(birds chirping) Big one. Giant -Yep. Giant Giant. That's a freakin' 7+ Oh-No! She got me in a tree. She's still on there. Oh. Oh. She just came out. Giant. Giant. - [Brandon] Buddy. Buddy. (anglers laughing) Buddy. - [Official] That's over 21. - How did I get that thing outta there. Zeroed right? 8lbs 4oz - I'm gonna go 'head
and put that in 'cause I know that's over 21. (intense rock music) - [Nelson] What'd
you do to your back? - Set the hook on a bass. Had my head turned wrong I guess. And had a sharp pain come
through my shoulder and my neck and it dropped me to my knees. You gone massage it for me later? - [Nelson] Yeah. - Okay. - [Nelson] How are
you gonna cast tomorrow? - I might only be fishing
with this, that's it. Just one rod. - [Brandon] We're at
Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Bella what time is it? Toyota Texas Fest. We were about 45 minutes
from here about a month ago, Toledo Bend. Had a good finish there, top five. So we're looking to
improve on that this week. - [Tiff] I re-injured his back last night. - [Nelson] Are you serious? - Well we thought we had it pretty loose and then we just decided it
needed a little bit more. And then it got stiff
again, so I don't know. - [Brandon] Had an interesting practice. Got a couple of giants,
like nine pounders. Couple of sixes, sevens,
so caught some big ones. But they're few and far between, the weather's changing, and the weather's changing not for the better. (crowd chatting)
(motors revving) (birds chirping) - [Branson] I actually didn't know that. Didn't realize it. Oh that's a giant dude. Oh gosh, I was not expecting that. Oh. Oh easy there girl. Don't you jump again. That's a bonus right there. (water splashing) Yes. - [Official] Good job. - [Brandon] Yes. Freaking Storm Arashi Topwalker. I didn't really know what
to expect going into today. I had a decent practice
where I was getting at least one or two
really big bites every day and it was kind of a
pattern, but kind of random and I just didn't know exactly when it was gonna come but kind of knew the areas and the stuff that I was getting around. But I had multiple patterns going on. The deep and shallow pattern, catching fish all the way
from three foot to 30 foot. And today obviously we had
different weather conditions where practice, slick calm, sunny, those fish really got grouped up where today kind of scattered out more. This morning I was able to take advantage of kind of the little bit sunnier, calm, conditions that we had. So then I just ran around,
made some adjustments, got deep fish, shallow fish. (fast rock music) Biggun' (fast rock music) - [Branson] Look at this great 'ol biggin. Big 'ol mack daddy. - Here comes a former BASS Nation National Champion 2x Elite Series Champion, from Rathdrum, Idaho the
prodigy Brandon Palaniuk. Our tournament leader Brent Ehler with 25 pounds and six ounces. Brandon Palaniuk 24 pounds seven ounces. - It's a great way to start. My goal was 30 pounds today. Obviously I came up a lil
bit short but very happy. - Working out pretty good
so far keep it rolling. - Sick. Second place. - [Nelson] How's that feel? - Feels good. I figured that there'd
be some like 30s, 28s, high 20s, but that's got
us sitting in second, right where we need to be. - [Nelson] Who are you behind? - Ehler I think. I think Ehrler's got 25. - I'm excited. I was nervous all day
because I had to tell you that he had fish all day. And then in the back of your head there's a little spot that's like
what if reality strikes and he has no fish, 'cause it happens. Those aren't the good days. But that smile is worth it all. - [Nelson] And what? - And the eight pounder. - [Brandon] We just got
back to the trailer, day one, sitting in second
place, 24 pounds, 7 ounces. Anchored by an eight four
behemoth fence panda. Hydrilla gorilla, brush pile beauty. Don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow. I feel like the fish are moving a lot, deep and shallow, especially
with the weather conditions changing, it's gonna be
windy again tomorrow. Cloudy again but it's
supposed to break out and be a little bit sunny in the afternoon which should help that deep bite. He lost the front hooks I'd really like for 'em too. Oh. Missed It. Got him. - Oh that's a better one. (wind blowing) -Oh gosh. Giant. (wind blowing loudly) I'm gonna land it on that right there probably, or right here. Oh.
- Ooh. (wind blowing loudly)
(official talking of mic) -It's like a seven pounder. Come on, come on baby, come on. Come on. Come on, come on. Nah, he's like a six. (wind blowing loudly) Or a five. (water splashing) Yeah. (laughs) He looks longer than that one, oh yeah. Hey five-seven, that
other one was five-11. This one's 22 and a half inches. (wind blowing loudly) That's why I thought
it was a seven pounder when it jumped 'cause it's so long. Oh I made a little mark. -Biggin, oh gosh. Biggin. Four three baby. See that fish is pre-spawn. It's pre-spawn, yeah. Our morning started out really slow. We didn't get any big bites, just a bunch of one and two pounders. But we kind of just slowly hopped around and upgraded, caught some fish in places we hadn't
caught 'em yet this week. We got almost 22 pounds, it's 11 o'clock. We don't have to check in 'til three, so we still got lots of time
to make some big improvements. (wind blowing loudly) Oh biggun. Oh she got me in that same tree. -[Official] She came off there yet? No not yet. It's like a replay of
yesterday in the same tree. Yesterday was an eight pounder. (wind blowing loudly) No, not at the end. Oh crap. Yeah it's still on there. Tree. Not looking good. Oh dude, she just, just came out. You gotta be kidding me. How did that thing come out? (water splashing) Yes! Patience baby. Patience. Four four, four four, right there. - Four four baby. It was a good day. Even though we did not
have as much as yesterday. The 24-7 yesterday, 23-2 today. Good news is, we closed the gap on Ehrler. He had about a pound on us yesterday. Now he's only got a two ounce lead. Today was the day I did
not get the big bite that I've been getting. I've been getting fish over eight pounds every day I been here, but
I had a better average. Feel like I caught more fish and kind of dialed in where
those bigger fish wanted to be. (crowd cheering) - 47 pounds and 9 ounces. Brandon Palaniuk sitting in second place Battling it out with Brent Ehrler right now. - It's been really good,
I don't know how this week was gonna go and I've
been pleasantly surprised with the way it's worked out. Today's the first day
I've not caught a fish over eight pounds out of Rayburn. So I'm looking forward to
getting out there tomorrow. Maybe finding, you know,
one of those Tundra fish. I'm looking to when a truck this week. - Well you keep catching 'em like that you will win a lot more than a truck. - And just fish good, relaxed. Lost some big ones again but I just came to the realization that the way that I'm catching 'em,
catching 'em on that spinning rod on light
line, I'm gonna lose some in that brush and those trees. I caught some that I probably
shouldn't have caught, including that eight pounder yesterday and a 4-4 today. So I'm gonna win some and I'm gonna lose some. I just keep on casting and hope that every cast is an eight pounder. (intense rock music) Yep. Thats what we need right there. Come Here. Woo-hoo, yeah. That's what we're looking for man, there are big ones in there right now. Big ones. Biggun. Oh gosh. Don't you jump. Dirty sucker. Heart rate, a hundred thousand. Yeah. (yelling) Bam! Giant, oh gosh. Storm Arashi Topwalker. Don't you jump. I'll take a hook in the hand for that one. Yeah. (yelling) - [Official] Look how long. Yeah baby. She was going to town on that
thing, I watched her eat it. That was so freaking cool. I don't know yet. Ooohhh! Gosh dang it. That was a four plus. Oh. That one knocked slack in it. That's a big one. Oh that's a freaking giant. Oh my gosh. That's bigger than a
five pounder right there. (Brandon grunting) Come here. Come here, come here,
come here, come here. Oh come here, come here. Oh my gosh Nooooo. Broke off. That might've been a truck. (Deep sigh) Hard one to shake off man. Man. Should have just taking my time. Got to, I thought I had her when she got up closer to the boat. Made that last turn. It's hard to come back from losing an eight or nine pounder man. Lose a lose a four plus, I don't
know how big that one was. That one right there was over eight. Maybe over nine. Leaving the door wide open
for the rest of those guys. I'm not gonna forget about
that one 'til Sunday. Or Monday morning. Yep that's a biggun. He's mean. Yes Sir. Yes Sir. Four-five baby. That was four fish, five casts. Found this spot yesterday. Actually I found it four days ago, They weren't here 'til yesterday. - [Nelson] What you
guys think he's gonna do? - He's gonna win. - What do you mean what do I think, I know he's gonna win it. I'm gonna wash his boat again tonight. Well not tonight 'cause he's
going to Naconiche tomorrow. But Saturday night, the boat's
getting completely detailed. - [Brandon] Yep that'll help. Oh yeah. Right when I open my freaking bail. (intense rock music) (wind blowing) That'll help. First cast. Don't do that again. Come here, come here,
come here, come here. Yeah, that's a little fatty. That's a little fatty. See if I can't get that out for her. A lot of times if you go up from behind, you can get a good angle on it. Rotate it just like that. If you're super careful, a lot of times those fish will get
the hook deep like that where she ate it on the fall, and if you're super careful you can go behind their gill plate get an angle on it, rotate it, and pop it out without
causing them any harm, no hook in there. - [Official] Three-eight. - [Brandon] Three-eight it is. That's more like it. Look how fat and healthy that fish is. I don't know what to think. I thought I was gonna have
like a three pound lead, but Ehrler weighed like 24 instead of 21. I guess he caught a
really big one at the end. So it's gonna be a shoot out Sunday. Like me and Ehler by ounces, and then third place is like 10 pounds behind us or something. I'm kind of nervous for Sunday. I don't know what's gonna happen. The weather's gonna change again. I don't know if those
fish are gonna be there. I don't know if the
local guys that watched me catch 'em today are gonna
pound on it tomorrow. I don't know. It's a lot of unknowns right now. That's what makes me nervous,
the just not knowing. But we'll go do our deal on Sunday. Hopefully execute a 100%, then see what happens. - Your brand new leader Brandon Palaniuk. - Today was incredible. It was so much fun, I left 'em, I pray that the guys that watch me today don't go and beat on it tomorrow. We've got an off day tomorrow. I'm taking the high school guys out. It's gonna be fun to
go out there with them and kind of relax and
get my mind off of it. - [Dave Mercer] Wait a second, so you're leading this tournament. - [Brandon] Mm-hmm. - [Dave Mercer] All this
on the line, a Classic Berth and everything and you're still donating your time to take a high school kid out tomorrow. Let's here it for this guy. I mean how crazy is that? (crowd cheering) Wow. - [Ehrler] Good job man. - [Brandon] You too. Got you a giant at the end? - - [Ehrler] Oh a six pounder. - [Brandon] You dirty sucker. - [Ehrler] Oh boy. - [Brandon] I was like, oh yes,
a little bit of relief. - [Ehrler] I hadn't checked a
spot yet I pulled up. - [Brandon] They were there. - I caught one and left, I mean. - [Brandon] That makes you dangerous. - You know what's crazy is. - [Brandon] See this thing? - [Ehrler] Dude, I heard you lost a big one. - [Brandon] Way bigger than
what I had the first day. I think it was like nine or something. - [Ehrler] No way, dude
that's insane, that sucks. Man oh my goodness. - [Brandon] I was like oh. - [Ehrler] Oh my goodness. - [Brandon] What do you do you know? Tomorrow's an off day,
we're taking the high school kids fishing. I'm trying to win two derbies. I'm worried about tomorrow now. I worry about getting the bite first, and worry about getting them out. - [Angler] Same way. - [Brandon] When you start like trying to go through this stuff, you have to start pushing all those
trees outta the way. That's how you got into it with your dad? - [Angler] Yeah. Three and four years old,
I would go with my dad and my grandpa out in the summer. - [Brandon] I thought the creek channel was over there? It's actually right here. You can see it on the 360. - [Angler] Look likes it's 'bout to rain. - [Brandon] Yeah it does. (wind blowing loudly) Think she's gonna rain for a while chief. Ooh. - Did you see that? - Yeah pitch it back in there. How big was that? - [Angler] I don't know. - It sounded massive. Giant. Oh he's not a giant, giant but he's way bigger than a two pounder. Oh, oh. I don't know how I'm gonna grab him. Just like that, just
like that buddy. Nucks - [Brandon] I had an absolutely blast fishing out there with Oakley Connor, a kid out of South Carolina. He's one of the twelve
high school all Americans selected by BASS and we actually
ended up winning the derby. Two fish limit, 12lbs 3oz. He caught the big one. I had a 5-14, he had
a 6-5 largemouth. And we wrecked em. - Morning. - Morning. (motor revving) - [Dave Mercer] Into today with the lead and is hoping to hold on to it. We know he does not
have one over 9-1. Here's a two time elite series champion. A former BASS National champion from Rathdrum, Idaho the
prodigy Brandon Palaniuk. (Crowd Cheering) Biggun. No he's just in a brush pile. Oh yep that's big. Whoo That's more like it right there. 3-12, that's closer. Swim that way. Three-four. Look at him. You see how long he was sitting there? - [Tiffanie] It's the final day of a Bassmaster Elite series event. It's actually Bass Fest in Lufkin, Texas on Sam Rayburn and it's always exciting to be fishing on the
fourth day in the top 12. But when you're in contention to win and he doesn't act like
he's in contention to win, it's a really eerie feeling. So Brandon is currently
leading from what we can tell. Via BASSTrak on bassmaster.com. (intense dramatic music) - [Dave Mercer] At 2:30, Brent Ehrler caught a fish right around six pounds and took the lead in this
tournament unofficially. It was so tight it never
got recorded on BASSTrak. - [Brandon] Oh gosh. Oh it was in the brush pile. Oh it's huge, oh gosh. That's it right there baby. Stay on there, I'm coming right there man. That's her. Easy, easy, easy girl. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Come on man, come on. Come on. My heart is pumping so bad. Oh gosh. Oh gosh, come here, come
here, come here, come here. (Brandon yelling) (crowd cheering) That's what I'm talking about right there. 2:36 man. - 2:36. I can't even unhook that thing. - [Official] Oh yeah, 5-15. - 5-15 baby. (crowd cheering) There's our six pounder. (Brandon yelling) (Brandon yelling) I'm sorry man I can't help it. - [Brandon] We're headed to go
see the verdict of the week. I'm a nervous mess, I'm a wreck man. Talk about the ultimate highs and lows. Places that I'd been
catching 'em really good they just weren't really there. I caught a six pounder
at 2:36 off a brush pile that I've never fished. I'm gonna be short though. [Nelson] How much was the total? - [Brandon] 21-12, it was really tough. Really, really tough. - [Tiffanie] Did you lose a lot? - [Brandon] No I executed
reall well. So I can't be that upset. I'll tell you I'm so dang nervous. I just put a spinning rod
Rod Jacket on a bait caster. Talk about the stress. (men laughing) - Hey I'm Brent Ehrler,
I'm behind the stage right now, 'bout ready to weigh in here at Same Rayburn. I'm right behind Brandon
in the standings yesterday and the little fish catching fool. I hope I got the enough
but I don't think I do. But if not, congrats to
Brandon, great fisherman, it's well deserved (crowd cheering) It's was pretty tough I only had about
12 pounds around one, 1:30 the sun popped out and I smashed em in the last hour. This big one I caught, I don't know about 30 minutes before weigh in. - Him and Brandon had a
pretty incredible lead on the rest of the field. All he needs is 12 pounds and
two ounces to take the lead. 19 pounds and 14 ounces. I mean it's very well documented, both you guys on the water as anglers but I'm gonna tell you
, I'll attest for it. As human beings, these two
are truly two of the best that we have on tour. Your Tundra Big Bass
champion, Brent Ehrler, for the second time in event history. He is a two time Elite Series champion, a former BASS National champion from Rathdrum, Idaho, the
prodigy Brandon Palaniuk. (crowd cheering) So much on the line and here you've won two Series Elite events and you've set a goal at the beginning. - I told myself, like you
said every two to three years I'd love to win an Elite Series event. It's been 4 years. - I'm gonna ask Brent
Ehrler to come on over. Side by side, one way
or another we are gonna have an incredible champion. Brandon Palaniuk started
the day with 72 pounds. 72 pounds even, hold on I'm thirsty. What we don't have commercial breaks I can't pull a Ryan Seacrest don't worry. 72 pounds even at the start of today. He's got five fish looking for 19 pounds and 13 ounces. Hit it 21 pounds and 12 ounces. 21-12 and Palaniuk pummels
on championship Sunday. Your 2017 Toyota Bassmaster
Texas Fest Champion, Brandon Palaniuk. The prodigy becomes a three time Bassmaster Elite Series champion and rolls out of town with
a hundred thousand dollars and a guaranteed Geico Bassmaster Classic berth. - [Tiffanie] I'm so proud. I've seen all of the lows and I've seen all of the highs through a computer screen. so, I'm so proud of him. - So proud and we're
also proud of you guys. - I have to say a huge
thanks to my family, my friends, especially Tiff. This is the first one
she's got to be here for. And that was kind of a big
motivation to win this week. I'm like finally I have
a shot and she's here, it's time to make it happen. Yeah. - [Dave Mercer] You're gonna be able to fish for smallmouth however you want the rest of the season dude. - [Brandon] I haven't
even thought about that. - Yeah, how crazy is that? - Crazy. - You won all of the trophies
this week, took 'em home. - It's crazy, except
for the freaking truck. (people laughing) He deserves the truck. - [Brandon] I don't feel as bad. I can't believe we pulled that off. 2:36. (people laughing) - Good job. - Thanks You too. That's how
you know he's a good dude.
