Thread: Never skipped under a dock! Can you tell me how it’s done?

Youtube is a good resource to see the mechanics of dock shooting. I prefer a 6' light action rod with a 2500 size reel for most of my dock shooting. I also prefer braid because of it's toughness and ability to wrestle out whateve graps your jig under a dock. Big bass, large cats and even a mirror carp have grabbed jig from under a dock

There's nothing eles like the sport of skipping or shooting docks. I learned the technique sitting in a lawn chair waiting on an engine rebuild in my yard. Like DSJ said plenty of videos out there on it...how.. when....where.
Plenty of choice differences out there from 4.5 ft all the way to 12 ft on rods. So anything you got will get you started. Good luck and welcome to the forum from N. Alabama.

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You can skip with just about any rod/reel/line combo out there. Bass guys do it with anything from a ML/F spinning rig with 6# Flourocarbon to a H/F casting rig with 65# braid. It's learning how to side-arm properly that's the trick. Just like skipping a rock...you don't toss the rock overhand to skip it, you side-sling it.

Rod length is not as important as the bend in that rod tip being in a vertical “plane” (for accuracy) ... when you pull that parabola in the rod tip = that rod tip (under the rod backbone) needs to be vertical (with the rod backbone) ... Any deviation from vertical will shoot that jig at an angle from where intended ...and create un-repeatable results ...

Note: Timing of releasing the jig vs releasing the line off the tip of the finger is gained with practice ... each rod will be different ...

If the vertical parabola (in the rod loading up) is correct = the direction (path) intended will be correct ...

Then the timing (of the jig release vs the line release) will determine if the jig “digs into the water” ... skips satisfactorily ... or sails into the air ...

Rickie

BTW ... in an open water casting scenario = “shooting” sometimes works just as well as “overhand” casting (in that windy situation) - where the wind can catch the line in the overhand cast ... and push the cast in an unintended direction ...

Try “shooting” in a windy open water scenario and see if target accuracy and retrieve path increases ...

Hint: longer “whippy” rods have more stored “shooting” energy than short “whippy” shooting rods ...

I have forced myself to learn shooting and casting with a 9’ Sam Heaton Super Sensitive - because it works for both casting and shooting - with practice ...

Rickie

I've shot docks with rods from 5ft to 10ft, but prefer a 6.5' rod (med action - fast tip)
I've used 4# & 6# mono, currently using 6#

Grip line with index finger & open bail
Hold jig by the head with hook pointing up and away from your hand.
Pull jig back to near the first guide past the reel or until rod is "loaded up"
Aim with your line - with a slight angle downwards from jig to rod tip (aim to hit water just under edge of dock)
Release jig ... then release line held by finger as jig passes rod tip (timing of release is trickiest part of dock shooting)

Practice can be done on driveway ... try to shoot jig into small bucket by making it ricochet off the drive just in front of bucket. 5gal bucket to start with is OK, then try a 2gal bucket. Work on your release timing FIRST, then on accuracy.

I try not to shoot a jig from more than 10ft away from the edge of the dock .... as in "rod tip is not more than 10ft from edge".

And if I'm shooting stationary docks (docks on poles), I'll use the Vertical Casting method around the outer poles before moving on to another dock. (Vertical Casting explained : Please Wait... | Cloudflare )

I use 1/32oz & 1/16oz jigs with 1.5-2.5" plastic grubs/tubes (prefer solid body tubes to hollow tubes, as they do seem to skip better)

you can cast and skip , it requires a bit of skill but can be obtained .
it is quite similar to skipping stones , fat body baits skip better .
very low angles to the water surface are required with pretty high velocities
stationary docks are the easiest to "learn" on , floating docks are really challenging .
most of the time sitting down on the front deck or in a kayak or something along those lines , gets you down closer to the water surface and helps with the trajectory .
some folks like myself can stand on docks and skip it backwards under their own feet up under the dock as well .
much more tricky than the original version for sure ....

I’ve been shooting docks and such for a lot of years, and everything said so far is very good. Practice in the front yard is a real plus til you get to where you can get near a given object, like a coffee container. I want to warn you that some rods aren’t conducive to the necessary bend and will snap. I set my drag to where it’s beginning to slip when I’m pulling pretty hard. I had two cherrywood rods and broke em both. Nowadays I shoot with just about any rod I have in my hand and the need arises. As you begin doing this you’ll find a couple of rods that do it better than the others but for now I would start with something like a Shakespeare micro series rod in 5’6” to 6’6” and some four lb mono hi vis and a 1/16 or 1/32 jig and a Bobby garland baby Shad that’s flat sided and skips real well. Good luck and have fun with it. And enjoy the “Surprise” fish.