Saying goodbye to an old friend, What’s your memories of Monticello?

- She nearly killed me in 04’ when fishing under the highway bridge when a bass yanked my rod right from my hands, I reached to grab the rod, missed the side of the boat, ribs found it instead, over I go. Current pulls me under the boat, can’t swim for some reason...left hand grabs the lower unit and I manage to pull myself back in. Look down and my braided line is wrapped around my legs which explains why I was sinking not swimming. Looked up to see Jerry Dean and Honey Hole crew asking if I was ok. I said yes except my pride and begged for them to not put that on TV. Went back to ramp and changed clothes, I always carry an extra set just for that reason. Went back to fishing! I wear life jackets now while fishing especially in rough waters!

Back in the early 90's me and another guy was idling across the lake on one of those really foggy mornings using a compass where you could barely see past the bow of the boat. We could hear another boat running slow & he was upon us really quick. luckily the guy seen us at the last second, he shut down and swerved right and clipped the stern light off of my buddy's new boat. I remember the bow of that Ranger pointed up in the air coming on us, I had my right foot planted & was a hairs breath from going over the side, willing to take my chances in the water rather than under a Ranger hull.
My buddy was pretty hot, but stayed civil about the accident. The Ranger guy paid for the damage & all ended well.
We caught the heck out of fish that day on crankbaits.
Monticello will still fish good, but different, turning into a regular cold water lake. Looking forward to the new lake.

We used to have some TFF Big Fish Tournaments on the lake in the mid 2000's.

Big fish takes the pot, We would have about 40 to 50 boats per event.

so so many...

Only lake I ever fished and got a ticket from a game warden. Didn't have a throwable cushion. Dude went through my boat like a CIA agent. Still love the lake though.

So me and two customers at tied to a stump on the pipeline in Blundell where the creek crosses. It is about this time of year. Cold with a very light south wind blowing.

It is before daylight and we are tying on baits using a flashlight. I tell him to tie on a firetiger Bagley DB3 on one rod and a T-rig big worm on the other.

He gets the crankbait tied on first and sets it down across the back deck with the bait hanging in the water. Then he grabs his other rod and sits down next to me and starts rigging up his T-rig.

We are both sitting there quietly tying on baits and all of a sudden there is a big splash and his rod on the back deck goes shooting off into the lake. The boat has not moved. Neither one of us have moved. It is still dark as night and we both look at each other like What tha heck just happened!!

A fish had apparently grabbed his crankbait floating right beside the boat and jerked his rod off in the pond!! We waited until it was light and started casting all around the area. Never found it.....

I'll bet his name was Kenneth Hand. He gave me a couple tix over the years.

My dad first took me there when I was 12 in 1984. The one year they didn't run the plant(2015?) the fishing was the best I'd ever seen there. Maybe the good times are just starting!

This is the lake where I really started to learn and get into fishing while my uncle was teaching me.

I think he and I were on it the second or third day it opened. I learned how to worm fish by drifting them 2-3 rods at a time while using a flasher to drop markers out to drift back through them. It was a blast.

I remember many days going into the feed/seed store and paying .25 cents to .75 cents to get in.

My uncle liked to troll if the drift bite was slow and I remember one day while my cousin was with us he caught a 6 lb walleye on a bomber wood bait. It left teeth marks in the bait.

Yes is was a walleye.Not sure how it got there. My uncle kept it and was talking about how good they were to eat. I will never forget that day.

When was 14 years old I finished 3 rd in a tournament there and that was the first taste of winning some money for me. I knew I was hooked after that.

I use to have some really good maps of the area before the lake was there from a friends dad who was building the bridge over the lake at the time. I wished I still had them. Great detail.

I also remember just a few days after the record 14 lb bass was caught. We drove in that morning to the longest line I have ever seen to this day there.

We made the second turn off the highway where there is a brick entrance now on the left and there were boats backed all the way up to there and we had several more come behind us.

Could not turn around. When we got to the gate I ask Thomas how many boats are here today ? He replied over 700 so far. I almost feel out of the truck. Most I have ever seen.

Kind of reminded me of Fork just after Mark Stephenson caught the state record.

It looked water turkeys on a school of fish. LOL

Lots of good memories from back in the days. I can remember those day easier that what I just did yesterday.

Whats up with that ???

Only on memorable trip.I had backed down the ramp waiting for the sun to rise.had the heater on blast cuz it was 19*.sun pops up and I can't get the truck out of park.manage to get it back up the ramp and proceeded to fish the discharge for a few hours.had ice hanging off the boat and managed 1 fish,but it was 9 something.I ended up having to tear the dash apart in the parking lot to get the truck running again.

I've had numerous memorable days on Monti....but the weirdest thing we ever had happen to us one day I just so happen to be fishing with RedRanger. We had a phenomenal day throwing SB's back in the pad stems in Blundell and Smith...biggest went around 9lbs and best five was prob 35lbs. We headed in that evening around dusk and Red went up to get the truck and trailer. He backed onto the ramp and said that ladybugs had inundated my SUV. I had a white Chev Suburban and supposedly these critters were migrating or something and they were attracted to white color. They got in the SUV and I mean by the millions. You could open the doors and all you seen were ladybugs totally coating the door hinges, panels, everywhere that they could hide. When the door opened, you would have a shower of ladybugs fall all over the place. These darned critters stayed in the SUV for almost a year. Any time it was hot, they would come out of every nook and cranny there was. When cold outside, they were the best hiders in every compartment there was in the car. I killed prob 5 million of 'em, and they stunk to high heck when you grabbed them and shooed them out. They would put off some sort of gas that smelled like rust. I really thought we were gonna have to condemn the car! Needless to say, it was all worth it.....I guess.

First year of the THSBA we had an event there, 19* at launch. Fishing was TOUGH for the kids. My son and his partner managed one keeper close to time to check in, caught on an Alabama Rig. They both yelled and high fived each other and were really excited to finally have a keeper on a freezing day. All of this caught on a GoPro. Only 8-9 teams managed to get a keeper out of 80 teams. They finished 3rd in the AOY race that year out of 124 teams. I’ll never forget it.

Proud to say my sons partner from that day now fishes for UT Tyler and my son is serving our country in the United States Army with the 101st Airborne at Fort Campbell, KY.

are you referring to the lake monticello connected to Bob sandlin?

Or maybe Jerry Ash.

My uncle and I sunk our very first boat there... it was a 1973 Skeeter Baron (mind you this was 1986). We were behind the rail road bridge on the trolling motor and high centered a stump that went right thru the hull. A guide out there that past away many years ago (Gerald Roebuck) helped to pull us off that stump. Once we got unstuck, we got passed the rail road bridge, the front deck blew open and it was all I could do to get that thing to the first point on the left and there it sat. We drove to Pittsburgh and bought an 1983 kingfisher, not much better but it worked...

what am I missing? are they shutting the lake down? saying goodbye to an old friend.........

I was fishing a club tournament up there back in about 1982.
We were up in Smith working some shallow stumps.
All of a sudden, giant black and gray clouds blew in over the pines and the wind kicked up to about 25.

The wind and waves lodged us on a stump, dead center. Trolling motors back then were about 15 lbs. of thrust and the outboard wouldn't push us off of it either.

So I hopped off in the water. It was only about 4 ft. deep, and pushed the boat off the stump.
As I jumped up on the gunwales to get back in the boat, the wind swung us around and my right knee got slammed between the boat and another stump.

I would've swore I broke my knee but after hollering and rolling around in the bottom of the boat for ten minutes I realized I would live.

I'll never forget it.
The knee won't let me - it has developed arthritis in it over the years.

This is also the first lake where I found and caught deep fish off shore using a Lowrance flasher.

Thanks, Monti!

So many memories (but not as many as Ken A and zigzag) and a lot of people
already weighed in on my year-end post here -> http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt...lo#Post12556831

Here is another one, I was fishing with my friend the Big E in the mid-80's on a cold January day.
We're in his Skeeter Metro with Stick steering and 60HP Mariner. He is driving the boat so I turn around looking back in the swivel seat to get a little out the wind. Not paying much attention because he has been there before including at night. We had left the hot-water outlet and headed to the railroad bridge and after getting to the Point he doesn't turn right to go under the power lines and angled straight to bridge. Then BAM!, hits one the petrified stumps and blows the motor off the transom. It broke off clean at the mounting bracket and was flipping around in the water right behind me still running full throttle. Needless to say we took it easy the rest of the day and lucky for us my brother was in my boat on the lake that day to tow us in.
Over the years probably towed in 6-7 people myself.

On another trip Jerry Dean took us out to pick up our boat that floated off the bank by the ramp almost all the way to the plant. We had fallen asleep sitting in truck after fishing all night.
Lot's of memories, most of them good.

Shutting the Power plant down

So many stories from Monty. For those who remember Thomas, the gate man, he always wanted to bet us $5 if we could catch an over or not...every...single...time. He usually took my $5. My buddy and I were fishing one winter probably around 1990, and were on some good fish 3 - 5 pound fish off the tree line near the high line w of the rr bridge. Randy White (Manster/Dallas Cowboy great!!) had just come out from under the rr bridge and he his buddy were on the trolling motor headed up the that main point when my buddy hollers..."get the net". He is on a monster. Rod doubled over, hollering at the top of his lungs. "He's got me hung up...I can't get her to the boat". Finally after about three minutes of this...he reels in a limb about 3' long and 8" big around. Randy, his partner, and I were laughing our heads off for about 15 minutes. I gently remind him of this moment as often as possible!

It's already shut down

The power plant is shutting down Now that is a fact but are they going to stop fishing on the lake??? OR??

I fished up there so many nights, reaching back many years Dad and I never fished at night but we heard that's is when all them BIG fish were caught. We launched and headed to railroad track never got a bite. At Midnight we decided to head home to Coke. I was about to pull in to the ramp when I saw a grass point. I pulled the kingfisher into the area and for the next couple hours we knocked their lights out. Nothing big but our first night trip turned out to be great.

wild bill

Thomas was a great guy both he and his wife, always had a story...

Thomas said "you boys think y'all are good enough to catch an over?" "well boys one thing for sure is if you get in the middle of the lake and put your finger in it's going to get wet"

We still say that every time we go

Too many memories to list...Dad's ashes were spread on the lake when he passed in '03.

The one I remember him telling us a 100 times was “I can put my finger in the water and tell you if they are bitin’”

looking forward to this spring and summer, oh, and all the you tubers.

80 fish off one spot in one day,..up next to the fill pipes when the water was coming in,...
up to 9 pounders..went back the next day and the water was off,..caught 4 fish.

what a pretty lake..

Never been.....so I'm gonna make memeories in the future. Sorry.....I don't make YouTube [censored]. I work in front of cameras all day and the last thing I'd ever do is video my fishing.

That was you guys?!! That boat sat there for years!!

That is very cool my brother... I can see why you have a special connection to the lake.

Here's another one for ya Rodney:

I caught my first 8 pounder on 12-27-81 on the west end of the pipeline on a 12" black neon worm at 2 am. One week later I took one of my co-workers with me for another whack at them.

He had never night fished before and he showed up at my house about 10 pm wearing a jean jacket with a flannel shirt. I tell him it is going to drop down into the low 30's that night and he tells me it will be okay because he has longjohns on underneath his jeans.

I am wearing all of my cold weather gear plus a 10X jumpsuit. By 4 am he is so cold he is miserable. I am warm & toasty.

He goes to make a cast with my rod & reel and away it goes, off into the pond!! I grab a marker buoy and unwrap the lead weight from around it and toss it into the lake where I thought it went in. I tell him to keep fishing, that we would worry about it once it got daylight.

We fish on until dawn and catch two small fish. I decide it is time to go try to recover my rig so I troll over to my buoy. We tie on slabs and lose them. We tie on Little Georges and lose them too. We lose every jigging spoon in my boat trying to snag my rod & reel.

Finally I tell Clark that we are throwing in the towel and he will just have to replace my rig. He is bummed out.

I grab the marker buoy and start rolling up the line. I can tell it is a little heavier than it should be. I get the lead weight up to the surface and lo & behold, the lead weight has snagged the rod about midway up. Clark was a happy camper.

Well, it's just a lake.(J/K) to many memories to list, me and little brother owned it many times ..

Probably gonna think about my wife's uncle's fish.. the one Mark mentioned above in 1980, the record breaker 38 yr long record.
Ya know, I don't know, if Monti was Hot in 1980 when Jimmy broke the long standing record.. I would love to have that mount or either one of his 13+lb fish. I'll talk to Mickie his wife to find out..

My best memory of Monticello was a day in December fishing with Jason Hoffman. My wife was 8months pregnant and was complaining of pains when I got up to leave that morning. She hurt from time to time so neither of us thought it severe enough to skip my fishing trip.

Jason and I ended up tied up on a hump and catching fish practically every few casts. By the time we found this spot half the morning was gone. I get a phone call and my family is telling me they are taking my wife to the hospital for complications and I need to come home. Knowing I’m 3 hours away I tell Jason we need to pack it up soon. I think we were on number 40 and we agree to fish to 50 catches and stop. It took maybe 20 minutes for those last 10. We had 50 fish by 11am and I headed home

I got to leave and come home to my wife in the hospital. She was too early to deliver so they kept her for another 2 weeks but that’s another story.

You beat me to it.

( I caught my first 8 pounder on 12-27-81 )

Wow, that's the same year Lakeview HS opened. Getting deep in here.

Not realizing for years that you could fish Monticello in the daytime, My brother and friends always wanted to fish at night in the dead of winter. Before the days of gps having to navigate by wind direction due to fog. One afternoon, my brother says let’s go and I say I don’t think I can make it, running a pretty high fever not feeling good at all, he throws out the challenge of “come you big wussy”, so off we go. Somewhere around 2 a.m. I tell him I’m done and lay done in the bottom of the boat and go fast asleep. Pulling the all night, all day marathon and trying to drive back to Dallas without falling asleep. Almost 40 years of fishing history, great memories.

Did anybody else ever find any live waterdogs in the commode at the ramp park restroom?

did you dip them out?

I would like to exercise my 5th amendment rights.

HaHa!!

I sold probably 35,000 waterdogs over the years to Kountry Korner.

Ken, what all jobs have you had in thenfishing industry? I bet you have a great tale to tell of your professional life.

Being an ex-biker I've got a million of'em but I'm way outta my league in story telling next to Ken and most of'em are true.

his latest is being a Sushi Chef, saw a video of it live in the inner-webs this week.

Steez, are you a model?

Think it's prolly a Go Pro, lol.

Boy is he

Yessir, To go from a tackle rep to a fishing guide you do whatever you have to do to pay the bills.

He almost made Seinfeld episode as 2nd runner up to George as "hand model". He lost his opportunity in a different way, though....

Fishing one day under the road bridge and there were lots of boats there. One guy had 4-5 rods out fishing live bait in the current. He sets the hook on one rod and a couple seconds later one of his other rods takes off and over the side of the boat it goes. About 30 minutes later I set the hook on a fish, reel it up to find another hook in her mouth. Pulled the guys rod and reel up and trolled over and have it back to him.

Nope that wasn’t our boat, I know the boat you are referring too though. I went out there one day by myself, thinking I know where I’m at... wrong the steam and fog got so thick, I couldn’t see the bow of the boat I was in. It took me 3 hours from the rail road bridge to the highway bridge (pre-gps).

But our old skeeter baron was picked up about two days later by a company out of Pittsburgh. They floated it with three huge inner tubes and towed it in. The hole was the size of a basketball.

there were three sunken boats at monti that i remember, a red hull on west bank heading up blndell, the blue hull just outside of powerline cove, and red hull on the west bank of smith creek.

My best memory was fishing the lake right after the Texas State record was broken and it was really crowded. We went in late 1980 or early 1981....fished nights mostly and the number of boats on the water was amazing!

My buddy caught a 9 pounder on his first cast(while working on a backlash)and an 8 pounder on the next cast. He was fishing a black/blue jig with pork rind on west side of lake near an old roadbed.

We thought we were going to load the boat....only a few smaller bass next few nights.
We spoke with one man who was well know back then for fishing like 30 nights in a row....

Bob Garcia?

Ken A.?

Went one time. I fell in.

She's not dead yet! My son and one of his fellow Texas A&M Aggie Anglers college teammates had a 25 lb. bag last Friday. I will miss this special lake as we knew it that's for sure. I caught a 9.90 on New Years Day 2017. I just hope Luminant Energy that also owns the power plant on Martin Creek keeps that one generating but the future is uncertain. They are putting all future resources in both wind and solar power.

Yes, Garcia was his name! Wow!

Monticello was a place to go and find plenty of active fish when water temperatures were 39 degrees on cold water lakes. Will people still catch a few good ones in the dead of winter? Yes, but like other cold water lakes for most people it is going to be a struggle to get more than a bite or two.

A lot of casual anglers don't get much enjoyment out of going out in freezing cold and getting no bites or maybe one or two. They aren't necessarily hunting for a trophy, they like getting a lot of bites. That is what is going to be lost.

There was a period of time when my daughter lived in Tx that I would head down there every year for the month of March of March. Finally wised up to the fact that since we would go down for Xmas or Thanksgiving I might as well store my boat down there for the winter and fish Monticello. It was so great for a northerner to be able to fish a good lake in the winter. This lasted for a few years and I caught lots of fish on this very fun lake to fish. Another memory though was the occasional fog and the tournament that blasted off with, at least where I was, zero visibility , and some guy (idiot?) yelling yahoo while running on plane down the lake.