The most effective way to fish it is with swimbaits, shaky head jigs or, if the fish are really aggressive, a lipless crankbait. The last time I fished with Canfield and Ruby, we started at first light catching fish by hopping plastic grubs down the hump on shaky heads. We caught a few on spinnerbaits, but had no luck with traditional crankbaits. Ruby caught some nice fish in rapid succession on a lipless crankbait, but we struck gold when we tied on a Pop R. Our biggest bass that day weighed about 8 pounds.

When the hump cools off, you can usually find bass near deep bends in the creek channel. The bends are subtle, and some of them still have stumps and other cover. Bass congregate there to ambush food and to escape light and heat, but patterning a bite can be tricky. I strongly recommend following the solunar tables published weekly in the Outdoors section of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. It lists two major and minor activity periods per day, and it has proved dependable.

The challenge is targeting and catching big bass. Small bass will school during the day, and occasionally, you'll luck into a big fish or two hovering under the schoolers to pick off stray and wounded baitfish, but not often. For big bass, you need heavy tackle to put something big and noisy down where they dwell. A wide-bodied, deep-diving crankbait will earn you some reaction strikes if you can bounce it off stumps. You can also catch them by working 12- to 16-inch worms through deep cover. The most dependable way to catch them, however, is to use live shad on some kind of a bottom rig. In June, all three of those techniques work best at night, or at dusk and dawn.

LAKE MONTICELLO
For monster largemouths, this small lake is the best in Arkansas. Covering about 1,520 acres about 10 miles north of town, Lake Monticello is similar in many respects to Lake Columbia. It is clear, with a number of long, tree-studded points. It also has a lot of lily pads in the coves. It's deep in places and sports the biggest redear sunfish I've ever seen.

In 2008, I accompanied an AGFC electro-fishing crew to conduct a nighttime shock sample, and while we didn't pull up any double-digit largemouths, we saw several in the 7- to 9-pound class. Tournaments are not allowed on Lake Monticello, but fishing pressure is intense at times. In June, the best time to fish is at night, during the week.

Scott Rook of Little Rock, a Bassmaster Elite Series pro, said that to catch big bass in June, you have to look for creek channels.

"At Monticello, those fish will pull back out and get in the heaviest cover they can find in 6 to 8 feet of water," Rook said. "They won't go real deep until the water gets in the upper 80s and 90s. They won't get in the creek channels, but they'll get close to it, and you can usually find them stacked up pretty thick."

On sunny days, Rook looks for trees on creek bends. Chances are, it'll get windy fairly early, and that can help mask your approach. You just need something big enough to get their attention.