Fishing around docks

[roadwarrior]

19 hours ago, FishTax said:

Let's say you're fishing docks in 8-12 fow, what are you throwing? I usually try to skip a jig (and end up scaring off every creature within earshot), running a spinnerbait parallel or over any brush piles, or going slow with shaky head. 

 

Fat Ika

https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/lake-guntersville-2012.html

 

[casts_by_fly]

4 hours ago, gimruis said:

No hardbaits or treble hooked lures around docks for this guy.  Too easy to get hung and up make way too much noise if you bang into a hard surface.  I don't need to have a potential confrontation with a landowner, no fish is worth that.

 

My selection is two fold here.

 

Spinnerbaits along the sides.  Quite often the frame will bump something and that will trigger a fish to bite.

 

Second choice is a weightless plastic of some kind like a wacky, neko, or tube.  They all skip well and make no noise if you run them into a hard surface.

 

mostly I'm with you here, but a walking bait run tight down the side of a dock that keeps bumping into the floats is a wonderful thing to see disappear in a fish's mouth.  Carpet (and to a lesser extent thick old ropes) is the only thing that really gives me pause with trebles on docks.  

[928JLH]

Large swimbait or glide bait.

Skipping a jig or underspin with keitech. 

Drop shot if they are finicky 

[river-rat]

On the Mississippi River oxbow lakes, which are now landlocked, docks are one of the primary types of cover to fish. I've been fishing these lakes since I was a kid and the time of year has a lot to do with lure choice for me.

 

For example, slow rolling a 3/4 oz. spinnerbait or fishing a jig along the edges works well this time of year. 

 

During the spawn, largemouths will bed between the bank and the first set of pilings. That's when a jig, Texas rigged lizard, or Cordell Redfin or Smithwick Rogue produces best. 

 

In the summer, a thermocline will set up at 11-12' and that's when a Bagley DB 2 produces better than anything else for me. The fish will suspend just above the thermocline around the deeper docks at 9-10' and this lure runs at that depth on 14# test line. I concentrate on the shady side of the dock and crank as fast as I can. I'll also skip a jig underneath the docks that are over water 10' or less.

 

 

[GetFishorDieTryin]

If I could only have 1 it would be a senko.

 

Second would either be a jig or a T rigged palmetto bug, I could chop a dozens of skips and still never tear the bait.  

[Catt]

Now y'all know Ol Catt is going to look at it differently.

 

My favorite time to fish docks is at night. Especially docks with lights, lights down here most likely means Crappie fishermen. That means sunken brush piles. 

 

But I'm still throwing a Jig-n-Craw, just starting farther from the dock.

[FishTax]

40 minutes ago, Catt said:

Now y'all know Ol Catt is going to look at it differently.

 

My favorite time to fish docks is at night. Especially docks with lights, lights down here most likely means Crappie fishermen. That means sunken brush piles. 

 

But I'm still throwing a Jig-n-Craw, just starting farther from the dock.

I always watch for mounted lights, and rods or rod holders, on docks. In this area I find lots of brush piles so I feel what you're saying, only difference is I'm fishing in daylight. 

[LrgmouthShad]

1 hour ago, riverat said:

During the spawn, largemouths will bed between the bank and the first set of pilings

👍👍. A great way to target springtime fish

[papajoe222]

If I'm not skipping a tube under the dock, I like to throw a deep diving craw colored crank that I tune to run right or left depending on which side of the dock is shaded. I use 12lb. Big Game and retie often. Between digging hard into the bottom and banging of dock posts, it'll get hammered more often than the tube.

[Siebert Outdoors]

For the most part this is how LOZ is fished for me.  To answer the question really depends on where the fish are holding on that dock.  For me typically they are in the brush in the front of the dock and a jig will be my best bet.  Some times they are suspended under the dock and you have to go under the dock and get them.  Senko, or anything skipping under there.    Other times they will be on the shady side of the dock in its shadow. Jerkbaits, cranks, swimbaits etc.  During the spawn or in the fall they may be behind the dock and you have to fish under the walkways and pull the fish over the cables.

 

Alot of times if you find that the fish are holding a certain way on a dock it is usually repeatable.

 

 

[KP Duty]

One of the episides of Bassmaster I had recorded on vhs had Shaw Grigsby on a dock patrern, pitching a bagley db3.  I thought it sounded crazy at the time.  It was early fall, and a buzzbait won the event.  

 

What do I use?  Usually whatever I'm beating the bank with at the time.