Share your catch
US

Lake Monroe Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Indiana's big water: quiet coves, hybrid stripers and Hoosier National Forest shorelines.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Lake level
537.76 ft -0.24 vs pool
Air / High
71 / 72 F
Wind
ENE 6 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 03372400, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Lake Monroe sits in the sweet spot of the season: active fish and workable weather. The gauge reads 537.76 ft, 0.24 ft below pool, easing 0.16 over the week. Today brings clear skies, wind ENE around 6 mph, steady pressure near 1024 hPa and a high of 72. Water sits around 74 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 10:21 AM-12:21 PM and 10:50 PM-12:50 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Largemouth bassGood

The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Catfish (blue, channel)Good

Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

Hybrid striped bassFair

Look for shad on flats with timber near creek channels and on windblown points; cast jigs and swimbaits where fish break the surface.

CrappieFair

Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

Tomorrow: Similar at 73 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Indiana requires a fishing licence, from $23.00 for residents. What a Indiana licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing largemouth bass here? Check the size and bag limits with DNR before you keep anything. The season dates for Indiana, read off the agency, are on the Indiana seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from MONROE LAKE NEAR HARRODSBURG, IN.

Water level, last 30 days

USGS gauge 03372400. Conservation pool is 538 ft.

537.77537.98538.19pool 538537.76 ft09/2310/0310/1310/23

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp71 F
High / Low72 / 43 F
WindENE 6-9 mph
Pressure1024.1 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset08:03 / 18:55
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~74 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Lake Monroe this week

The best day on Lake Monroe this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” good at 4/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
10:21 AM-12:21 PM and 10:50 PM-12:50 AM
Minor period
4:43 AM-5:43 AM
Sun
08:03 to 18:55
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 7 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Lake Monroe: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Largemouth bass illustration

Largemouth bass

Best: the spring pre-spawn and the fall feed

A warm-water sunfish of lakes, reservoirs, ponds and slow river backwaters that holds tight to cover: weeds, logs, rock ledges and docks. In Texas, TPWD surveys rank it "by far" the freshwater fish anglers most want to catch. The main feeding season after the spawn: work moving baits along weed edges, points and wood, and follow up with a soft plastic where a fish swirls.

Hybrid striped bass illustration

Hybrid striped bass

Best: the spring shad spawn and fall; summer at dawn and dusk

A hatchery cross of striped bass and white bass, also called wiper or palmetto bass, stocked by state agencies into reservoirs and rivers as a sport fish that also eats gizzard shad. Schools roam open water after shad. Look for shad on flats with timber near creek channels and on windblown points; cast jigs and swimbaits where fish break the surface.

Catfish (blue, channel) illustration

Catfish (blue, channel)

Year-round, best at dusk and after dark

Three big catfish share most of the country's rivers and reservoirs: the channel catfish, the most widespread; the blue catfish, the largest; and the flathead, which hunts live fish. All feed mostly on or near the bottom. Spawning season from late May into summer: Iowa DNR suggests drifting bait under a float along riprap and snags where males guard nests in cavities.

Crappie illustration

Crappie

Best: the spring spawn; summer around docks, brush and the thermocline

Two slab-sided panfish, the white crappie and the black crappie, that gather around submerged timber, brush piles, docks and bridge pilings in lakes, reservoirs and slow river backwaters. Texas Parks and Wildlife counts crappie as the state's most popular panfish. Early in this band crappie are spawning in protected coves; afterward they move to docks, brush piles and standing timber near deeper water.

When to come: the Lake Monroe calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Largemouth bass
Hybrid striped bass
Catfish (blue, channel)
Crappie
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 74 F (estimated, not a reading).

5060708090JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~74 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Lake Monroe today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Largemouth bass led the card at good. High of 75 F, wind to 7 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Largemouth bass led the card at good. High of 75 F, wind to 5 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Largemouth bass led the card at good. High of 73 F, wind to 4 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
Only used if we need to ask you about your report. No mailing list, no spam.

Before you go

License

Indiana requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Hybrid: 2 over 20 inches; check DNR combined rules. Bass 14-inch/5.

Access

Fairfax, Paynetown, Cutright ramps (SRA fees); idle zones marked upper lake.

About this water

10,750 acres on Salt Creek, Monroe/Brown counties, IN. Corps, impounded 1965. Indiana's largest lake.

Fishing Lake Monroe: the full guide

The state's anchor

Monroe is Indiana's largest lake: 10,750 acres of forested hills where hybrids school over the causeway flats, largemouth work timbered coves, and crappie fishing carries spring. Idle-only zones keep half the lake calm: a paddler's fishery in an outboard state. Bloomington's crowds swim; anglers fish the far arms.

Hybrid mornings on the causeway

Monroe's hybrids school against the causeway and Fairfax flats at dawn: shad sprays betray them, slabs and flukes convert. Indiana treats the fishery gently: modest pressure means the schools rotate patterns weekly rather than daily.

Idle-zone dividends

Two-thirds of Monroe runs idle-only: the quiet upper arms fish like a wilderness lake: kayak bass fishing in the stickups, crappie on beaver lodges, spring white bass runs up Salt Creek. The horsepower peace is the lake's defining luxury.

Common questions

Why is half of Monroe idle-only?

Design: the upper refuges protect habitat and quiet. Anglers inherit a paddler's paradise where the loudest sound is a jig splash.

Wind, mud, and the bite switch

Monroe's fertile shallow bowl reacts to weather like a mood ring: south blows muddy the flats and kill the sight bite but stack hybrids on wind-blown points; calm spells clear the water and wake the topwater dawn patrol. Watch the wind forecast like a solunar table: the lee side after a three-day blow is the percentage water, where bait rests and everything follows.

Why is Lake Monroe often muddy?

Shallow depth plus silty bottom plus 10,000 acres of fetch: any sustained wind stirs it. The mud is fertility, not failure: fish the color edges where stained meets clean.

Is fishing good at Lake Monroe right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Cagles Mill Lake39 miPatoka Lake46 miWhite River50 miBlue River58 miGeist Reservoir66 miSugar Creek72 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 03372400 β€” MONROE LAKE NEAR HARRODSBURG, IN
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 19:25 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 39.0555, -86.4333 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.