Thread: First time at Monroe

Plan on taking my son to Monroe Saturday. This will be our first time on this lake. We live east of Indianapolis so will probably target the northern part of the lake. Any tips will be appreciated. Where is a good spot to target crappie in this section of the lake? Thanks Doug

Some food for thought. There is a 175 team bass tournament taking off from cutrite ramp on saturday morning. I would stay away from that area if it was me until at least 9am. That's a bunch of boats in one area all at the same time. I would stay away but i got talked into fishing it from a couple of guys i work with. Not really my cup of tea, but it's for a good cause.

Thanks. I will avoid.

U can put in at pine grove which is on the north end. As you are coming down 446 there is a little dinner on your left and pinegrove launch is the quick left turn after it. It is all idle zone, and has alot of stumps and trees up that way just look for some wood and find the crappie. And from what i hear the gills are nesting too! big crappies are killing the minnows right now!

You can put in at paynetown state park also.

I will be camping this week at paynetown and will have my boat. I plan on going up to the middle fork and pine grove. I guess I will be fighting the bass boats.

Thanks for all the help. We are going to put in at pine grove.

We ended up launching at Paynetown and fished the bay to the right. We caught a bunch of crappie, a few bluegill and some white bass. My son had a blast. We caught so many crappie we lost count. Most were dinks but caught several around 10 inches. I am thinking about going back next weekend and hopefully find some slabs. Here is a link to some picture of what we kept to eat.
Pictures by jhogue46140 - Photobucket

you will not want for action at monroe...plenty of that. Not sure how old your son is, however sometimes we forget that kids like action and have just as much fun catching small ones as big ones. Throw in the occasional big one, and you will have them hooked for life. Do this a few times and you will have a fishing partner for life. I am hitting Monroe tomorrow.... and meeting up with my son who is at IU. I plan on wearing his arms out until we find some big ones.

HHD

jhogue - I fished the same creek with my family on Saturday in the heavy wind. Maybe you saw us I had a big black dog in the boat also. We too caught a boat load of small ones. They did not seem to be too thick on the bank. We did the best long line trolling in 14 feet of water. The fish were holding in about 6-8 foot of water. We got a few keepers and I got one 14" hog. We had a great time but the wind was brutal.