Hello, and welcome to the greatest crappie fishing site in the world. I do consider Lake Monticello to be a great crappie lake and we are fortunate to have it this close. It is very different from the river lakes we have around here and it does take some time to learn how to fish it at different times of the year but is well worth the effort. We have a couple more good weeks left of deep water crappie on LM. I was out there last Thursday afternoon and the water temp was 52 degrees. With a few more warm days coming up it won't be long till the black crappie start moving into the shallows. Just hollar at me sometime and I will try to help you all I can....I will PM you my cell #.