Article 21 – Humps and Islands

This structure gives many fisherman a bad headache. Just like any other piece of structure a hump or Island must have some things going for it to produce fish. You can get really lucky on any of them; but if you want to be consistent you have to find the right ones. They must have a creek channel or river slam touching them. They must be blocking the route that fish take to feed or spawn. They must sit on an inside bend with the channel wrapping around the structure. They must have cover on top. They must have irregular features at least on one side. The ones on the wind blown side of the lake are the best; as they do not get fished very often. You must be there at the right time; so keep a ledger and continue to come back at different times to get on the feeding schedule. You must know what the seasonal patters are and where the fish are going. You must be good at several different techniques to fish humps and islands. You must be good at viewing your electronics. You must be able to look farther than the actual hump for standing timer that house the fish that use this structure. You must know how to find these humps and islands before you ever get on the lake. Islands are visited much more frequently by fisherman than humps. Islands are much easier to deal with because of the visual you have above the water line. You can basically see what the rest of the structure under the surface has to offer. As the water level in many of our lakes goes down and stays down for a few years, this will allow for growth of weeds and bushes. When the water comes up now you have cover. In some aspects for our lake islands the cover can provide more of what the Bass like to hang out in for ambush spots. As a rule Bass treat islands just the same as other shorelines in that first 10 ft. of water with it being an early morning and late afternoon bite. Islands become productive depending on the deep water contours that they are attached to. The island now becomes something that a shoreline in a cove does not always have going for it. A well defined island and the deep water around it can out produce shoreline areas many times over. If given a choice, I will always take the island over fishing a shoreline; but it takes much more homework to be successful.

The more of these features that a hump or island has going for it the better the food supply for Bass. Open water bait fish use the humps for resting areas and the Bass are there on them at the exact time everyday. Big schools of Bass will suspend off the humps and wait for the right time to move the bait to the kill zones. When you find a hump out goes the buoy marker on the shallowest part of the hump. This gives you the visual needed to stay on a piece of structure that is under water; even though you have the best electronics and have set Waypoints to help with this. Staying off the top of the hump is a must; but being able to cast search baits to the shallows will be your producer during feeding times. You have to know how the hump lays out; so one day you do the graphing and another day you do the fishing in the right features that it offers. Every hump is different on top. Most of them are rock. Some are shallow enough to have weeds. Some humps are sandy or silty on top. Then we get to the edge where the good stuff is and the Bass always connect to the edge and work their way to the top working the food source. Every food source in the lake can be relating to a shallow water hump that is just a few feet under the surface. The key here is to learn what that hump is made out of and what each sweat spot holds because that determines the baits and techniques that you will be using on that section of the hump. Run the Crank Bait across the rocky sections. Fish a jig through heavier cover like wood and grass. Throw the spinner bait through the stick weeds. Slow roll a 1/2 oz short Crig parallel with the edge of the drops. Drag the long Crig around the hump in deeper water. Slow way down in all the Gouges and Protrusions with a Trig smaller profile Beaver type bait. During low light conditions top water the top of the shallow humps. Knowledge is KING to learn what that hump is made of.

I do a lot of dragging a Crig around structures like humps and islands to get a feel for the contours keeping the boat off the feeding area and just drag around it. Circling a hump or island like this gives you the opportunity to put out any markers that are needed for visuals like each end and or the irregular features. Once I get the underwater structure outlined the deep diving crank bait will work the edges for fish that are actively feeding. Humps in our Texas lakes can be very difficult to catch fish off of because most of our dams do not pull current and are not a large river system like the TN., Miss, Cumberland or even lakes like Pickwick that generate almost daily. This is why your humps that you find must have as many of the above criteria going for them to hold resident fish that will feed there daily. Never rule out the power of a top water bait that will disturb the surface during the Fall months here in Texas. You can be half a mile off shore on a shallow water hump and it be loaded with bait fish that visit the humps during the Fall. We relate our top water adventures to the shoreline; but when the bait gets thick and the birds start diving the middle of the lake the top water action cannot be beat.

Another great article as always

Thanks again for all the great information and passing on your experience!

Thanks for sharing Don. Your articles are always a great informative read.

thanks

Good stuff Donald

I need to learn this more an more...I usually pass right by them and fish the shoreline.

Great stuff Donald!

Don, great info and posts they are always informative and help newbies like me with the learning curve.

Thank you!

Humps have been my goto this year and catching much bigger fish. Predominantly using a C-rig trying to find humps with rocks on top. Seem to produce the best. Find a lot of sand bass off the humps as well as bass.

Find the hump, get boat in position according to wind direction and get distance to casting target all require a lot of patience. That goes for all offshore fishing to me. It is something I keep trying more as I get used to trusting what I see on my electronics.

great article Don.

Thanks Don!!

Another great article

Good stuff! Would’ve been a good post for Wednesday.

Great article. Thanks, Don.

Doc