couple spots where I had key casts where I could catch a fish. I'd be going into the wind, but it was enough where if I'd get off the trolling motor and put my Talons down, it would turn the boat fast. I'm in 7 feet of water and I know the Talons would reach, but I used Spot Lock in the shallow grass and it would hold me. I'm so used to using the Talons, but if you're pointing into the wind with your Talons down, the boat will spin left or right in a head wind. The Spot Lock held me on the right heading."

BASS Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest Winning Pattern BassFan 5/25/17 (Todd Ceisner)

Jacob Wheeler did his due diligence out deep, idling for the better part of a couple days in practice. He was intrigued by what he found, but wasn't convinced he could win that way. Instead he went shallow and kept himself in the hunt for Angler of the Year with a top-3 finish. "I didn't feel like there were that many out deep," he said. "I would've fished out there in 5-footers, but I never found the place where I felt like there were a ton of 5- or 6-pounder. You had to weed through so many little ones. It wasn't easy." By the end of the weekend, he'd tallied five weigh-in fish on a topwater over shallow grass, a dozen flipping a jig in flooded bushes and the rest of his weigh-in fish came around bluegill beds. "In the morning, I threw a topwater a little, then hit bluegill beds, then went flipping," he said. "That got better later in the afternoon so I was able to maximize those bites each day."

The lack of clouds was key to the flipping bite in the bushes being productive and consistent. "Last year, Ish (Monroe) caught 'em at Toledo Bend flipping bushes and I remember he talked about how he couldn't get bit until the sun got up," Wheeler added. "That's how it is with those bushes. The sun positions them with the shade. I'd flip to the deepest, darkest shade and you'd crack one. I tried to utilize each pattern from practice when they'd be the best." He stayed above the bridge most of the event and targeted bushes in 1 to 3 feet of water. "The key was isolated cover - either points or a bush that stuck out," he said. "It was textbook stuff, very cut and dry. The majority of big fish I caught were in places where if you looked at it, you'd say, 'Yeah, a big'un lives there.'"

Flipping gear: 7'6" heavy-action Okuma TCS Scott Martin Signature Series casting rod, Okuma Helios TCS casting reel (8.1:1 ratio), 20-pound Sufix Invisiline castable fluorocarbon line, 9/16-oz. ER Lures jig (S.F. black/blue), Gene Larew Lures Punch Out Craw trailer (black blue). He also had the same jig rigged up with a Zoom chunk trailer to offer a different profile look to the fish. He favored the higher gear ratio to gain control over the fish as soon as he could. "When they bite, those big fish move a lot faster than you think they do," he said. "Every big fish I hooked, most every one came straight at me."

Topwater gear: 7' medium-heavy Okuma TCS Scott Martin Signature Series casting rod, same reel, 30-pound Sufix Performance braided line, Storm Arashi Top Walker size 11 (black silver shad).

Main factor: "Choosing to flip a jig over soft plastics. It threw off a bigger profile with a chunk and the Punch Out Craw. I was making more flips than I would've with plastics."

Performance edge: "Trusting my equipment and understanding the Insight Genesis mapping and having confidence in my Evinrude motor to get there and back. A lot of times I'd cut it so close, but everything worked flawlessly."

BASS Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest Winning Pattern BassFan 5/25/17 (Todd Ceisner)

While some anglers couldn't gain confidence in the deeper bite, Jordan Lee couldn't generate any quality bites when he fished shallow or around hydrilla. That's why when he wasn't lobbing a frog through lily pads, he was dragging a Carolina rig or a probing deep brush with a magnum shaky-head. "I was looking deep," he said. "Every time I went shallow or to the grass, I could catch lot of fish, but not the size. I got some bigger bites off those brush piles and that told me the bigger fish were out deeper." He knew he couldn't depend solely on deep brush, though, knowing how many fish were still shallow. He had some bites around grass with a vibrating jig in practice, but when he visited those spots on day 1, it was evident others had found the same places. "I was all over the place and I'd spent lot of time on the bank but couldn't figure it out," he said. "It wasn't easy to find a deal for the bigger ones. I caught a lot of smaller fish up there. That's why I started deep. It seemed like there were a lot of fish around those places."

As a result, he had to mix up baits, opting for a Carolina rig and a beefy shaky-head with an 8-inch worm. The wind that was persistent during the tournament forced him to focus on a limited number of spots. "It made it hard, but it helped me to have just a couple places," he said. "I had to just fish them hard. That was key for me. There were a couple places I had confidence in. "When you don't get dialed in in practice and with it being such a big lake, you can't fish it all. I run around a lot of practice know I'm running past a lot of fish and wasting time. When you find fish off shore and feel like they're decent places, a lot of times, it's best once you get a couple good bites. When I feel like I find a good spot, I have to pound it." He caught his best fish on day 1 out of a brush pile in 20-plus feet. He had two other spots with brush. "They all had hard bottom around," he said. "I'd be sitting in 28 to 30 feet and be throwing up to the brush. Some were in the brush and others were out away from it. I caught 2-pounders doing that, but also caught 3s and 4s and 5s." When the deep bite would trail off, he work a frog through lily pads with deeper water nearby. "I caught good fish the first three days doing that," Lee said.

Carolina rig gear: 7'6" heavy-action Quantum Tour PT casting rod, Quantum Smoke HD casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 20-pound Seaguar AbrazX fluorocarbon line (main), 20-pound Seaguar Rippin' Mono monofilament line (4-foot leader), 1-oz. Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten Carolina Rig weight, two beads, 5/0 Owner offset worm hook, unnamed creature bait (green-pumpkin).

Shaky-head gear: 7'4" heavy-action Quantum Tour PT casting rod, same reel, same line, 3/4-oz. Owner Ultrahead shaky-head, 8" Strike King KVD Perfect Plastics Bullworm (plum).

Frog gear: Same rod, same reel, 65-pound Seaguar Smackdown braided line, Strike King KVD Popping Perch (green-pumpkin gill). He also caught a couple 3-pounders on day 3 with a dropshot around brush piles as a way to mix it up.

Main factor: "Being forced to focus on a couple spots because of the wind."

Performance edge: "I have a lot of confidence in my Lowrance electronics. I have the new Carbon units on my boat. It's really clear and I was able to find brush pretty easily. There was tons of brush out there. I had it set on 100 feet left and right and I idled and marked as many as I could."

BASS Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest Winning Pattern BassFan 5/25/17 (Todd Ceisner)

It's no secret Hank Cherry likes to fish a jerkbait and Rayburn presented a textbook opportunity to do just that last week. He got clued in that it might be effective when he was at Rayburn for NFL player Brian Robison's charity event prior to the lake going off limits. "I had my mind made up then that they weren't going to leave the grass," Cherry said. "I marked all the creek drains I could and checked them all when we came back and they all still had fish." He said from mid lake down to the dam had the most grass, but he was more focused on hard grass edges in 4 to 8 feet of water. "Anything with a bare drain running through it," he added. It's a pattern he's fished before several times, notably at the 2014 BASSFest event at Lake Chickamauga.

He had deeper brush piles marked, but he couldn't ignore the quantity and quality of bites he was getting around the grass. "I had a two-plan attack, but my experience has been when the grass gets thicker, they just don't want to leave it," he said. "Sometimes I'd fish the edge of it and not make contact with the grass. It depended of what I was feeling. I'd fan cast up in the grass or down the line to see where they were at." What made the jerkbait option more challenging was the pain it caused to his left wrist. He's been nursing a torn tendon since the Cherokee Lake season opener. He's worn a brace all season and plans to have surgery on it in the offseason. "It hurt a lot," he said. "I'd lose feeling in my hand. I had to change how I was jerking." He could use some rest before the next event as he estimated catching 300-plus bass over the four tournament days.

Jerkbait gear: 7' medium-action Abu Garcia Fantasista Premier casting rod, Abu Garcia Revo MGX casting reel (8.0:1 ratio), 15-pound P-Line fluorocarbon line, Livingston Lures Jerk Master Cherry Picker 121 (ayu), Lucky Craft Pointer 128 (ayu). He also caught two weigh-in fish on a River2Sea Whopper Plopper and one on a frog.

Main factor: "Having confidence in what I was doing and being comfortable with it."

Performance edge: "The HydroWave, I think, played a key role, especially around those big balls of fish the first couple days. I had cranked it up and it kept them active a little while longer."

BASS Toyota Bassmaster Texas Fest Winning Pattern BassFan 5/25/17 (Todd Ceisner)