I started fishing the lake Winter of 1974. I recall that year very well because my best friend bought a brand new GMC truck on his birthday in Nov of 1974 and we headed to Monty with a 14' Jonboat in the back. We called the 9.9 hp Sea King outboard Old Wheezer because thats how it sounded hen it was running. It wheezed & coughed & smoked a LOT!

The next year I bought my very first bass rig from a neighbor. It was a 15' Duckhawk, probably a '68 year model, with a 55 Chrysler. It had stick steering and a 28# thrust foot controlled MG troll motor. We thought we had died and gone to Heaven in that rig! We terrorized the bass for two years on Hubbard, Lavon, T-wok & Monty in that rig.

About two years later I moved up the the "big time" and bought a 4 year old 16' Ranger TR-10 with a Johnson 135. The boat was rated for 85 hp and my quest for a faster bass rig began. That rig would do a blistering 48 mph and lit a spark in me to go fast in a boat.



Lake Fork had opened by then and we started heading there on a regular basis. Many days we would start on Monty before daybreak then finish at Fork which put us 40 miles closer to home at the end of the day.

Unless my calculations are way off I have logged 972 trips to Monty over the years.

My buddy Jim and I made the trip to Lake Monticello yesterday hoping to get one more trip on the lake with the power plant cranking out some warm water. Unfortunately my brother the �Scoundrel� could not join us like he has on so many past trips. Another buddy of mine and his son joined us as first-timers but I don�t think they got a real taste of how good it could be/was. When we arrived at first light the Plant was all lit up like Christmas but the big stacks had no smoke and final shutdown appears to be already underway by the electric company.

We made the best of trip despite some cold weather trying the usual spots. Water temps ranged from 55-62 but was dropping during the day and with weather coming in for next week it should really drop fast. Struggled to put 8 decent fish in the boat and late in the afternoon one of our old holes produced a bunch of little fish. We did not fish the outlet but could see water was still flowing but no fog so I assume it was just cool runoff from the plant. Throughout the day I kept looking back at the stacks hoping I would see smoke billowing out but only memories from so many past trips.

We made one last stop on the way out and almost on script I caught my biggest fish of the day.
It was a very old fish, way past it�s prime, just like the lake.





Winter fishing will never be the same there with the power plant shutdown but it�s been a heck of a long and productive run.

I expect fishing in the future will still be good there during the other seasons but only time will tell, and time marches on.

Wonder why the coal train would still be running if the plant is shut down. Hauling it to other coal plants?

Hauling it to Washington D.C. to build a fire under the Congressmen and Senators a$$ to get something done, lol.

I started fishing the lake Winter of 1974. I recall that year very well because my best friend bought a brand new GMC truck on his birthday in Nov of 1974 and we headed to Monty with a 14' Jonboat in the back. We called the 9.9 hp Sea King outboard Old Wheezer because thats how it sounded hen it was running. It wheezed & coughed & smoked a LOT!

The next year I bought my very first bass rig from a neighbor. It was a 15' Duckhawk, probably a '68 year model, with a 55 Chrysler. It had stick steering and a 28# thrust foot controlled MG troll motor. We thought we had died and gone to Heaven in that rig! We terrorized the bass for two years on Hubbard, Lavon, T-wok & Monty in that rig.



About two years later I moved up the the "big time" and bought a 4 year old 16' Ranger TR-10 with a Johnson 135. The boat was rated for 85 hp and my quest for a faster bass rig began. That rig would do a blistering 48 mph and lit a spark in me to go fast in a boat.

Lake Fork had opened by then and we started heading there on a regular basis. Many days we would start on Monty before daybreak then finish at Fork which put us 40 miles closer to home at the end of the day.

Unless my calculations are way off I have logged 972 trips to Monty over the years.

You ain't that old Ken. If you went once a week for 52 weeks that means you fished Monti for a total of over 18 years. You added in your head didn't you.

TX Dan great memories at Monticello in Dec. Made my last 2017 trip and last hot water Monticello trip yesterday also and yesterday didn�t let me down. After throwing a bearing buddy that I didn�t notice until about to launch at 9, I finally got it fixed and got on the water around 11 with low expectations. Headed straight to the railroad creek with the water temps 50-58 back there. After getting broke off by a giant in the pad stems things started looking up. Moved out to the middle and ended up catching fish from noon until 3:30 almost nonstop. Found large school of prespawn fish stacked in the grass and lost count around 30 fish but guess I had at least 50 or so in the 3-8 lb range Key was yo-yo ing /ripping a white chatterbait off the bottom out of the grass. Was one of those phenomenal days and great way to cap off the end of an era.