Lake Monticello is such a windy lake, Jackson and I were surprised to see it slick this morning when we arrived at daybreak.  Optimism reigned. Jackson caught one on a swimbait and I caught one on the trusty Booyah to start things off. The water temperature was 57 degrees to start and warmed to 61 before the day was over. Bass start to spawn at temperatures around 62. The sight fishermen were out. They generally cruise the shallows looking for bass on the bed and then sit there and worry them until they bite. We had one boat like that come into our cove that looked like they were going to run over the spot we were fishing. Only ugly looks stopped them. We had just caught the FOD, a 6 – 7. Maybe they saw it and were emboldened.  I had a fish to break off when it got hung up on some lily pad stems. The fish then came up and threw the Booyah. Jackson and I made note of the spot where the bait landed. After fishing a good while, we thought we would look for the bait on the way out of the cove. The water was 3 1/2 feet deep and clear.  I looked down in the water and there the Booyah was. I picked up the boat hook and fished it our by the hook on the first try. Jackson said” you’ll never do that again in your lifetime”. Finding it was extremely lucky. We were treated to an aerial show in the afternoon. An osprey was hunting and dove and caught a fish. The fish appeared to be about the size of a 1/2 pound bass. As the osprey flew off, an eagle, who had been watching, flew rapidly across the lake and started harassing the osprey trying to take the fish. A dogfight ensued that caused the osprey to drop the fish into the woods. With that the osprey started to attack the eagle and both performed some amazing maneuvers with the eagle finally landing in a tree. We ended with 11 fish and the 6 – 7 FOD.

No posts on fishing lately because I’ve been busy with the turkeys.  I want to go back to Lake Monticello one day late in the week.

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.