Back to fishing..........some of the best days out there are when most people think it is too cold, or too windy & cold or is sleeting. For a lake that size it produced some tremendous catches.

Yeah, catch, photo, fillet knife.
SMH. C&R was just starting to become popular.

C & F (catch & fillet) is still going strong in LA. One can readily see it at Toledo Bend. I recall a rather recent article stating the percentage of bass making a one-way trip based on angler surveys. A MAJORITY (as in over 50% to be clear) of bass did not make it back to the water - based on anglers surveyed in the study.

I also fished Monticello back then and not surprised when the 14lb record was caught.
Bob Hood caught a 10lber a couple years prior and wrote about it in the Star Telegram, that's when the lake really took off.
Back then a DD was very rare and usually just a fish tale, not a real DD.
I first fished that lake in 1976 from an inner tube and then upgraded to a super skeeter to fish in the wintertime.
Jerry Dean was there most of the time during the winter with his van parked down by the ramp.
Tommy Milan would show up in the morning throwing his big crankbaits.
Fished with Max one night until it got to too cold, about 21 degrees. Many other winter nights with lots of coffee, fog and big fish.
Many of guys already mentioned or commenting were always showing up on the wall of fame.
The number of big fish that came from that little lake in 80's was nothing short of incredible.

Short story about Tommy, I stopped by the motel one day and asked his daughter, who was about 4 years old at the time, where her daddy was. She said he was fishing. I asked her if she thought he would catch anything. She looked at me and said He went didn't he!!

Very similar but thats not it

Bob Garcia, Colleyville Fireman, Jessee Parker the Framer, and his old yellow School Bus converted to a RV and, Bob Hood, Star Telegram sports writer. Now boys you are talking about an era of time that was great. Tommy Martin was THE man, and still is. All of these guys didnt have todays equipment but they caught monster fish, everywhere they went. Real fisherman, no braggers. Real people... I have had the pleasure of spending time with all of them but Tommy Martin. We share friends but have never met.

Good post and good memories. Bob Hood wrote a few articles for Honey Hole Magazine and you're right those were the good 'ol days. Met Tommy back in the 80's and never was a more friendly and humble man. Loved to hear him tell stories about Toledo Bend. Sumbitch could flat catch'em too.

I was on that 1976 Summer float tube trip with TxDan put in the back part of Blundell (it was Lake Blundell back then). Caught so many we decided to stick around and night fish in the tubes but about 3 hours of that got kinda spooky with stuff slashing and swimming all around us so we got the hecks outa there. After that probably did 200 trips in the next 10 years most times fish at night until too sleepy or too cold and then just tie up and "sleep" in the boat (it was hard for me to sleep within 50 miles of Monti much less right on the lake) Usually tied up somewhere behind the RR bridge so we would be ready to hit it again before first light without dealing with the launch zoo. One night was out by myself and went in to the Kountry Korner about 2 am and there at the little counter sat Randy White who was on a contract holdout I think and getting away from Big D - talked about what was working over a cup of coffee for a bit but not a word about football. Lots of good memories out there, what a time and what a lake!

Good times back in those days... Gerald Roebuck was still guiding out of his tide craft... my first boat I sunk there in 87... Gerald helped my uncle and I get off the stump behind the tracks. We were in an old 1973 skeeter baron with the quality LCR 8000... we sunk that old boat just passed the power lines on that first point...
good memories

LOVE posts like this. Please share more. Great to read and hear about these memories. I could listen all day.

lets go back a little further....anybody remember Bob Brister the outdoors editor for Houston Chronicle and the fishing columns he wrote about the worm fishing abilities of Ralph Giesow and Freddie Grant on Sam Rayburn...
my brother and I spent a day with Freddie Grant on rayburn back in late 60's we caught 45 bass mostly just jigging a worm up and down in the flooded timber...

Here is something I found in the back of a file cabinet a while ago from the Big Bass Express.

I remember Gerald well. Great guy. Sad that he passed so young.

There have been LOTS of boats impaled on stumps at Monty. The stumps there are like pillars of concrete!