Monticello 3/5/22

A little breezy at times, a little rainy too. Water 57 to 62 degrees, slightly stained.. nothing going on at the big bridge so I fished my way towards the dam.. Hadn’t fished that area but a couple of times in the last few years..

Got into the big white bass and stuck with it until I was tired of catching them on 6xd in 20 feet of water. Was hoping the bass would be in there with them but they weren’t.






Left the whites biting, busting on top all around me, birds working the shad…


Started catching bass on lipless crank bait… I hate fishing those baits, but that’s what they saw wanted.. caught three in one small cove, missed a couple and lost two that pulled off.. all about 2 to three lbs.

Paddled on to next cove and caught three more and missed two… all on lipless… never fished a lipless this long in my
life. Much better attitude about that bait now. Didn’t throw a spinner bait much at all today.



Saw a bald eagle but it was too far away when it saw me paddling toward it.



It had been feasting on duck.



Finally make it to ramp area.. place looks a lot different as dock is gone or overgrown and parking lot was almos impossible to see… started throwing 7 inch swimbait and get bit on second cast but didn’t hook up.. nothing on lipless here either so I pull out the savage gear 3d baitfish… bam, first cast as I pull it off end of ramp…





Decide I’ve had enough of this area and fish my way back to big bridge and catching a few more bass and whites.








Get into the bass again off wind blown point..catch three in four consecutive casts…including this one.







Got out of kayak to try to measure.. my phone camera lens was messed up and couldn’t get a good picture.. Dragged fish to big bridge on leash to see if I could get someone to weigh it. My scale said 8 lbs 1 oz but I thought it would go 9.. I weighed it 4 times… 8/1 came up3 times but the first time it said 8 lb 14 oz..I don’t trust any scales.




I should have headed in but decided to paddle to railroad bridge and fish the pads… it was slow.. did catch more whites.. I’m beat but best day of the year by far.





Long day, left home at 4:30 home at 10:30

great day!

Very Nice outing Iconn4! Looks like you got your line stretched a few times. I have thought about making a trip to monticello but was told it was closed is this true or false?

It’s open.. you can legally fish it, but you have to launch from the bridge embankment. See earlier Monti posts. It seems lately everyone is trespassing and taking the easy way through fence that was cut. Haven’t seen anyone go over the railing.. hope they get nailed as they know better…

Very nice!!

Great report and pics. That's a lot of paddling.
Let's call that fish a 9 !

The ramp pick is weird to me, seeing it that way all overgrown and empty.

Awesome trip Louis!

Yep, the ramp area looks a lot different.. being on the water so low in kayak with the lake being much lower these days does give it a different look.

I really thought it was... a lot fatter than the one I caught the other day at murvaul that weighed 7/11 and about the same length. Went grocery shopping tonight and bought bananas, saw what the scale there said on receipt and weighed them on my scale when I got home. Correct withing 1/2 an ounce.. 2.83 lbs at store, 1 lb 14 oz on my new scale.. Guess I was just wishful thinking at the lake.

hey James! You getting to fish any in the desert?

Very nice trip. Good catching. That was a lot of paddling.

Thanks for the great report. I needed that to shake off the chill of this never ending winter. Weather has been cold and windy for every bass tournament date so far and this Saturday is not looking too good either. Weather has been terrible on my Friday's off and I'm starting to get cabin fever. My last fishing trip was on Lone Star Lake and I too caught a few schooling white bass. Also caught my first largemouth bass on a bubblegum floating worm. I may need to fish a power plant lake this Friday.

Yeah, so about that, um.....

No!