Wide-gap hooks and pinch-on weights allow fishermen to rig soft-plastics weedless for use around docks; jigheads are the ticket for most live-bait situations.

While many of us remember the line, “What’s up Doc?” from Bugs Bunny cartoons, it is also a question we should be asking of our fishing. All we need to do is add the “k” and change it from a person to a thing and it becomes a valid question. What is up with docks and why do so many successful anglers target them?

First and foremost, docks are structure. They provide points of attachment and cover for smaller members of the food chain and break the current for predators.

Primary dock materials are wood and concrete, and these materials allow attachment by barnacles, mussels, oysters, grasses and other lower levels of the food chain. Biologists working with marine artificial reefs have said that the first growth begins in a matter of seconds. The N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries’ artificial reef program has a film clip that documents it. Marine life may not attach quite as quickly to dock pilings in the estuaries, but in a short time the difference is readily noticeable, even to the naked eye.

The food chain begins with organisms too small to see without magnification and continues to upper-level predators. Oysters, mussels and grasses filter smaller organisms, and smaller fish that eat plankton and such. Medium-size fish eat the smaller fish, then larger fish eat the medium-size fish, and so on until the fish become genuinely large.

North Carolina’s state-record black drum, caught by Charles Dycus of Sanford in 1998, weighed 100 pounds and one ounce and was caught under the ADM Dock just upriver from Southport. Needless to say, this is the upper reach of food chains that begin with microorganisms suspended in the water, but they show the relationships and what can grow under docks.

Docks also break the flow of the current. Even in lakes, there is some movement of water, generated by winds blowing across the lake or from rivers and streams flowing into or out of the lake. When the wind is high, or in the spring when winter runoff is moving through a lake, there is stronger current. Other times, the current may be virtually non-existent, but fish still gather around docks for shelter.

Another factor that affects fishing is what is around the dock. A dock near the mouth of a marsh or creek will hold more fish than a dock in the middle of miles of unbroken shoreline, especially so if the water of the falling tide runs past the end of the dock or disperses onto a flat beside it.

Along the North Carolina coast, the tide changes approximately every six hours and 15 minutes. With four tides each day, the tide being approximately one hour later each day. If the tide was high at 6 a.m., it will be high the next day at around 7 a.m. Tides will vary a little with the moon phase and wind direction and intensity, but is close enough for rough planning of trips. Remember that the tide that runs in and carries fresh bait will peak after a few hours and start to fall and push bait back along the same dock on the way out.

Many fishermen fish docks very similar to the way they fish anywhere else, but I change up a little to take better advantage of the situation. Many fishermen use Carolina rigs for fishing live bait in any situation. They just change the size of the hook, strength of the leader and weight of the sinker for different species and locations.

Because of all the structure associated with docks, I keep my rig as short and simple as possible. My basic dock rig for live bait is a 6- to 12-inch leader and a jighead or bucktail. I use the lightest jighead that reaches the bottom quickly and hook the bait from the bottom up through both jaws and out the nose. I don’t have a hook washing around in the current to snag on something. I like the After Shock jighead by Blue Water Candy, as it is wide enough it doesn’t roll over on its side and hide the hook.

The same jighead used with live bait will work with soft plastics, but around docks I like to keep the short leader and switch to a wide-gap worm hook and pinch weight with soft-plastic grubs, jerkbaits and shrimp. You can rig it weedless to prevent snagging. Also, using a pinch weight on the hook shaft balances the bait, and it will flutter down like an injured bait, rather than nose diving from the weight of a jighead or butt dragging with a weight too far back.

When fishing a dock, it is important to remember the current will push a bait and carry it behind a piling or across a cross brace. The bait should be cast to land immediately beside an upcurrent piling, so it will reach the bottom before the current sweeps it across the opening between pilings. If it takes more than about 3/8ths of an ounce to get the bait down, the current is probably too fast to fish that dock effectively, and you should move to an area with less current or concentrate on fishing the downcurrent end of this dock.

A primary trait of productive docks is a boat on a lift and a cleaning table — especially when both appear well used. These docks are owned by people who fish and bring home some of their catch. The fish scraps discarded beside the cleaning table attract fish and crabs and enhance the dock’s food chain, increasing the odds of hooking larger fish.

Your knots and fishing ability then must combine to help you get the fish out from under the dock without breaking the line or being cut off by the barnacles on the pilings.

I fish shorter, heavier rods and reels with stout drags filled with strong, braided line when fishing around docks. I also fight fish almost heavy-handed, because if the fish isn’t dragged out from under the dock pretty quickly, the odds shift to its side and increase the likelihood the fish will drag the line across oysters or barnacles and cut it. The odds of landing a fish from under a dock are against the fisherman from the get-go, so having good equipment with good hardware and correctly tied knots are things you can control to be in your favor.

The next time you’re fishing and your regular spots aren’t working for you, think about this and give the docks a try. You might be surprised what fish are often laying under them. You might also be the next person telling a true story about, “the one that got away.” That happens under docks — but you catch some nice ones too! Good fishing.