Dock fishing?

:confused: So I just have a question about dock fishing and dock fishing in lake union and lake washington. The only real dock fishing that I have done is for bass and in about 4 to 6 feet. And when i think of all of the docks and piers in lake union i get a little over whelmed. At the end of some of thoes docks it is over 20 feet deep. So my question is, Crappie, how do you pattern the fish? Are the fish suspending:4 feet down, 20 feet down? when do they go toward the shore to spawn? And most of all how do you fish them? Do you cast out a light jig and count down the depth? do you use a slip float or a fixed float?
I just dont know how to go about putting some dock fish in the boat.
Thank you,
Ian

If you want to dock fish go and buy your self one of those portable fish finders that you toss out there and you will find the fish then you'll know what presentation to use.(if there suspended in like 4 feet a bobber and jig... you get the point)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kokanee King

:confused: So I just have a question about dock fishing and dock fishing in lake union and lake washington. The only real dock fishing that I have done is for bass and in about 4 to 6 feet. And when i think of all of the docks and piers in lake union i get a little over whelmed. At the end of some of thoes docks it is over 20 feet deep. So my question is, Crappie, how do you pattern the fish? Are the fish suspending:4 feet down, 20 feet down? when do they go toward the shore to spawn? And most of all how do you fish them? Do you cast out a light jig and count down the depth? do you use a slip float or a fixed float?
I just dont know how to go about putting some dock fish in the boat.
Thank you,
Ian

---

That'll all be worked out by putting in hours on the lake. You might not find crappies the first few trips or you might figure them out on the first trip. It doesn't take very long to weed out the unproductive water. For example, if you pull up on a dock and it's in 30 feet of water, there's no weed-line or submerged structure such as rock piles, points or brush piles near by, and there's no spawning flat within a few hundred yards....you can make a few cast and move on. Those docks may hold a few bass but crappies are most likely not going to stack up on them. You need to think backwards. Find likely spawning flats, find the deep water structure near those flats and you have a pattern that you can use on any lake in the country. The fish will either be on the break-line of the flats, up on the flats, or near the deep water structures.

For dock fishing I like to cast and count down the jig until I hit a few good fish. If they're really deep I'll switch to a bobber rig set to the right depth and clean up on slabs. If they are within 12' of the surface I'll keep casting, making sure I skip the jig as far back underneath the dock as I can (another reason why I like to use 5' ultralight rods). If I'm casting to visible brush I'll just cast and retrieve the jig make sure I keep contact with the brush, a lot of times the crappies will hit the jig after you pull it off a limb.

On Lake Union they really don't head to the shore. On average they'll be spawning in water that's at least 8' and sometimes down to 20'. The may only be using the top 6' of water but they'll be in pretty deep water as a whole. On a lot of other local lakes they'll move right on the banks and spawn in water that's 1' - 3' deep, they just don't do that on Lake Union because of how developed the shoreline is and how clear the water is. At night you can catch them in water as shallow as 3 feet but not during the day. At night is the best time to fish, year round. Early morning and late evening are good as well but the larger fish feed at night.

ice fishing rods also work really well from what i've heard for sling shotting those jigs back under the docks

just reviewing..... so slab if i were to go out at night right now would that be a good idea, if so how would I be going about it?

No doubt. On Union the night bite will always be at least twice as good as fishing during the day. I use a cheap old coleman gas latern set on the edge of my boat for light to attract the fish. The key for me has always been to make sure I'm on my spot before the sun goes down and have the latern setup and ready. Right now the south end is where you'd want to try fishing at night (I can give more detail via PM). Sometimes you'll pull up on a dock or row of pilings right before sunset and the crappie will already be there and feeding right below the surface. If you setup on a spot like that you'll catch crappie all night long down there. You'll have to weed through the little guys like always but the catching can be fast. 70% of the time I'll be casting/tightlining pilings. The other 30% I'll be making cast toward the shore.

You need the right type of shoreline though....deep (5-6 feet deep right at the shore) rocky flat that breaks to even deeper water. Almost like a good perch hole would look. There's an old saying "if you're catching perch, you're fishing too deep"...because perch and crappie will often times use the same type of feeding areas but the crappie will be up shallower. Don't forget out the marinas too. Most of them are set on top of deep water with hard bottoms....have pilings and boats for the crappie to use as ambush points....and best of all they have plenty of light during the night.

This is an interesting and informative thread. I have to say I was a little overwhelmed last week when I first hit Lake Union. All the boat slips in such deep water definitely threw me for a loop. As a matter of fact, I went in search of a weedline and some structure that I actually knew how to fish as I didn't really know what to do around a boat slip in 30 foot of water. Maybe now I have a bit of a better idea. :-)

Dude I am still completly lost when I fish that lake!

Well I am pretty lost too, I caught some fish, but only after I spent 5 hours killing dead water that looked awful good to me. :confused: I ended up catching some smallies and I think I know a spot or two that will hold crappie at certain times of the year but I'n sure I have barely scratched the surface there. I am planning to fish it some more now that I've been once though. It was worth my drive for sure...

there are so many secrets of that lake that only slab knows of.

The key to fishing a big water body like union is islolating areas that you know should hold fish, fishing effectivly which might include several presenatations to one area for 5-10 min, then moving to the next spot. You can cover tons of areas. Get a topo map of the lake and look for docks that have varied depths, and eliminate the non-producing spots by map research after fishing some of the areas. Look for patterns once you do find fish.

The difference between pros and amatuers is the ability to find fish, not so much the ability to catch fish.

ANd my last tip is to hide in the brush with a spotting scope and look for a yellow boat and study its everymove!;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by fowlguy

The key to fishing a big water body like union is islolating areas that you know should hold fish, fishing effectivly which might include several presenatations to one area for 5-10 min, then moving to the next spot. You can cover tons of areas. Get a topo map of the lake and look for docks that have varied depths, and eliminate the non-producing spots by map research after fishing some of the areas. Look for patterns once you do find fish.

---

You hit the nail square on the head. Covering water and eliminating "dead" water is what fishing big or even new waters boils down to.

One problem I have and that I always try to work on is getting out of my preset mode. I think we all have lures/methods and structures we feel more comfortable/confident fishing. It's a neverending struggle sometimes but Washington and Union have helped me to learn that there are a million ways to catch fish and sometimes the best "looking" water holds the least amount of fish:D.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by brokentrail

This is an interesting and informative thread. I have to say I was a little overwhelmed last week when I first hit Lake Union. All the boat slips in such deep water definitely threw me for a loop. As a matter of fact, I went in search of a weedline and some structure that I actually knew how to fish as I didn't really know what to do around a boat slip in 30 foot of water. Maybe now I have a bit of a better idea. :-)

---

(sorry for the long post;) )

That all rings 100% true. One quick tip that will help when eliminating water is that the bass in there won't ever go deeper than 15'-18' deep. The salt water that get's into the lake from the Ballard Locks tends to settle on the bottom 5'-15' of lake. Crappie and perch can live in brackish water but those smallmouths do not like it so they have to stay pretty shallow. On L. Washington there can be times when you're only gonna catch bass if you're fishing in 40'+ of water. That'll never happen in Union because of the saltwater in there. It can get so bad during the middle of the summer that the bass will move out of there completely. Then you can head over to the Mountlake Cut and nail 3-4lbers back to back in the early morning because most of the bigger bass from Union will stack up there until Fall.

This link gives a little more info about the lake and it's salt content: http://dnr.metrokc.gov/wlr/Waterres/lakes/LakeUnion.htm

The sediments of Lake Union are very soft, relatively deep, and contain a large amount of organic material. Milfoil and other macrophytes, washed into the lake from the rest of the watershed, contributes a large amount of the organic material. As microorganisms in the sediment break down this material they consume much of the oxygen in the lower part of the lake. By the end of the summer, concentrations of dissolved oxygen in the hypolimnion of Lake Union are near zero.

The intrusion of salt water forms a saline wedge that flows up the bottom of the ship Canal and the lake. Because salt water is more dense than freshwater, the salt water flows along the bottom and is not easily mixed with the overlying, less dense freshwater. The result is less mixing and a much stronger and longer lasting stratification of the lake. The saline bottom water becomes devoid of oxygen early in the summer as the oxygen is used by bacteria consuming the organic sediment.

Lake Union now flushes (complete exchange of water) about once a week at high water flows, although there is a significant amount of short circuiting of flow, where the inflowing water does not completely flush the lake before flowing out of the lake, but flows mostly in the north part of the lake from the Montlake Cut to the Ship Canal. At the same time, the opening of the Ship Canal allows periodic influx of salt water from Puget Sound. The actual balance between the salt water intrusion and the flushing rate at a given time varies with the amount of their respective volumes. During the rainy season and spring thaw, runoff from the Cascade foothills is high and the lake is flushed. As the flow drops off in the summer and boat passage through the lock increases, the intrusion of saltwater through the locks increases.

Very very interesting, I would have never thought of that or known it had you not mentioned it. Thanks! So I'll find out later in the year but can you see this saltwater/freshwater line on electronics like you can a thermocline or no? Just thinking that if you can, I may be able to target structure at the depth directly above it and find fish as I do in the summer with the thermocline.