Thread: Dock fishing?

Originally Posted by Kokanee King

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.