by Bruce Middleton, July 17, 2005

You catch more bass under docks than around docks…

Largemouth Black Bass do have a home range territory. Studies have shown that these bass will inhabit the same places, month after month, year after year. This means that if you can find a good fishing spot, remember it and return to re-catch the same bass, if he was released previously. Most bass live year round within 300 yards of their spawning grounds. This has been scientifically shown in 4 separate studies. Bass are territorial.

Big bass take the best places to live in and that includes docks for themselves. What makes the best docks? It could be one with access to deep water just a few feet away, or a really big boulder under the dock, or a really long dock with "L" shaped end and ropes holding it in place or it could be one that’s near a deep channel with stumps nearby. But you can bet it has some feature or combination of features that make it more attractive than the average dock. And what is really exciting about these special docks is that they hold more that just one big bass. They hold a host of quality-sized bass in and near them. The reasons they congregate there are simple. They feel safe and there is a good supply of food nearby.

According to most professional bass fisherman, the five best places to catch bass are; boat docks, along rip-rap banks, on submerged points, vegetation of all types and the edges of channels or other deep water drop offs, structure that has at least five feet difference in depth from the surrounding bottom. A combination of these features like vegetation and bush or points with a channel on one side is even better than a single feature.
Low to the water docks are better than high off the water docks to fish. Docks with wood piers are better than steel piers. Large docks are better than small docks. Docks with ladders are better than ones without. Docks that are tied to shore with ropes or cables are usually better than docks that aren’t because a lot of fishermen don’t fish them for fear of getting tangled in the ropes.

Remember too the anatomy of a dock and how bass use it. Resident blue gill and other small fish cruise the shoreline so the inside corners of a boat dock are prime ambush points for the bass. Water as shallow as six inches will hold a bass in ambush at the back edge of a dock. The front of a dock is also a great place to fish for bass as it offers shade overlooking deep water. It’s someplace the bass can dash out, snag a quick meal and retreat back into the shadows in an instant. The whole dock is important to fish and fish well but the best place to drop a bait is under the dock in the shady middle. Bass relate to every structural element of a dock, the piers, the cross ties and anything on the bottom under the dock. By relate, I mean they will be found next to or very close to these parts of the dock.
One thing beginners do wrong when fishing docks is to fish them from too far away and moving the boat too fast past the dock as if they had a set time limit of 35 seconds to fish that dock. You should be no farther than 15 yards away from a dock at your farthest point. Take your time and really dissect the dock. Really work the shoreline before you get to the dock and after you pass it. Work those bushes that hang out into the water in the middle of nowhere. Be close enough to easily cast to them and not be just barely in casting range, if you use both hands and really wind up and give it all you got kind of cast, your too far away. Slow down and work the lure slowly like you should. This is not a contest to see how fast you can fish a lake. It’s about catching bass and you do that very slowly and deliberately.
When casting at docks aim at the shoreline post of the main dock that’s in the shade where bass will wait, watching for baitfish cruising the shoreline. The second place to cast is directly in front of the dock. Don’t fish the sunny side until last, as it usually doesn’t hold as many bass. Cast to all parts and the full length of the dock from every angle to cover it completely. Skip cast under the dock into the shade if the dock design allows. This is a crucial cast to master. It takes a lot of speed and timing but once mastered it will pay you back many times over with great catches. A skip cast is the most ideal way for getting back under docks, lay-downs and under over hanging trees and limbs in open water, this cast presents the lure or bait in a natural skipping/fleeing motion.

When skipping, pitching and flipping, boat position is more important than the mechanics of fishing. This is to say that skipping, pitching and flipping are short range casting strategies. Your boat must be set just right in order to make these short casts. Also you must do so stealth fully, with out crashing into anything that might make a lot of noise like a dock, tree or log. The mechanics of the cast can be off a little but you can recast to correct that.

With pitching you first start by setting the bait casting reel in free spool and holding it with your thumb and bending the rod so it is under spring tension while holding on to the bait or lure. Pitching involves releasing the lure or bait from your hand with an under hand pitching motion as you let the line feed through the guides while you thumb the spool to control the distance with tension on a bait casting reel. This takes time and a lot of practice to get the timing and feel down. It also takes time to educate your thumb, into controlling the line and therefore the lure, to do what you want it to do. It’s really not all that hard but its best if you have someone show you how to do it instead of just reading about it. The next best option is to watch a video on how to do it or maybe a T.V. show.
When fishing docks its important for you to learn how to skip a lure under the dock or between the dock and a boat. And you must learn how to do so accurately and consistently. To do a skip cast you need to start with the rod in a low trajectory casting angle and using a side-arm, fast casting, snapping tip (whip like) motion. It’s a combination of finesse and speed that takes practice. You aim the lure to hit just in front of the dock so it skips like a stone under the dock. It helps to visualize skipping stones on the water, then transfer that image to the rod tip and the lure. Done right the lure will skip once or twice until it’s under the dock and then sinks. This puts your lure where you can’t cast normally, but exactly where the fish like to hide. After skipping the lure and it sinks, let it set a while for any spooked fish to settle down and go over to investigate this possible meal. Texas rigs work very well for this type of cast since all the weight is all in one place. Jigs too work well but are harder to skip because of all the plastic tentacles associated with them. This cast must be mastered in order to get to places where other fishermen can’t reach and where bass hide. You will need to understand and master the underhand flip cast and the side arm cast and how to cast a bait or lure with as little splash as possible with both. The underhand cast is a short-range flip cast used for tight places where your rod may get into trouble if you cast overhand. Overhanging tree limbs are a typical scenario. The side arm cast is usually a power cast used to throw a lure under low hanging obstructions like limbs, in order to get back behind them. A skip cast is used here too. There is more to casting than just throwing the rod over your shoulder and letting go of the line.

Accuracy is critical when it comes to casting. Keeping the splash to a minimum by using the lightest weight possible and the shortest controllable cast possible is critical. Never sacrifice a quiet entry for distance. Presentation of your lures must be as quiet as possible and with as little splash as possible.

Mining a dock can’t happen unless you have access to the underside of the dock. There are docks that are all but impossible to get a lure under. These are the one you need to figure out a way to get one there because you can bet that’s where the bass are at, simply because nobody has fished there.

The right presentation and covering all angles of the whole dock is all important. Most bass anglers cover a goodly portion of the outside of the dock but don’t go to the heart of the dock, the middle. Under the dock, in the shaded and protected underside is where the big bass and the numbers of bass will be found. In order to get to these trophies you have three options. One is to skip cast baits under the dock and another option is to use a tiny rod, a Zebco™ reel and slingshot cast your bait under the dock.

The slingshot method is very much like the pitch cast but with a scaled down rod and reel. The reason you use a scaled down version is because you are usually right up against the dock and are pitching the worm or whatever between the dock and a boat or directly under the confines of a very low dock. Doing this with a 5-1/2 or 6 foot rod is impossible but with a child’s 3-foot pole it’s a snap. Pardon the pun. You would be amazed at the places this little pole can toss a plastic bait. The beauty of it too is the initial layout of capital is zilch. I got my combo at the Second Hand Story for 50 cents.

To pitch a bait, first you pull out about two feet of line. Then pulling back on the bait so as to bend the rod, press the release on the Zebco™ reel. Aim the bait at the place you want it to land and let go of the bait. At the same time let go of the reel button and the bait will slingshot to its target and sink. It will take some practice to get the distance and accuracy down to a science but it can be learned in just a few minutes. Not long at all. And the rewards are well worth the few minutes practice. This slingshot method is fast. You can drop baits into many different places in seconds. It’s also versatile in the fact that it will accept any bait you want to use including crank baits. And believe me a crank bait under a dock is a weapon you have to see in action to believe.

A third way to get under a dock with a bait is to cast down one side, pass the rod under the dock and then retrieve the bait slowly so as to cover as much of the middle as possible before coming out the other side. Done correctly it is a good way to get a bait under the dock and that is the aim of any good dock fisherman.

Now the problem with a skipped bait is that a bass can see it fall. By passing the rod under the dock or dropping the bait on one side of the dock and drifting around to the other side with the reel in free spool and then retrieving it, the bait seems to appear out of nowhere. It also doesn’t scare the bass in way what so ever. This is an excellent tactic on docks that are mounted on floats. There are no obstructions underneath, like piers to negotiate around or hang-up on. The only puzzle left to solve is what bait to use and the best presentation to use with it. Done correctly, this is an amazingly simple and productive way of mining the underside of docks.

But knowing these techniques isn’t a guarantee of a full live well of lunkers. The placement of the ideal dock, the structure around it, under it and the water conditions all play a major part in the productivity of a dock. Dock fishing in winter is not a good bet, nor is a hot Blue Bird afternoon in August. In both of these cases the bass will be out in deeper water in more comfortable temperatures. Spring, fall and morning and evenings of summer are the best times to fish docks for bass. Docks with ladders are more productive than docks without a ladder. A dock with a "U" shaped boat tie up is better than a straight dock. And a dock with a boat tied up to it better than one without a boat tied to it. All these factors add mass, shade, structure and/or cover for the bass and this adds up to more safety for them.

A bass’s menu is key when it comes to choosing the bait to use under a dock. Plastics are an obvious choice and 98% of all fishermen would agree that, that is the only way to go. Personally I have had a great deal of success with small crank baits in this situation. I believe the reason for this is two fold. One a crank bait is a very unusual lure to be found under a dock. Bass become accustomed to baits and lures they see a lot of and are turned off by them. But something new really peaks their curiosity and instinct takes over and you get a reaction strike. The other reason for the success of crank baits is the importance of prey fish in a bass’s diet. Small fish represent a great source of protein and calories for the bass. Prey fish are always a welcome meal for a bass.

There you go, three ways to mine big bass out from under any dock on any lake. These gold mines of bass habitat are waiting for you to take full advantage of them. With these three methods you should have no trouble bagging the big one. Happy casting.