Kentucky Lake is showing out in a big way on day one of the YETI FLW College Fishing Open. Cool but fairly calm conditions have paved the way for a lot of quality fish and some impressive stringers so far.

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The Kentucky dam is pulling a ton of current, and it seems to be pushing fish a little further back into spawning coves. The predominant strategy today has been beating the banks in those coves with crankbaits, spinnerbaits and umbrella rigs.

So far, that’s been a strong approach. Ty Cox and Chandler Boman of Blue Mountain College reported at 9 o’clock this morning that they already had a limit of about 21 pounds throwing lipless crankbaits. Clayton Winebarger and Ryan Strong of Virginia Highland Community College, only 15 minutes later, said they had four quality fish in the box throwing spinnerbaits.

Jesse Dodson and Harrison Kapoun of University of Kentucky have also been on them. They hauled in a nearly 7-pound fish, while Zack LeMaster and Christopher Butler of Radford University have a pair of studs, one of which might be pushing 7 pounds. They estimate about 11 pounds between two fish so far.

A lot of anglers decided to stick close to Moors Resort & Marina today, where rocky shoreline and docks are both abundant. The dock pattern doesn’t seem to be as productive, though, as most of the anglers we checked in with while fishing docks only had one or two small fish. The biggest bags so far have come on rocky secondary points where prespawners are camped out just out of the strong current.

The usual late-winter and early-spring tactics seems to be holding true today. Anglers are slinging umbrella rigs, jigs, crankbaits and spinnerbaits almost exclusively. We’ve also seen a little jerkbait action, but the stained water might make it tough to find productivity with that particular moving bait.

This week is all about the conditions. Today has been overcast and (slowly) warming, but the weather has been pretty stable in general. That should make afternoon fishing pretty solid across the board. Tomorrow might be a different story, though. With high winds and warmer temperatures expected tomorrow, anglers should get what they can get out of their most productive patterns today.

Weigh-in begins at 3:30 p.m. CT at Moors Resort & Marina. Stick around to see how the field did on day one.