lol im sure its bush's fault

I saw one stack putting out smoke about 10:00 this morning when I went to Mt. Pleasant (I have a place on Bob Sandlin). Could they be burning coal and not be generating?

Its just too bad that the more efficient and inexpensive wind, solar, hydro and nat. gas power sources that are creating thousands of new jobs don't also need cooling lakes for our important winter fishing hobby.

With natural gas prices so low, it's cheaper to generate power with gas.

I will miss winter fishing on Monticello. I was an avid duck hunter back in the late 90's.

I found out that Monticello was a power plant lake, took my boat there year 2000 and found heaven. We shut down company for the last two weeks of Decmember and I ran from Irving to Monticello about 8 trips in 14 days. I quit duck hunting in the winter and took up power plant fishing

I have many fond memories of Monticello.

My first Tournament I ever fished was on that lake many years ago, I got lucky and won by ounces.

I remember posting on about 10 years ago I was headed to Monti on Thanksgiving, and some kid from that area said he would meet me at the ramp.

Sure enough I got there and meet a young kid name Heath Taylor, we had a blast that dat fishing the hydrilla with topwaters, and slayed them.

That meeting turned into a lifelong friendship.

I also meet BassLikeme years ago up there and took him fishing and he is another good friend.

Jvon who doesn't post anymore due to health issues, I rembember putting my boat in the water at sunrise and the temp was 16 degreees, My seats were frozen solid and it took my motor about 3 minutes before it started pumping water out the pea hole.

I have fished countless times on the lake with Okie Poke and Senko9S

Many good memories for me....

One of my Best Day on Monticello. I was fishing the grass along the stretch of bank before the water intake. Chunkin a shallow diveing crank bait. Crankin it down till it ticked the grass then let it float back up. They would Nail it on the way up, I caught 17 Bass in about an hour with a guesstimated weight of
75 lbs. And that is being conservative, smallest bass was about 4 lbs. What a Day ill never forget... And Yes Monticello Broke the State Record that stood for 30+ years. I have a picture of Mr Kimble holding that 14lb bass maybe when I figger out how to upload it I will Post it.

When one job is lost another opens up using a different power plant. Coal fired plants have been closing because natural gas prices are becoming so low that coal plants can't keep up.

As long as people use electricity there will be jobs. The drillers hunting for natural gas are replacing the coal miners. The plant workers still work so long as we use electricity.



Monitcello will turn into a normal lake now that its hot water is being turned off. The lake will still produce but not as good as it did in the olden days.
The lake is so small it won't be able to produce the large fish like Fork. Too many fisher people and too little acreage, IMO.

The lake produced so many large fish back then because they had a large pool of pure Florida bass along with a long growing season and the proper minerals in the lake to support the food fish.

I believe it was the depleted oxygen level in the water due to Luminant not pumping in fresh water from the Trinity

I will miss it. Had a lot of good times there in the winter. Welsh is gonna get hammered, until its plant gets closed down. I read that over 1.6 million jobs will be lost from the coal industry!

Great Monticello memories.......one of the weirdest was Red and I whacking some fish all day and then returned to our vehicle that afternoon and saw a "ladybug invasion". There were at least a billion ladybugs that coated every door hinge and opening of the vehicle. We fought that invasion for 2 years until we finally sold that vehicle. The ladybugs would come out when it warmed and would hide in the cracks when it was cold. A ladybug is a nasty creature. They really put off a rusty, pungent odor when bothered, and after research, they were attracted to the white color of the vehicle......frickin weird as I've ever seen! I know my wife didn't appreciate it, cause she drove that suburban every day to work.....

My best Monitcello memory was in June of 97. I carried my 4yr. old daughter with me. I didn't have a scale that day, but if I have ever caught a 40 lb bag, I did that day, punching the grass on the north bank.

Maybe they should build a canal so it connects with Sandlin. Might make both lakes awesome.

My first memory was back in I believe 1979 or 80 when I first moved to Dallas. I had a bass buster I used on a watershed lake in Ks, took it to Monty and caught a bunch fish in a tee shirt on a 80degree day in Dec. I couldn't believe it. My last memory was 6 months later rounding a curve on the way to the Monty with my new boat and watching it pass me on a curve. The boat and trailer looked like it was in slow motion as it sailed along the roadside looking like it was going to glide to a stop and wait for me to hook up again, then it found a gate and corner post. At that point I watched the motor flip into the boat riping the back end of the boat to shreds. Another bass fisherman stopped and I'll never forget him running down the hill yelling "were you coming or going". He and I both knew going was better.

That was my uncle, sadly he passed 2-yrs ago. He also had some fish in the 12&13-lb range from there during that same time frame.. Jimmy was an awesome guy... RIP..