4 Fabulous Ways to Fish Docks for Early Autumn Crappie

Fall ranks among the best times of the year to fish for crappie around docks and piers. These strategies will help you catch more crappie from these structures.

Docks hold crappie year ‘round, concentrating fish in easily recognizable locations. That becomes even more true during late summer and continuing into autumn, when all-day shade provides added draw and when other thermal refuge locations are often far from the bank and challenging for anglers to locate and fish effectively.

Docks tend to produce extra well when they have a good range of depths beneath them and brush beneath or out from them, especially if they are located near a creek or river channel edge. If a lake has a lot of docks, a bit of map study can be greatly beneficial for identifying potentially productive docks.

Docks lend themselves to a variety of angling approaches, by boat and from the structures themselves. We’ll look at four ways to make the most of the crappie catching opportunities that docks provide throughout fall and then highlight some of the finest crappie baits for fishing around docks.

Dipping Brush & Dock Supports

During early autumn, the best crappie concentrations are often at the deep ends of docks, making the outer edge dock posts and any brush sunk off the deep end prime locations. The brush gets extra good when the sun is behind the dock and the bank behind it, extending shade off the dock’s end.

As long as the water is sufficiently deep and/or off colored that a boat can be positioned over the crappie with without spooking them, a straight vertical approach is sometimes tough to top because it allows for extremely accurate placement of jigs very close to cover and at any desired level and for the slow (sometimes stationary) presentations often needed to coax crappie bites during late summer.

The approach is simple. Place your rod tip directly over where you want to fish, lower your bait to a desired starting depth. Experiment with gentle jiggling, rod tapping and slow lifts to impart subtle action. Also try holding the rod as still as you can. A long rod makes placement and depth control simple but isn’t critical to the technique. If you have modern electronics, use them to see how fish are positioned and how they react.

One helpful patterning trick, especially if you do not have live sonar for watching fish and your bait, is to land fish by lifting the rod and pulling the line away from the rod with your non-rod hand – as opposed to reeling. This allows you to drop the jig back to the exact depth where that fish bit.

Pitching & Casting

If the crappie are shallow or the water is clear, positioning the boat over them might not be an option. In addition, sometimes the mood of the fish makes them react better to a moving bait. In either case, a pitching or casting strategy might be a better approach for working the edges of a dock and any brush beside it or off its end.

For large docks with broad edge areas and plenty of cover sunk near them, casts allow you to cover water and find productive zones. The typical approach is straightforward. Cast parallel to various dock edges and past areas where brush is submerged, let the bait fall to the proper zone, and reel steadily. Depending on the water depth, the initial pause might be short or several seconds, and if you are positioned off the end of the dock but casting shallow, you’ll want to slow the pace as you reel so the bait stays down in the zone.

Pitching is more targeted, for shorter distances and specific targets, like a dock support or specific brush pile, and the normal presentation is a pendulum swing. Pitch past the target, shut the bail and let the bait swing back toward you and through the zone as it sinks.

For casting or pitching, steady presentations usually work best, and too many rod snaps deter fish. That said, crappie are moody, and sometimes little twitches are important triggers. It’s important to experiment and pay attention to what the fish reveal. If every strike follows a twitch of the rod tip, you probably want to add more twitches!

Dock Shooting

Shooting is one of the best ways to get crappie jigs WAY under docks, where the fish are hard to reach. Crappie guide and shooting expert Terry Blankenship details the mechanics of effective dock shooting.

From the Dock

If there is a fishing pier or pay-to-fish marina dock near you, or if you have access to a productive crappie dock, fishing from the actual structure allows you to make extremely accurate and controlled presentations and to pattern fish very effectively. Even when the crappie are shallow, you can work from directly over them, without spooking the fish, as long as you aren’t noisy, and you minimize abrupt movements.

Two primary presentations for fishing from docks are pitching parallel to let the bait pendulum down and a straight vertical approach, with the bait held in place or gently worked beside a support or just above a brush pile. Often the overall approach combines these presentations, with the bait pitched parallel, allowed to swing down and then held in place close to structure.

For any approach, minimized movement is usually best. Being on the dock allows you to fish each dock support slowly and precisely and at a range of depths. Just as you would from a boat, experiment with holding the bait completely still, tapping the rod for very subtle movements and s-l-o-w-l-y reeling or lifting the rod tp. Also experiment with different depths and, if possible, land any fish that strikes without touching the reel so you can return your bait to the same depth.

5 Great Dock Baits

Mayfly – Mayflies and other aquatic insect utilize underwear dock structure and brush; terrestrial insects use the above water parts; insects of all kinds are drawn to dock lights at night. For all those reasons the Bobby Garland Mayfly suggests important crappie forage around docks.

Slab Slay’R – The thin cupped tail of a Slab Slay’R makes it glide and dart on the fall, and the tail wavers, even when the bait is held still. The constant but very subtle action makes this bait ideal for pitching and swinging and for vertical presentations. The Slab Slay’R also skips well, making it a great choice for shooting.

Itty Bit Slab Slay’R – The Itty Bit Slab Slay’R delvers the dock fishing virtues of other Slab Slay’Rs in a 1.25-inch version that matches the small forage that is prevalent during early autumn and entices strikes from fussy crappie.

Baby Shad Swim’R – The Baby Shad Swim’R bridges the subtly of a narrow profile wavering spear tail with a quick swimming action, making it a highly versatile bait for various dock strategies, including vertical and horizontal presentations.

Crappie Shooter – As the name suggests, the Crappie Shooter is ideal for shooting, with flat sides that make it skip well and glide on the fall. Don’t limit thit bait, though. The small shad profile and subtle movement makes it a great option throughout fall for a variety of presentations.