Spent a Few Days on Lake Monroe…

[titanxt]

I have a love/hate relationships with Lake Monroe. I love being there during the weekdays (weekends are a bit rough…) and doing some fishing; however, for a lake that is touted to be a decent fishery, I never seem to catch any sizable fish. The only exception to that is a flathead or channel catfish that devours a crank bait or other bass lure. I cought numerous bass, but they were all small. Crappie were hard to find. I trolled for whippers and walleye without success. The common denominator is me, but I do well at other lakes and have been fishing all of my life. Any words of advice?

[yetti462]

Weekday fishing is the best for main lake fishing. I do my best on the slow side. Somedays I go there and think I know what I'm doing, others it's like it's my first time there.

[IndianaBassMan]

Monroe can be a fickle one. It has actually been really good for bass all year, but has definitely started to slow down. August and September can be really tough.
The fish have been hammered on all summer, even during the weekdays (I was one of those). Look for deeper drop offs, old creek channels, deeper points, and of course those places need rock piles, wood, or grass. Worms....big and small have been my go to. Forget walleyes if you dont have the electronics to find them

[skeeterator]

They're in the grass on the fast side. Last Wednesday the Hoosier open seniors was won with 19.4 lbs. On Saturday they had the kids tournament, it's 5 hours long, my buddies 10 year old won it with 12 lbs. Tues nighter with a 3 fish limit took just 10 lbs.
All the above bags came out of the grass.

[titanxt]

Is the “fast” and “slow” sides what is on each side of the bridge between the idle zone only and the rest of the lake? I was hitting the points on the windward side of the lake towards the dam and the grass edges of the coves and caught several bass, but they were really small. I saw lots of bait fish on the graphs and the surface, but no fish on any size at all.

[skeeterator]

The "slow side" is the entire part of the lake east of the bridge/causeway, everything west is the fast side meaning you don't have to idle everywhere lol.
Believe it or not we're catching them in fairly shallow grass, backs of the bays in 0-4 feet of water.

[titanxt]

That explains it then. I never fished any water that shallow.

[hardestyeric]

Monroe is as fickle of a lake as any. Any time there is good grass on the main, the fish will be close to it.