Jackson and I went to Lake Monticello this morning, and as Jackson said, we were on defense. That was due to the springtime whippings we have endured the last few years. The water temperature was 52 degrees and the visibility was 5 feet.We started with no idea where the fish were. In March 2005 I caught the largest bass of my life on Monticello on a 1/4 oz. Booyah spinnerbait so I had one of those tied on. We started with a lot of different baits but I gravitated to the Booyah because of past experience. Soon we had the skunk scared off with a 2 pounder that came up out of 8 feet of water to eat the Booyah.  When two more volunteered we thought we might be on to something but then the drought hit and the wind picked up. Monticello is definitely the windiest lake I know of. We went to the place the wind was blowing to and the water temperature had improved to 58 degrees. As we caught a few more I took this photo to prove we actually did catch a fish on Lake Monticello.

As we got to the end that the wind was blowing to, the water temperature rose to 61 degrees, warm enough for a female spawner to be around. Up until now we had been catching small fish, under three pounds. The water was less than 2 feet deep and you could see the bottom. Then the FOD showed up 7 – 8.

We decided to move to another cove but the batteries were too low to crank the motor. The wind had taken its toll on the batteries marked 5/18/10. After waiting  and getting ready to deploy the pull rope, the motor cranked by the battery. We moved to the other cove knowing there would be no trolling motor. We drifted and tied up to the snags and cast around the boat. There we caught a few more small ones but also a 5 – 2 and a 6 – 2. At one point Jackson cast directly over an underwater stump with a lizard. We went over to retrieve his bait which was on the other side of the stump. As he got his line free he noticed it moving , set the hook and caught the fish. He remarked ” You just witnessed some expert fishing”. I don’t know about expert but we had a good day. There were 15 fish in all, with the largest 5 at 24 pounds.