1. The University of South Carolina team of Patrick Walters and Gettys Brannon threw Zoom Flukes, green pumpkin Zoom Trick Worms on Greenfish Tackle Crawball Shaky Heads and a Lucky Craft Smasher jointed hard bait to bass chasing blueback herring in the backs of pockets and on points.
2. A Zoom Fluke fished extremely fast on main-lake points, flats and pockets worked for Liberty University’s Travis Rulle and Caleb Eppler, who added a Zoom Trick Worm rigged on a shaky head when more finesse was necessary.
3. Eastern Kentucky University’s Kyle Raymer and Ethan Snyder also fished points with a variety of baits, from the surface to the bottom: pearl and albino soft jerkbaits, a Buckeye Lures Wake Up Wake Bait, a Rebel P70 Pop-R and a Strike King Sexy Dawg.
4. Kennedy Kinkade and Josh Worth of Colorado Mesa University fished points and chutes between islands with a green pumpkin Zoom Trick Worm rigged on a Pepper Custom Bait’s shaky head, Zoom Flukes and Reaction Strike XRM 100 jerkbaits in the ghost minnow pattern.
5. Oregon State University’s Chase Cochran and Ryan Sparks tossed two sizes of the slow-sinking Sebile Magic Swimmer: 125 and 110.
6. Matthew Townson and Joe Ellis of Tennessee Tech fished areas that were 2 to 6 feet deep with chrome blue pencil poppers, 3/8-ounce white BOOYAH buzzbaits and Basstrix swimbaits on umbrella rigs.
7. Auburn Tigers Ben Curry and Tim Ward had their best luck on long clay points with scattered rock in about 3 feet of water with Strike King Caffeine Shad soft jerkbaits and Magic Swimmer swimbaits.
8. From Lamar University, Justin Royal and Cameron LaFleur tossed Lucky Craft Gunfish topwaters and 4-inch Strike King Shadalicious swimbaits on shallow points.
9. Justin Graben and Dan Schult of Murray State University fished all alone near the mouth of the Saluda river. They relied on two Lucky Craft topwaters: the Gunfish and Sammy. Herring and aurora black were key colors.
10. Also from Lamar University, Josh Bowie and Brandon Simoneaux used Picasso umbrella rigs fitted with 5-inch 6th Sense swimbaits in the wild herring color. They targeted shallow points.