Recent unseasonably warm winter temperatures have drawn crowds to many Arkansas lakes, but few anglers have had a week as productive as Drew County angler Dereck Bates experienced at Lake Monticello in southeast Arkansas. His recent catches there serve as a powerful testament to the successful comeback of the renovated lake.
Lake Monticello, originally built in 1995 by the city of Monticello and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission with funds from the Marine Fuel Tax, has historically been a premier trophy bass destination, but it also boasts a robust crappie fishery. Bates kicked off his week by landing a 3.1-pound black crappie, a remarkable specimen for any Arkansas waterway. Returning to the water just days later, Bates shifted his focus to deep-water largemouth bass.
Bates boated 20 bass ranging 3-7 pounds in just half a day, culminating in a five-fish limit of 35.7 pounds. The real highlight of the day was a 9.7-pound bass caught that afternoon. The trophy fish fell just shy of the 10-pound requirement for the Arkansas Legacy Lunker program, but stands as the largest recorded catch since the lake’s renovation was complete in 2021. Both the crappie and the bass were verified using a digital Bubba Scale, the same equipment used by the AGFC Legacy Lunker response team for hatchery donations…