Brandon Palaniuk’s performance today reminded me of Hall of Famer Shaw Grigsby.
I’ve written about this anecdote before, but I think it bears repeating, as many fishing fans and indeed a bunch of Elite Series pros were not yet born in 1988, when a 31-year-old Grigsby earned the first of his nine Bassmaster wins. Back then, Bassmaster tournaments were three days, and Shaw went to bed after Day Two with a 4 pound lead over his closest competitor. When he woke up the next day, it was too rough to go out, so for the first time B.A.S.S. called a tournament early because of inclement weather.
Grigsby wanted the trophy, and the winnings, but he didn’t want to back into the win. In order to prove that he was on the winning fish, to himself as much as for anyone else, he launched the boat, caught a 2 ½ pounder, and went home.
“I knew I could have caught the limit that day,” he later wrote. “So I came in and accepted the win.”
Watching Palaniuk throughout Championship Sunday, I was reminded of why he’s done so much, so soon. Every day, indeed each portion of every day, is a mini-tournament for him. Even when the universe tells him he has nothing to prove, he still has something to prove.
As he caught his first bare keeper this morning, he stayed calm, but exhaled. “It’s not a giant, but that was so needed,” he told the camera. “Every one of those matters so much right now.” Later, when he used a glide bait to catch his best fish of the day and make a big cull, it was as if he’d won the Classic. He fished as long as he could and as hard as he could, as if he were the one who needed to make up the massive deficit.
The greats keep their foot on the gas even when coasting downhill.
BP’s lead may have shrunk between the end of Day Three and the end of Day Four, but his legend grew.
Here’s what I saw, thought, heard and learned on a day when top dog was pretty much a foregone conclusion:
Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better – Palaniuk wasn’t taking anything for granted, but he could’ve blanked today and still earned the win. No one eclipsed his three day weight of 81-1, Runner up John Garrett closed the gap between first and second, but it was still a nearly 16-pound margin of victory.
Points Gainers and Losers – No angler moved up more than two places today. Two anglers fell more than that amount, including Greg DiPalma who dropped from 2nd to 7th, and David Gaston who dropped from 3rd to 6th.
Too Soon to Talk About AOY? – It probably is, but I’ll do it anyway. Last week I predicted that sophomore Robert Gee (64th, 21-5) would be one of the year-end contenders and he promptly missed his first Elite Series cut since Wheeler last year – a string of four straight tournaments in which he never finished worse than 14th, and three times finished in the top three. He may still contend for the title, but that’s a long way of saying take anything I write or say with a grain of salt. Nevertheless, I’m going to tread on that ground again. It’s too easy to predict that any of the guys currently in the top 10 will win the year-end trophy, but outside of that bubble watch out for Chris Johnston, Patrick Walters, Taku Ito and Jordan Lee.
Tennessee Two-Step – One other thing to note in the AOY standings is the plight of the Tennessee-based anglers, who have extra incentive to make the 2026 Classic in Knoxville. There are quite a few of them, plus transplants like Hunter Shryock (45th, 33-9), and former Tennesseans like Brandon Card (78th, 19-15). And don’t look now, but two-time Knoxville winner Jeff Gustafson (81st, 19-0) is leaving Florida deep toward the bottom of the AOY standings. No doubt he’d like to threepeat, but it’ll take a big push over the remaining events.
Bob Downey (5th, 73-2) – “See how clean they are, full of eggs? Maybe just pulling up to spawn.”
Dave Mercer on the Afternoon Bite – “The halftime show has one effect: It gets these fish munching.”
Tournament Director Lisa Talmadge — “I want to thank you guys, whoever was in charge of the weather this week.”
Fothergill’s Start – I feel terrible to write about newcomer Easton Fothergill (93rd, 16-7), primarily because I hate writing about someone who’s down, but his early season struggles are a mystery – he finds himself in last place in the Rookie of the Year race, and effectively in last place in AOY. It was just last season that he dominated the EQ standings and earned two wins. I’m sure the naysayers will claim he’s “just a scoper” and that he suffered in Florida because he couldn’t make that work. Nevertheless, I have no doubt that he has the skills to compete at this level, on any venue – and he’s already survived brain surgery, so he clearly embodies resilience – but the first major test of the 22 year old’s future as a pro may be his ability to put these events behind him, learning from them but not being crushed by them.
John Garrett (2nd, 79-7) — “I don’t think I’ve had this much fun fishing in a while.” Florida has been very, very good to the young Tennessee pro.
Brandon Palaniuk — “I never caught a limit in practice, not a single day.”
Swinging Hard – “You want to see me get excited?” Palaniuk asked as he tied on an 8” Megabass Magdraft. “Give me a bite on this.” He didn’t catch a giant on the Magdraft but caught his best fish of the day on an even bigger bait. As promised, the mellow Idahoan got pretty darn excited.
Scarcity Economy – Ronnie Moore on anglers’ future efforts to get one of Palaniuk’s prototype crankbaits: “Like toilet paper in a winter storm in Arkansas.”
Trey McKinney (8th, 65-9) – “Any top ten in Florida for me is an absolute win.” This is his second in four Elites in the Sunshine State, and his third top 20.
Jason Christie (10th, 54-5) – “I had dreams last night about that jig bite today.” Unfortunately his one big jig bite today was from a reptile. He weighed in three bass for 4-5. This week’s top ten got him past $2 million in BASS winnings.
Bob Downey – “I felt right at home even though I’m 1,700 miles from home.”
Call Ripley’s – In my limited dealings with John Garrett, and after watching lots of footage of him, I’ve come to expect a certain generic, almost vanilla, perspective from the young pro – which is to say that I was far more surprised to learn that he thought he’d seen a UFO than if I’d heard the same from Greg Hackney, John Cox, Gerald Swindle or Steve Kennedy.
Exclusive Club – Palaniuk and Patrick Walters (42nd, 36-2) are the only anglers with two Elite Series wins by double digit margins.
Day Four Bests and Worsts – John Garrett was the only member of the ten remaining anglers who had his best bag of the week today. It was 2 ounces heavier than what he weighed in yesterday. Five members of the top ten had their worst day today: Palaniuk, Jacob Foutz, Jason Christie, David Gaston and Greg DiPalma. Garrett was the only one among them whose weight went up every day. DiPalma was the only one whose weight went down every day.
On the Water Pricing – Will Davis Jr. (4th, 76-5) caught a 7 pounder on a borrowed glide bait, the first fish he’s ever caught that way. Not that the glide bait market needed a major push, but the past few years of Elite Series competition have shown that the big baits can be players in tournament situations, and can often justify the triple digit costs they command. It’s been mostly the younger pros, but the “elder” Palaniuk has long been a quiet advocate for the genre. His big late-in-the-day bass came on a Clutch Boss, one of the more readily-purchasable gliders favored by the cognoscenti. If TV time determines prices, the cost of the Boss may go up soon – in addition to Palaniuk’s fish, last year Trey McKinney and JT Thompkins found success with it, and others including Justin Hamner and Patrick Walters earned top tens with the related Clutch Darter.
BP on His Big Fish — “I knew it was between 5 and 10.”
Five Dollar Word of the Day – Denouement
See you in a few weeks in Texas. Expect something legendary.
