It was awesome for winter fishing

the gates will be below the water line at all times, so the fish can swim over the top of the gates now. Hasn't always been the case. there will be no current so they are freely able to move back and forth from one lake to another now.

Can you still run from car bridge to railroad bridge pretty freely or has the lower water level brought new stumps into play?

stay to the right like always

Heath
Is the lake elevation as extreme as Cypress?Sandlin?

that being the case, keeping the slot on Monti makes very little sense moving forward.

I doubt the fish will be able to swim between the two lakes. Seems lake Monticello would be able to be managed just by leaving the gates as is and let spring rains keep the lake level like the rest of the east Texas lakes. Why would this not be possible?

No

The bass in Sandlin have for years held a grudge and waiting for the chance to mix it up with the warm water Monti bass - it gonna be all out war.

That's scary looking and sad.

I spoke to the TPWD Biologist for the Tri-Lakes area, which included Monti, after Heath and I talked about this about 10 days ago. He confirmed that the gates will be left open indefinitely. With no one around to operate them because of the plant shut down, it was decided that was the best course of action. He also stated the gates open from the BOTTOM and not the top so while the fish can come and go as they please between the lakes, he didn't think much of that would happen and added that both lakes would still be managed by TPWD individually.

Lots of great spawning grounds gone now, but new ones will grow vegetation as time goes on. If the weather isn't too bad out there Saturday, I will be out there trying to find them.

If I were to need info on Monti, especially now, it would be Mr. Gillroy... Chris give us an intuitive report on your return Bud...