Dock shooting

What is the best rod length etc, to do this and the time of year? Looking to try to attempt it. I see tons of posts of folks catching crappies shooting docks. Looks really fun and a great way to catch them. Certain types of docks better than others?

I like a 6-7' rod. Some people like short rods. Summer IMO is best time. No rhyme or reason on certain types of docks. Some hold them, others don't.

B 'n' M sharp shooter is a good one and what I use. Like Fur said, some docks hold them and others dont. The docks that seem like I've had the most luck on are older docks that have been there a while, that have a a good amount of cross braces or structure, and are in or near deep water. I've never caught much of anything under a newer dock. If they are spawning a shallower dock will be ok. In the summer, the deeper ones are better from my experience.

I have a BnM dock shooter rod that I'd sell you at quite a discount. It's been fished with once. Too stiff for my tastes.

PM me a price on rod if he doesn't want it.

If I didnt already have the same one I'd take that in a heartbeat.

I use these rods in the 5' and really like them. I have 6 of these and 6 of their 7 footers too. B n M makes some great rods.

They do. I have a couple of their Sam's super sensitive for tight line jigging.

Thanks for the info fellas, been wanting to try it on big G, maybe I'll get on a few.

go with 4lb test with 1/16th ounce jig heads. i really like slider grubs. ive found thats i really like a 6 1/2- 7 foot rod. when im shooting docks ill keep three rods rigged with different baits 2 with 4lb hi vis suffix and 1 with 6lb seaguar flourocarbon. ill swap baits when they quit biting one then follow up with the flouro carbon to get the most out of each dock

Who taught you shoot docks beetle? Sounds a bit odd

The best dock shooting rods are $20-$25 4 1/2 foot micro spinning combos. I keep trying to tell my neighbor that and he has had 4 or 5 rods between 6.5 and 5.5 ft that are made for crappie fishing and absolutely won’t get a 4.5 ft rod. I’ll also sit there and catch my limit in the time it takes him to catch 2 fish because he can’t get under the piers. Maybe one day he will listen. I only fish with 1/32 oz jigs and no, not all docks are created equal. Most docks have zero fish under them, some have 150 fish under them.

There are MUCH better lakes to shoot docks on besides Guntersville. Most docks are very hard to get under. I'd suggest going to the Coosa. Much easier and much more productive.

daniel yea c'mon white

he showed me how to do it on wedowee and i changed a few things to better suit them to what i do. i can stay further away from a dock with a longer rod. i started out with the 5 foot b&m dock shooter and dont care for them at all. ive had days on the warrior where ive caught 200 crappie shooting docks

I use a 6'6 ML Berkley Cherrywood. Has good action and will get the jig under a dock wherever you want it.

Ain’t no crappie under docks on Guntersville.

As a matter of fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the creel limit for crappie reduced to catch and release only....

I just wish I could find the docks on Guntersville where the crappie are.

How do you keep from catching bass and getting broke off constantly.

you keep the drag loose. ive caught spots up to 4lbs and one largemouth over 5 .i caught a stripe that was probably close to 10 all on 4lb test under docks. dw caught a flathead that was 20 i think

ive thought about trying 8lb flouro and some kind of 4 inch swimbait to see if i could target bass but ive never done it

Senko

DW says he's forgot more about dock shooting than we'll ever learn. Lol

I know DW is a great crappie fisherman and I don't mean this to take away from his talent but I've shot docks on Wedowee, Weiss, Neely Henry and Guntersville. Wedowee is the easiest. Weiss and NH are about the same and Guntersville is by far the hardest. It's mainly due to the way docks are built on G'ville. They're just dang hard to fish.

Specially when they're wrapped in chicken wire lol

Yeah, or have hog panels hanging off the doors, or any of the other 100 things I've seen done to keep people from fishing docks on the Big G. They also don't drop the water level so Christmas trees can't easily be stuffed under them.

I gotta admit, iffin I had a lake house with a nice boat house, I'd fence that sucker off too and build me a private crappie hole

But you’re an ass. LOL

removable trap door in the pier. call it redneck ice fishing

Them floating docks are the hardest ones to shoot to me. The ones that have that little 2 or 3 inch crack between em. They seem to be more of them on wedowee because of the winter draw downs. I dont know how but DW will shoot up in them gaps and all I can do is ricochet them off the side. I think it's because he's fat. I'm not sure

You're probably right. I'm fat too and can get the jigs in through that gap.

I can't. I tried shooting a hair jig last time I shot em and took a hook to the finger. I'll stick to other techniques lol

Were you holding the jig by the head or the tail?

damn i always hold the bend of the hook to keep that from happening

I always hold the jig head and have never had it happen.

Head. It was a 1/64 oz.

atleast it wasnt a flipping jig

Ya'll keep talking about this dock-shooting stuff, I'm gonna have to break down and try it one of these days. May have to get one of you Tuscaloosa fellers to show me how it's done. I won't mention Beadlescomb by name...

you still got my old boat?

Nope, sold it last year to buy a 4 wheeler.....need to get another, but probably going to be a while.

Wish there was an abundance of docks on wheeler, I know there's a good bit in the elk but I've never fished much in there.