Jackson and I went to Lake Monticello Monday morning. I waited until today to write about it to ease the pain. We zeroed. It was not without a lot of effort however. We tried all the places where we caught fish in the past under the same conditions and with the same water temperatures (48 t0 55 degrees). Not only did we zero on fish but zeroed on bites too. Not a single bite all day. We tried the spinnerbaits we caught them on over there before. Also tried were swimbaits, swim jigs, shallow crankbaits, and even a buzz bait, all to no avail. In the post mortem we decided the North Wind and the rising barometric pressure was our downfall, especially this time of year. The water is very clear with probably 6 foot visibility, so clear that we could see a bass swimming off occasionally. We figured the fish were present but just not interested in biting. I have some small repairs to be performed on my boat so I put it in the shop yesterday to keep me from being tempted to go fishing for a few days

Tom came over to fish in Ferguson this morning having never been on the lake. We left the waterfront a little after 8 and headed toward the North end steep bank. Before I left home I picked up a Bagley DB-3 in chrome out of my found baits box. I picked it up because I remembered a trip a long time ago ( circa 1980 probably ) where some friends and I caught some nice fish in Ferguson on chrome baits this time of year when our line guides had ice on them. In a few minutes we had this one in the boat. I was hoping it would weigh 3  pounds but it was in such good shape it weighed 4.

I thought we might be on to something but after we worked that bank over nothing showed up. The wind was howling out of the Southwest. Tom battled it all day long and I know he was tired when the day was over. As the day went on we could feel our baits running over fish. I snagged a gar and Tom snag hooked a silver carp we believe judging by the scales on the hook that had a good bit of silver on them. We kept returning to the spot where we caught the fish because I knew it was a good place.These two were caught there in 2008 about this same time of year and water stage.

The third time was the charm as this 4 – 14 cooperated. Another fish in great shape.

We had another one on and caught another tighteye all on a 50 yard stretch of bank and in about 15 minutes. That stretch of bank was thrashed three times more with no results. Since it was getting late we headed for the landing. Although it was slow fishing it was a good day with a couple of good fish in the boat.