dock shooting rods.

I am to be considered a newcomer to crappie fishing. I have never done or even seen
dock shooting being done personaly. I have watched lots of videos with lots of people
including the likes of Wally Marshall. I'm left with the opinion pretty much any light/medium action rod can be made to work. I don't feel my present selection of rods is
suitable since the best are 2 pc 6'6 rods which I'm thinking wouldn't be a good choice.
My question isn't about brand as much as it is abought length. Would a shorter rod of say
4'6 to 5'6 be easier for a raw beginner to learn with?

I am on my 3rd or 4th rod and it still drives me nuts. My buddies do it very well and they have several rods. One thing I have noticed is that they have different brands but most all use a 6ft to 6-6ft. one piece rod ML action extra fast tip. And a size 1000 reel the bigger spool gives them a little more distance. I get off a good shot once in awhile but for me it has been like welding just not my forte. I will continue to do it as I see how well it works. Good luck to you.

I started out with the 4.5 ' b&m sharp shooter rods with the shamino xl 1000 fairly cheep set up around 50 bucks it is a lil on the limber side but shoots 30-40 ' pretty easy something I learned that helped me was not let out no more than 18-24" line aim with your last eye on the rod get outside and practice shootin at a five gallon bucket laying toward ya release both fingers as the same time improves your shots. Or try you a dock demon for less that 20 buck at several stores shoots great but I don't like the action on the plastic reel:twocents:twocents

A 6' - 6.5' lite to med/lite fast action tip spinning rod & 1000 series reel with 4-6lb test line will work just fine. Just practice at home until you're comfortable with your technique and fairly accurate.

Aim with your line !! By that I mean, use the rod tip and jig as your "gun sights" and angle your line just a few degrees above parallel to the water (jig slightly higher than the rod tip). You want the jig to land just at the edge of the dock, then skip across the water and back under the dock.
I like to let go of the jig first, and as soon as the jig passes the end of the rod, then let go of the line with your rod hand (finger). Time the release just right, and with practice you'll be shooting a jig into a coffee cup at 20ft :biggrin

Just ALWAYS, ALWAYS make sure you have the jig hook pointing AWAY from your finger/thumb !!