Thanks to the whims of Mother Nature, we have spent the last two family boating/fishing vacations pretty much stuck at the dock. Twice since Christmas we have fled the foul winter weather of our home state to head south to Florida, and both times we were met by record-setting cold and wind.
When we were able to brave the water, we were buffeted by a frigid north breeze that taught us the value of finding a lee side, tucking in tight to the cover and taking advantage of the sunlight to keep us comfortable—if not warm. For several days, the conditions were so bad we couldn’t leave the dock. Bitten hard by the fishing bug, however, we were darned if we’d give up the angling too.
Did we catch fish? In a word: yep. In fact, the most productive day we had fishing was the coldest and windiest of all, and although we did leave our slip to wet a line for a couple of hours, we ended up anchored next to someone else’s (empty) dock across the small, protected bay. We could have walked to the spot and fished straight down from the finger piers, but there’s something about fishing from the deck of a boat, especially your own, which you have trailered for 1200 miles, that adds to the allure of angling.
The forced instances reminded me that often we motor past the best fishing places as we head for the horizon in search of the ultimate angling spot—when the quality action may literally be underfoot.
In the case of docks, it’s because the structures offer cover as well as shade to fish, which have no eyelids and need to move to escape the rays of the sun. Those shadows offer concealment as well, places where gamefish can hide and pounce on unsuspecting prey fish that swim past. The pilings that suspend the decking offer food for the fish and the bait they prey upon. Most dock pilings sport a slick coating of algae, which provides food for baitfish that tend to gather in great quantities under docks for the same reasons the gamefish do.
Docks also attract a lot of insects: spiders and flies during the day and, if they are illuminated, lots of flying bugs at night. Usually, where you find insects you find fish feeding on them, day and night.
Boat docks are also the first place you’ll often find fish early each season in areas of the nation that experience cold. They offer some of the warmest water around after the concrete and wood and metal that support most boat docks absorb the heat of the sun all day, and radiate that heat well into the night. That radiance can raise the surrounding water temperature by a degree or two, which attracts baitfish and the larger gamefish that eat them.
All dock materials generate algae eventually—some, like wood, more than others. Proximity to deep water also adds to docks’ appeal. Where legal, you can enhance a dock’s fish-ability by sinking brush, Christmas trees, wood pallets, rocks or commercial fish attractors from a dock to help concentrate the fish in an area where you can catch them. It’s also common knowledge, as least to those who target docks while fishing, that a lone dock, set apart from others, is more likely to concentrate fish than one that is part of a shoreline with one dock after another along the waterfront.
Avid dock anglers ply the marinas and residential areas, looking in the latter for rod holders mounted on the dock pilings or lights installed low to the water to direct their brightness to the depths. Both features may mean the dock has been “managed” for fishing by its owner, who may have sunk a fish-attractive structure below.
We used live and cut fresh natural bait to catch fish on our two recent outings, placing the offerings as close to the pilings as possible. We used bobbers to suspend the live minnows and bottom rigs to pin cut bait to the bottom, and caught fish on both. You can also try casting lures or vertically jigging blade baits or jigs around docks and expect some success. The conditions where we were at that time, dictated the use of highly tempting live and fresh-dead baits, for the fish were not heavily feeding and a bit finicky. We had to be careful to walk lightly on the deck of the boat to keep from alerting them—as we would have done fishing from the docks themselves.
It was a good lesson for us. We’ll fish closer to home in the future—even if ‘home’ is a temporary dock and Mother Nature beckons us to boat further with calm water and light winds. I recommend you try the same when the opp arises.
