I am going for my first trip on Monticello this Friday. I am still very new to fishing and have heard alot about this being a great lake. Does anyone have any advice for a newcomer that might be helpful? Whether it be techniques to use or patterns to focus on? Feel free to PM me. Also can anyone offer advice as to what ramp would be the best to use? Thank you all for any help you can offer. I hope to make the first trip a successful one.

LB, just type Monticello in the search box above and you'll likely find several thousand posts on what's 'happening' on this lake over the past couple of weeks!

Being new, you need to build confidence and to build confidence you need to get bit. Fish the Hwy bridge with a drop shot, you won't catch any giants, in fact 90% of them will be rats, but you'll get bit with an outside shot at a 3-4lb fish. From there, run all the pockets with decent depth on the left side heading north, there are fish in all stages right now - some on beds, some already done and some just getting ready to move up. Just fish those areas s - l - o - w. I saw some people catching fish camped out on the discharge but I couldn't bring myself to go play bumper boats with the crowd.

Watch out for stumps after you pass bridge!

Ok here you go..... you can fish the bridge and catch fish if you know how to drop shot, if you like flukes or wacky go under the bridge and start angling left toward the bank. Fish the pocket and then the main lake stumps in 3 to 5 ft. If you go up the left bank far enough you will see two sunk boats at the edge of the water. Just south of these boats is money. We caught prolly 15 to 20 2-4 lbers there on Friday throwing a mardi gras color wacky worm and mardi gras fluke with the tail dipped.

Hope this helps

Thank you all! Can anyone tell me what the launch fee is at the ramp?

the launch fee is two dollars per person.

How crowded is it on sundays?

Tying off to the buoys at the discharge can produce great numbers of fish plus some decent bigs . Its a little like Lake Fork in the spring, "lots of neighbors". 1/2 oz or larger sinker with a big worm will produce. I prefer 10" Lake Fork watermelon or black with blue tails. Key for me is getting it as far into the discharge as possible.

Good luck and hope you get your "arm broke"!

Can I expect it to be crowded on a Friday?

I was there a couple of months ago on a saturday and there were at least 40 boats. Never been on a Friday though. I will be there tomorrow probably...I'll try to remember to post how many boats were there.

Just ask the pros out there. On any given weekend there will be between 100 and 200 experts that migrate here from the metromess to take advantage of the easy fishing. We all know fish don't bite in cold water lakes around Dallas. The local economy thanks you though!

Don't get your expectations too high. It's a small lake with a lot of pressure.

I hope you do not have a windless,bluebird day. Fishing can be tough under those conditions. I think there's gonna be a little wind tomorrow but sunny. Good Luck!

We thank you Blu-fleck for providing a fishing hole that the fish don't have holes in their mouth and are not beat up ........