Monroe

[mauff12]

I don't think Monroe is in a decline. It was a little tough a couple of years ago but last year it was on fire.

[Celten]

Perhaps it depends on what you're fishing for? I moved to Bloomington last year and this is really the first time I've gotten to fish it much. Did rather well on bass when I fished for them; not a lot of numbers, but most of the ones I caught were nice fish. Caught a few nice walleye throughout the year, though I'm not sure what's common for this lake. I was rather disappointed overall in the crappie action, though. LOTS of little ones and on occasion several very nice ones, but not a lot good eating-sized crappie. I can't compare this to how the lake may have been in the past, since I hadn't fished it before, but it was a fun lake to fish. Caught more fish (and decent ones at that) overall at Lemon, though.

[idbefishing]

fished Monroe yesterday, 3/26. Water temp was 43-46, not really muddy. The slow side is very stained but not chocolate, fast side is clear to moderately stained. No floating debris and no bank, just flooded trees. It was the darndest thing I've ever seen, everything was 20ft deep. It's like a quarry, 20ft right next to the bank. All in all, the lake looks darn good, lots of cover due to flooded trees. If the water stay up, it going to be smoking this year. Oh yeah, one thing to watch for is the ramp. You can only put in at the high water ramp at Cutright and my trailer frame (the cross bar at the front) scraped the top of the ramp going up and down.

[HawgBuster]

Anyone checked out the Crooked Creek Ramp since the water went up? Is it ok to launch out of?