Fishing from your dock provides the ultimate in convenience for anglers. Skipping the boat ride and being able to walk right out your back door to wet a line is a luxury. While a variety of species may hang around docks, one of the most popular targets for dock fishermen are largemouth bass. Their aggressive strikes and strong fights make them a highly sought-after freshwater prize. Largemouth bass associate dock structures with shade, cover, and ambush points to hunt prey. By learning where bass like to position around docks and using the proper lure selection and retrieval techniques, you can entice more strikes. This comprehensive guide will provide in-depth knowledge on attracting and catching more largemouth bass from your own dock.
Where Largemouth Bass Hang Out Around Docks
As ambush predators, largemouth bass like to relate to any cover that allows them to easily hunt baitfish and other prey. Docks provide an abundance of productive structure for largemouth bass.
When targeting bass around docks, focus on areas that offer shade, cover, and quick access to deeper water. Largemouth bass typically spend their time cruising along depth changes and structure. They move into shallower spots under docks and other cover to briefly strike at prey before retreating back to deeper refuge.
Prime Ambush Spots
- Corners of docks – An intersection of two dock walls provides a protected spot for bass to trap and corner baitfish. Be sure to make casts all the way into the inside corners where two docks meet. Reel your lure slowly along the seam line.
- Underneath docks – Bass often use the shade as overhead cover, allowing them to see prey silhouetted above while remaining hidden below. Concentrate efforts on skipping or flipping baits underneath the dock in the shade. Target any support posts, cross beams, or ladder rungs in particular.
- Boat slips – Empty slips provide a perfect highway for bass to cruise in and out of as they patrol for food. Slip mouths should be a prime target area. Cast crankbaits, swimbaits, topwaters and other lures to the mouth openings.
- Behind posts – Large vertical dock posts and pontoon supports provide cover and create current breaks. Be sure to make accurate casts behind visible posts, allowing the lure to bump up against the wood cover.
- Depth changes – Any dropoffs, ledges, or holes adjacent to docks should be targeted thoroughly. Bass love transitions, as they provide ambush points between deeper refuge and the shallow buffet.
Productive Structure Types
In addition to the dock structure itself, pay close attention to any other cover and structure near the dock. Connecting structure creates a more extensive ambush zone for bass:
- Overhanging trees – Branches and leaves from overhanging trees provide shade and cover for baitfish as well as bass. Target the edges of these tree canopies, making casts along the shaded side. Allow lures to bump into branches.
- Brush piles – Bundle up discarded Christmas trees or other brush, and sink them near your dock structure. These attract baitfish like bluegills, which in turn will draw in largemouth bass. Toss lures into and around the outer edges of the brush piles.
- Weeds – Aquatic vegetation like hydrilla, milfoil, and pondweed can provide food sources, oxygen, and ambush cover for bass. Focus on pockets within the weeds and along the outer weed lines.
- Logs – Fallen trees that rest on or near the bottom create excellent cover. Bounce jigs, brush hogs, crankbaits and other lures off of and over submerged logs near your dock to mimic fleeing prey.
Best Lures and Tactics for Attracting Largemouth Bass
Matching your tackle and techniques to the dock fishing situation will help draw more strikes. Here are proven methods for tempting largemouth bass around docks:
Best All-Around Lure Types
- Soft plastic baits – Stick worms, creature baits and swimbaits fished weedless with exposed hooks are ideal for probing cover around docks. Good choices include 4-6 inch ribbon tail worms, brush hogs and paddle tail swimbaits on light jigheads. Dark colors like black/blue or watermelon tend to work well. The slow falling action and lifelike look triggers strikes.
- Crankbaits – Lipless or diving crankbaits that can be bounced off of structure and retrieved at various depths are effective. Target crankbaits that run in the 5-10 foot range to probe around deeper dock posts and off dropoffs.
- Spinnerbaits – The vibration and flash of a 1/4 or 3/8 oz tandem bladed spinnerbait attracts aggressive strikes. Spinnerbaits allow excellent coverage for working around scattered wood cover near docks.
- Jigs – Jigs like the structure flipping jig or swim jig are ideal for skipping and flipping under docks or crawled along the bottom. Match trailers like craws or creature baits to baitfish patterns.
- Topwater lures – Walking style stickbaits, poppers, and buzzbaits are excellent nighttime and low light lures. The surface commotion mimics wounded baitfish and triggers explosive strikes!
Presentation Tips and Techniques
- When fishing soft plastic baits around docks, use a slow, dragging retrieve with a twitching rod tip to impart action. Let the bait sit motionless between twitches, allowing it to sink near cover.
- For shallow or medium diving crankbaits, make casts toward dock structure and use a stop-and-go retrieve, bouncing the lure off posts and pilings. Bang the crankbait into cover then pause briefly to trigger reaction bites.
- For topwater poppers and stickbaits, use an erratic side-to-side walking retrieve or quick popping cadence. Vary the frequency of pops followed by pauses. The noise attracts bass from a distance.
- After making a cast with any lure, allow it to pause and rest for 5-10 seconds once it reaches the prime ambush point before continuing the retrieve. Often, strikes happen on the initial fall.
- Whenever you catch a fish near a dock, thoroughly re-fish that productive area by making repeated casts. Where there is one fish, there are often more nearby.
Best Fishing Times for Docks
Focus your efforts during periods when bass are naturally more active:
- Early morning – Bass will actively hunt for breakfast around dawn and early morning, taking advantage of low light conditions when baitfish are vulnerable.
- Sunset – The low light silhouette of topwater lures and streamers during sunset often triggers vicious strikes. Take advantage of these prime feeding times.
- Night – Under the cover of darkness, especially around a full moon phase, huge bass may move shallow to hunt around docks. Cast black colored streamers, jigs, ribbons tail worms, and surface lures.
- Overcast days – When cloud cover reduces sunlight penetration, bass feel more comfortable moving shallow around docks.
- During rain – Runoff from rain washes insects, worms, and other prey items into the water around docks, leading to active bass feeding.
Additional Dock Fishing Tips and Strategies
Beyond lure selection and techniques, consider these additional tips for maximizing your dock fishing success:
- Install fish attractors like brush piles, rock cribs, or submerged timber within casting distance of your dock to draw more bass and baitfish to the area.
- Use your electronics like a fish finder or underwater camera to identify drop-offs, structure, and baitfish near your dock. Locating where fish are holding is half the battle.
- Adjust your lure choices and tactics based on water temperature and season. As temperature drops in the fall, slow down presentations.
- Experiment with a variety of colors on your lures until you determine a preferred color for that day’s conditions. Pay attention to baitfish colors too.
- Match lure and bait sizes to the forage. Are small sunfish, shad, or panfish abundant? Downsize your offerings.
- Stealth and noise discipline are critical when bass fishing. Docks conduct sound extremely well underwater, so keep a low profile and quiet approach.
- Time your casts so that the lure lands well before the fish detects your presence. The element of surprise is to your advantage.
- Persistently and thoroughly hit the best high-percentage areas. Bass location around docks changes frequently, so keep moving and casting.
By truly understanding largemouth bass behavior and optimizing your lure selection, tactics, and dock fishing approach, you’ll be hooked up with bucketmouth bass in no time right from your own dock.
Advanced Tactics and Strategies to Consider
Once you master the basics, there are a variety of advanced tactics and strategies to experiment with:
- Night fishing – Under the cover of darkness, use black color lures on fluorocarbon line. Big bass become more active at ight around docks when hunting baitfish that are drawn to lights.
- Spot lock trolling – Use your electric trolling motor on low speed to hold position while casting different lures to docks and structure. This allows you to be more thorough.
- Swimbaits – Big paddle tail and boot tail swimbaits are excellent lures for enticing trophy sized bass on heavy swim jig heads. Focus on swimming them right under the dock surface.
- Dock shooting – Use a wacky rigged stick worm on a light jighead and make long casts, letting the bait sink down docks on a semi-slack line before reeling it back in.
- Skip casting – Perfect the ability to skip lures up under docks using low trajectory pitches. This helps get lures into the prime shade areas where bass lurk.
- Prespawn fishing – As water temperatures warm toward spawning season, target the deepest docks and structure where big females stage first.
- Swim jigs – A 1/2 to 1 oz swim jig mimics a fleeing crawfish perfectly. Hop and swim the jig around dock posts and structure.
- Jerkbaits – Long minnow imitating stickbaits and jerkbaits can be ripped and paused around docks to mimic injured baitfish movements.
- Drop shots – Finesse fishing with small baits on drop shots around the outside edges of docks can catch finicky bass.
- Weather patterns – An approaching cold front or low pressure often sparks a bass feeding frenzy. Be on the docks during changing weather.
Prime Times to Target Big Bass
The very best fishing around docks often occurs during the optimal seasonal windows and bass activity periods:
- Prespawn – As water temperatures warm from the 50s up to the 60s in spring, big females stage on prime structure near docks before moving shallow to beds. Target lingering cold fronts that stall warming trends.
- Post spawn – In late spring, satiated bass that have finished spawning gorge on baitfish near docks to regain lost weight. Focus on areas with newly hatched baitfish.
- Summer – Low light periods like early morning popper bites on topwaters or night fishing with black jigs and ribbons tail worms around docks can yield trophy bass during summer.
- Fall turnover – When cooler water mixes in the fall, baitfish become more concentrated around docks. Bass feed heavily before winter.
Conclusion
In summary, fishing for bucketmouth largemouth bass from your private dock provides a convenient and exciting way to catch big bass right from home. Apply the techniques in this guide to find and target bass around the best ambush points, structure, and cover near your dock. With the proper lures and optimized fishing strategy, you can turn your dock into a primetime largemouth bass hotspot!
