New guy w/ 1976 12' Monark

I already posted in a nother thread but I am starting my own to introduce myself and ask a couple of questions. hello my name is Jereme I am a police officer in Texas, I am also in the National Guard and currently serving my country in Afgahanastan. I was given a 12' monark by my grand father when I wa 16. I have been hunting and fishing for as long as I can remember. I have apassion for running trotlines and juglines so if any one has any questions on that topic I am your man. Me an my fishing buddies modded a 14' Loanstar semi V for a summer project while in high school and I have been itching to do mine ever since. I found this site and I think I will start my mod when I get back. I would like to make my decks removeable because I throw my boat on top of my jeep to get to remote spots from time to time.

Anybody have any ideas for a virgin 12' monark?

Anybody know where I can get some inexpensive led bow and stern lights?

Who is from Texas?

and, last but not least anyone have any info on a 1976 monarch? I can't find much info on the boat. It seems solid and I am running a 6hp Suziki (sp?) on it.

:USA1: :USA1: :USA1: :USA1: :USA1:

First off thank you for your Service!

Secondly :WELCOME: Thanks for joining!

Get home safe (When are you coming home?) and the guys here can help you with your boat! Be safe!

don't know when I wil be coming home. proly sometime this winter

Good to have you here! I've spent hours upon hours looking around this site, and it presents some great ideas. Come up with a basic list of needs, and go from there.

Hey Jereme. I'm from Texas...far west Texas, in the Big Bend region. I'm a high school woodshop and welding teacher, so I have the summers off and like to travel around the state, looking for good places to catch fish! One thing I'm wanting to put some effort into this summer is catfishing for monster yellow cats, so I'd be interested in hearing about your experiences and where in Texas you are fishing. I'll be heading across Texas in a couple of weeks, with boat in tow. I have no time constraints and am willing to go just about anywhere, so I'm open to suggestions for good fishing spots. I'll try to keep the fish population in check until you get back.

well, I grew up in west texas, not as far west as you but Odessa. So growing up I fished OH Ivie with my grandfather a lot, It is a big lake but it is real easy to fish if you get a map. We always ran trot lines across the many coves using goldfish, or live perch for bait for big blue cats. For channel cats I swear by catfish charlie on a treble hook to bait out a trot line. Also on Ivie if you motor towards the river inlet you will pass under a bridge we ran some trot lines from one tree to another and had good luck with yellow cats on perch. There a lot of gar in Ivie so don't get frustrated if they steal your bait. We also ran a lot of jug lines on the edge of the river chanel.

Depending how far east you are wanting to go there is a float trip on the colorado river that is worth doing with lots of potential for trot lines and . The drop in point is on FM 969 inbetween Austin and Bastrop.

My babey is Lake Granger. I know lake granger like the back of my hand and it is worth your time to spend at least a week camping and fishing there. I always do verry well with catfish on Granger. Let me know if you are intrested and I will fill you in on the details on where to go and how to fish it. I plan on being at granger for a couple of days during my two week leave.

Thanks for the info, Jereme. All three of these locations interest me as they seem to be well within the areas I'll be visiting. In fact, my family owns property and a house that I have access to in Bastrop county, so the Colorado River near Bastrop has been on my list of places to fish this summer. Where, exactly, on FM 969 do I find this put-in point? Granger sounds interesting too and I'd like to hear more about it. I checked the map and its not too far of a drive from where I will be. In addition, I will be spending some time in Odessa this summer, so OH Ivie looks like a likely place for me to go as well. I would certainly like to talk with you more about it, but I know you started this thread with the hope of getting some suggestions on mods for your boat, so I don't want to side-track your efforts by turning it into a fishing discussion. Its up to you, I suppose, but you're certainly welcome to PM me if you would like to leave this thread to talk about your boat. Thanks again for the fishing suggestions and I'll look forward to talking with you about it more.

I am in afgahanistan so I have all the time in the worlds to talk about my boat before i mod it.

https://www.risingphoenixadventures.com/RiverMaps.asp

Here is a link of the river near bastrop.

As far as granger goes :

From taylor on hwy 95 head north towards the town of Granger until you cross the san-gabriel river. there are two bridges as soon as you cross the second bridge, turn right. It is a small road that is ralery marked. you will drive over a very steep set of RR tracks the road will fork once and the dead end stay right anytime the road forces you to choose a direction. The road will turn dirt and you will end up in a dirt parking lot. This is the directions to the San Gabriel Wildlife Management Area on granger and the best bank fishing it provides. You will only be able to launch your boat here if it is light weight as there is no ramp only steps to the river.

Once in the river left is down stream right is upstream.

down stream about a mile on the right hand side is a primitive camping site that is free to camp at.

I usualy camp here and and run trotlines for about a week. also I do real well putting limb lines out or baiting out the limb lines left by previous anglers.

The best place to run jug lines is by the damif you have a depth finder you can the river chanel, I run 3 hook juglines about 15 feet off the the chanel and bait them out with live perch or gold fich and always catch blues around 15 to 20 pounds with the biggest one being 38lbs.

Granger is one of the best Crappie lakes in texas. find you a brush pile hag a light over the side of the boat and drop a minnow in the water.

Granger is a lake full of stumps so keep it slow untill you figure out where the chanel is caus I have been overboard more than once in that lake due to a stump at night.

If you cannot launch at the primitive launch then use one of the many parks that have a boat launch. I recomend taylor park as it puts you close to the river and you can leave your truck parked there while you camp at the primitive camping on the river. from frindship park the river camping is about a 2 or 3 mile boat ride up the river and it will be on your left as you head upstream.

If you are looking for Black bass you will not find them here. You will find catfish (blue, yellow, and chanel), crappie, perch, whitebass.

let me know if you have anymore questions

here is a link to lake granger access points

https://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/fishboat/fish/recreational/lakes/granger/access.phtml

Thanks for all the tips , Jereme. These are places I am definitely interested in. My family's place is about 4 miles from Smithville, so it is an easy drive to either of them. We have several stock tanks, small ponds, and a couple of creeks on the property, so I have access to plenty of small perch that I can seine for bait. It looks like I'm going to spend a week or so at my uncle's beach house in Rockport after school is out and then I'll start making a plan for some catfishing trips. When I was younger, I spent a lot of time fishing in central Texas, but since I've been living in west Texas for the past 25 years, I have to travel a fairly long distance to get to any decent fishing. The Colorado River is one that I have been interested in for a long time, so I really appreciate your input on this. I'm kinda busy with preparing for the last week of school, but as soon as I have time to start preparing for a fishing trip, I will probably have a few more questions for you. Thanks again and good luck with making a plan for your boat and getting back here to do some fishing out of it!

no prob feel free to email me if for some reason you don't get a responce from me. PM me and I will give it to you

ok...I sent you a pm with my email address. Thanks!