I’ve been sitting in the turkey woods thinking how good the fishing must be on Lake Monticello. It especially happens when there is no action or chance of it. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. So after being lucky and killing my limit (one), Jackson and I headed to Monticello. The water was 68 degrees and higher than normal, which is good because you don’t get stuck on many stumps. We started with topwaters on a shallow point. Caught one on the second cast but it was a striped bass. They continued to pester us for quite a while. Their population has increased on Monticello. Next we went to the lily pads with a Ribbit . We got some bites but none were really serious about eating it.  Just to make a long story short we caught two bass. Our FOD was just over 4 and was caught on a shallow running crankbait. The real FOD was caught by a man that was fishing behind us but was bed fishing. We watched him catch one that was 9 pounds. He weighed it, took its picture and released it. I thanked him for releasing it.

Monday afternoon, since the wind was blowing too much to turkey hunt, I went to the private hole fishing. Right off the bat, I made a cast to a Christmas tree that I had tied to a log in shallow water. I saw one hit my Booyah and miss. Then it happened again. I pulled out the spot remover shaky head and sure enough the fish gobbled it up and I set the hook. The fish went into the tree and when I tried to pull it out, the line snapped because I did not retie. Then the fish jumped trying to shake the hook. I was glad it did because I could see  it weighed about 2 pounds and not 6. Continuing around the hole, I broke out the cripple killer and tried to remember the lessons I learned from Mickey, the topwater master. The fish were cooperating well although there were a lot of misses. The killer has good hooks so they had better not come too close. Almost half way around, I caught one that had my spot remover hanging out of his mouth. Recovery number one. I got to a big log, always a good spot, and the wind  blew me around so my back was to the spot. One hit the killer, I set the hook, the fish jumped and when it went back down the hook abruptly came out. Estimated size 5 pounds. This was straight across the hole from my Jeep which I had parked within 15 feet of the water. Glancing across I saw a turkey, hen thank goodness, standing between the Jeep and the water. After It walked past the Jeep and kept foraging, it suddenly ran a few steps up the bank. I could not figure that out, but later saw a alligator steaming out into the center of the hole from that spot. Right now I’m wishing turkeys bad luck but I want to be the one dishing it out in the form of 3 inch magnum #6’s. I made it all the way around to the place I lost the big fish, and instead of the killer, I threw in the Booyah and surprisingly got a bite and landed the FOD that was 4-6. When one gets away, we always think it’s bigger than it is. 5 pound estimate, yeah. Recovery number two. It was an odd day. I caught a crappie on a topwater, a chain pickerel, 4 other black crappie on a Booyah and a 8-1 grinner. I ended up with 22 bass. No fish pictures because the phone ran out of juice. Charged it up a little and caught the sunset at the house.