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Old 06-04-12, 06:51 PM   #1
Bucketmouth1010
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Default Dock fishing tips?

Hey I fish a lot on lake Hartwell and it only has floating docks. When I'm on my dock there is always a bass or two under it but when I go out fishing docks it seems like I don't get as many bites as I should. I'll catch about 3 in an hour of fishing docks but I feel like there are more under them so I was wondering what is yalls favorite way to fish docks?? Thanks!!
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Old 06-04-12, 07:04 PM   #2
keithdog
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I like to pitch a jig or soft plastic up as close to the dock as I can targeting the shaded side especially. If I can cast the lure up underneith the dock, so much the better. Crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and other lures will also work, but I like how a jig or soft plastic worked on the lake bottom slowly can entice a bass hiding deep under the dock to come out and see "what is that?"Docks with posts will tend to hold bass better than floating docks, especially the older wooden leg style.
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Old 06-04-12, 09:23 PM   #3
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Yeah I wish Hartwell had some docked with posts...... I will try a jig and then a wacky rig on a spinning reel so I can skip it
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Old 06-05-12, 07:42 AM   #4
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Around floating docks I've had good luck this year skipping a weightless 4" jerk minnow - it's just a little bigger than a zoom fluke. The best have been Scheels or Cabelas "house" brand. The key to skipping for me is no weight on a spinning reel.

Also, I've had good luck with a T-posed Wooly Hawgcraw with a 1/8 oz bullet sinker. The corner of the dock closest to shore has been best, espcially if there's a small patch of weeds there. You just gotta be careful of those cables stabalizing the dock.
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Old 06-05-12, 09:42 AM   #5
aikenyounggun
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Fish it slow. And make casts not only to the deep parts of the dock, but also closer to shore where it's shallow. Usually if they are near docks, they will be at a certain depth or near more cover. So throw more than one or two casts at a dock of you think they are there. And I would throw a shakey head.

Maybe I'll give you a better idea on hartwell in a couple months, I'll be going to Clemson this summer (program) and start freshman year in the fall, so I'll get to fish it a lot.
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Old 06-05-12, 10:51 AM   #6
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Ok thanks guys!
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Old 06-05-12, 08:05 PM   #7
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when ever i go to floating docks i trow a senko usually green pumpkin and on spinning gear. I also look for ladders they dont hit the ground usually but fish hang there often.
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Old 06-18-12, 07:21 AM   #8
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A zoom speedworm in watermelon red........cut off the tail and texpose with a 2/0 worm hook and fish weightless......use a side arm skipping cast and let fall slowly, s l o w l y.
Sometimes try to bounce your skipping cast off the dock floats and then let fall....sometimes try to skip it under the dock when possible........
If you wear out the worm end, rig it in the other end......when that goes, rig wacky.......

Watching the line at all times is very important.........

If there are weeds in the area, let fall and if it stops on a weed, pull it free gently and let fall as far as it will....nudge N fall, nudge N fall.....often the big one hang on the bottom....
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Old 06-18-12, 10:59 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mac2 View Post
A zoom speedworm in watermelon red........cut off the tail and texpose with a 2/0 worm hook and fish weightless......use a side arm skipping cast and let fall slowly, s l o w l y.
Sometimes try to bounce your skipping cast off the dock floats and then let fall....sometimes try to skip it under the dock when possible........
If you wear out the worm end, rig it in the other end......when that goes, rig wacky.......

Watching the line at all times is very important.........

If there are weeds in the area, let fall and if it stops on a weed, pull it free gently and let fall as far as it will....nudge N fall, nudge N fall.....often the big one hang on the bottom....
I can vouch firsthand for this, and not just for fishing docks. This is just a fish-catcher. If you've never tried it before, you should!
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Old 06-18-12, 11:22 AM   #10
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try a small centipede with a piece of nail in the tail. Throw it with a spinning rod so you will have plenty of slack. It will follow the nail and sink away from you. Learned that from Mike Iconelli in his Finese Fishing book. It works with a zoom finese worm too.
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Old 06-18-12, 02:39 PM   #11
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I had one more thought about fishing docks after watching a 'dock fishing' video on BassProShop's website. On the video, they were fishing floating docks in 30' of water by casting a spinner bait in the boat stalls and retrieving it along the sides of the styrofoam floats under the docks. The docks I fish are in much shallower water; about 2 to 3 feet close to shore and 5 to 8 feet on the deep end.

I look at the type of boat lift the dock is using. On the lake I fish many of the floating boat docks use a "bubble" lift. It's a large inflateable box that raises and lowers the boat by pumping water (or air) in and out of the box. These type of lifts require water about 6 feet deep. If a dock uses this type of lift in shallow water they had to dredge a small pit under the bubble lift. Now you can't skip anything underneath these lifts - they are submerged boxes, but you can cast a jig or T-rigged plastic along side them, let your bait drop and fish the edges of the hole underneath the bubble lifts. My dad does well on these spots with a plastic crawfish on a weedless hook.

((P.S. The main advantage of a bubble lift is that you do not have to take it out over the winter in the northern states.))
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Old 06-18-12, 07:19 PM   #12
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Let them rest. Docks are not a very big area to fish. Fish them for 15 mins, not to long. Catch a couple fish, move on. You don't want the fish to get accustom to seeing the same thing over and over. Come back a an hour or so, and fish em again, change something about your presentation a little (could be size, color, or speed), catch a couple more.

Wash, rinse, and repeat.
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Old 06-19-12, 08:09 AM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bassboss View Post
Let them rest. Docks are not a very big area to fish. Fish them for 15 mins, not to long. Catch a couple fish, move on. You don't want the fish to get accustom to seeing the same thing over and over. Come back a an hour or so, and fish em again, change something about your presentation a little (could be size, color, or speed), catch a couple more.

Wash, rinse, and repeat.
I agree, sort of. A single dock usually isn't worth fishing very long, but if you have a stretch of shore with 20 to 50 houses and each house has a dock I can easily spend an hour or two fishing docks without fishing the same dock twice.

There are many other things to consider besides just the dock. Depending on the time of year I may be looking for docks in a certain depth. The amount and type of weeds close to the docks is something I pay attention to through-out the summer. Also the bottom or shore make-up can be important, i.e. sand, gravel, rip-rap, etc. Wind is another factor which can impact which docks I decide to fish. Sometimes I look for protected bays, other times I look for docks that have had a steady wind blowing towad their shore for a couple of days. Oh, and trees on shore - especially in summer, if there are some trees over-hanging the shore near a dock I will generally spend a little more time in the area. The trees may just provide shade, but often insects drop from the limbs and attract fish (either bass feeding on the insects, or bait-fish feeding on the insects which in-turn attract bass.)

Once I develop a pattern, I have the trolling motor down working my way up and down the shore. I slow down to fish certain docks more thoroughly while I may only make a single cast to the next dock based on the pattern that I've found.

Don't neglect the fact that many home-owners submerge christmas trees or other structure (whether it's legal or not) so they can sit on their docks and bobber fish. I see some of these fish-structures on my electronics, but often I make educated guesses where they might have dropped something... usually the distance of a medium cast right off the end of their dock!

P.S. Now if you are fishing from shore, I whole-heartitly agree with Bassboss. I don't like to pound a single dock with repeated casts. I may spend a couple minutes casting to a single dock and then move to the next one. Even though I may only fish a total of 5 or 6 docks from shore, I like to give them a 15-20 minute breather between returning.
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Old 07-04-12, 10:37 PM   #14
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The docks at my favorite spot (Tully Lake) are always good. In fact, all the biggest ones I've caught there have come from under docks. One on a tube, one on a jig and one on a topwater popper during the middle of the day. I like to pitch it right on the dock and then give it a little twitch to make it fall off and then just let it fall.
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