Fished Lake Monticello today with my friends and fellow Lake Fork guides Ronnie Kelley and Andrew Grills to see what the lake looked like after the rains last week and to do a little "fun fishing".

Water clarity was really good, and water temps ranged from 57-60 degrees in both the upper and lower ends. We had heard that they were only running one stack for a few hours each day and we can confirm this to be true. We were still a little bit surprised to find the water temp at the discharge to only be 67 degrees. This has greatly affected the water temps throughout the lake, as the water temps in the upper end would normally be in the 70s this time of year.

The lake level is higher than normal, and most of the stumps that are normally visible are now several inches under the water. This definitely changed our gameplan, as we were planning on flipping the timber. Instead, we were pretty much relegated to throwing moving baits (Santone spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, square bill crankbaits, and lipless crankbaits) and covering lots of water.

If you're planning a trip to Monticello in the near future, I'd concentrate your efforts around the lily pad stems in the upper end, and around the hydrilla that's growing in Smith Creek. I expect there to be a major wave of spawners in February and probably March as well.