Me and some of my friends went to Lake Monticello Feb. 9 to see if we could catch a few fish.

   Well let me tell you: I was ashamed of myself. I couldn't catch one fish. The worse part is I've got a second place trophy and the biggest bass trophy on my wall from fishing in a bass tournament with my father just last summer.

   But never the less, we were fishing all day and never caught anything. So we decided to leave and that's when this old man came up in a little john boat. He was laughing at use and telling use that we wouldn't ever caught anything using the bait we were using.

   Well looking at the fact that we had not caught a single fish all day we decided to get a list from the old-timer. Guess what? It worked. And, I decided to give it to you.

• Bass - You need a June bug fluke with a worm hook, so the fluke resembles a hurt minnow. He told us a good frog lure has been working real well on the south side of the lake.
• Crappie - For these bad boys, all you need is a few minnows and some time. Because of the cold weather, they have been staying at about 15 feet or so.
• Bream - These little fellows usually bite crickets, but the key to catching the big ones is baby crawfish. Now, I don't mean the fake ones. I mean the real living, breathing kind.
• Catfish - Now we all know Lake Monticello has the most beautiful blue channel there is, but have you caught one of those really big ones yet? Well I have. Truth be told, you're probably not going to believe this: I was using hot dogs. Yes folks, hot dogs was the old-timer's secret.

   Well I'm headed back to the lake. Wish me luck.
 

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