DON PEDRO, Calif. - Simpson University's Payton Lyndall and Brayden Bishop won the BAM Scholastic College tournament at Don Pedro Reservoir. 

The team's bag weighed 14.87, which was enough to get the win in the second-ever BAM College trail tournament. 

Chico State University's Brandon Huse and Peter Khoury got second place with a bag weighing 13.55. 

Noukhue Vang from Reedley College took third place with a total weight of 12.38.

Lyndall's pre-fish approach was to target spawning areas.

"Pre-fish was a lot different on the tournament day. Pre-fish was a lot sunny, really hot day. It was like 72 degrees. So a lot of fish were up shallow on like a lot of like the cliff walls and stuff like that," Lyndall said, "A lot of them were like in areas where they could spawn or get ready to spawn, so basically what I was targeting was a lot of those cliff walls that led to spawning areas."Cliff walls and offshore stuff next to any spawning flat. And it seemed like that's what I was gonna do during the tournament. There were also fish and a lot of shade lines down random banks. If there is any shade line down a random bank, there's a bunch of fish, like congregated into them," Lyndall said.

Huse and Khoury's approach was slightly different.

"I stuck with mostly the main body of water, points, cuts, and peninsulas that came out. Whether they had a drop-off or not. I was looking for that transition of rock where it was big rock–boulders–to more gravel and stuck away from the clay," Huse said (in a voice memo).

Huse knew that the fish would be looking for warmth given the changing weather patterns. 

"Just because time of year and cooler weather conditions, that clay has never been a big producer for me. I know those fish want warmer conditions and that rock holds heat better than that clay does," Huse said (in a voice memo).

The anglers, collectively, had to deal with a drastic change in weather come tournament day. 

"[Pre-fish] In the rain and that temperature drops from 70s to mid-50s, I knew that those fish that were out deep on main lake points weren't going to be as affected by those temperature changes compared to the fish that I had found in the back of creeks and shallow water," Huse said (in a voice memo).

Huse and Khoury applied what they did on Shasta for Don Pedro, which ended up working well for them. 

"We did our damage both tournaments, doing the same thing pretty much, same kinda areas, fishing the same way, even throwing the exact same baits, really for both finishes," Huse said (in a voice memo).

Lyndall and Bishop tried the pattern they found during pre-fish on tournament day. 

"We were seeing some here and there scattered, but they're not in the same areas. And I caught almost a four-pounder there during practice, so it was kind of surprising," Lyndall said, "So I fished the rest of that cliff wall, nothing. I fished the cliff wall on the other side, to see if they congregated over there, nothing. Then I was like, okay, we'll go run the offshore stuff."

Lyndall and Bishop relocated again.

"We go back to that chunk rock by the bank, and we start. First cast, I catch a two-and-a-half Brauden catches at 2.30, keep going down it. A lot of dinks," Lyndall said. "So then, since I gave that area where I caught the exact area down that bank, I caught the four-pounder, I gave it about two and a half hours a break. I was like, okay, let's go try it again."

The constant relocation worked well for the team.

"Payton caught that four-pounder," Bishop said, "It just gave us confidence that working on that bank was gonna be the right decision."

The duo had to cull a lot. It would take a bit before they finally landed a solid kicker.

"We just got rats after that," Bishop said, "I think when we weighed all of our five the first time, there's like nine pounds. We were like, 'that's like…no way we have a four-pounder with nine pounds as our total."