Do you love big bluegill?

Fishing "Between The Docks" a forgotten Summer Pattern for Panfish

I'd like to provide some detail on a method of fishing I used quite a bit this summer period. I didn't invent it or make this method up. I just feel nowadays it's largely ignored and may need some RE introduction into a fisherman's quiver of methods as it did mine.

Growing up on a lake in the seventies during the summer periods I fished a lot of long natural shorelines thinking that it provides a productivity edge with the bluegill. Sure the lily pads weed lines fallen timber and bull rushes all seemed at the time to attract more fish then the developed shorelines. Fish love cover. Undeveloped natural shorelines provide a lot of surface area for a food chain to develop no argument here. But when a fish is given no other choice docks, posts, boats and swim platforms provide an alternative cover.

Statistically I believe the more natural least fish pressured lakes do have better quality of size and population of blue gill then the heavily pressured lakes. This summer found me fishing the heavily populated and developed lakes. I concentrated efforts on heavily fished pressured lakes surrounded by cottages year round homes and docks. One lake in particular... 100% of the perimeter was fully developed.

When natural shorelines, lily pads, fallen timber, cattails etc are not available I concentrated my efforts along dock edges under swim platforms and along parked boats. Not every between the docks strategy works well along any shoreline. Some shorelines are significantly superior in productivity than others. This is where I used the greatly detailed lake maps I created on my elite 7 HDI for planning my strategies.

What I look for on contour mapping GPS charts are larger flat areas with wide contours associated with secondary deeper weed edges and water. The deeper steep drops off shorelines shown by tighter concentrated contour lines were largely ignored. In my opinion Lepomis are not attracted to drop-offs as much as they are to weedy flats. Lepomis productivity on inside turns and bays were better than outside points and bars.

My plan of attack for using this method "in between the docks" was mainly from a jon-boat utilizing a transom mount trolling motor or anchor to maintain position while casting. You could easily fish this method from a dock or wading also.

I used ultra light spinning rods and reels with thin super lines casting tiny baits such as the Lil minnow and gulp pink waxies mounted on 1/80th ounce or 1/64th oz plain unpainted jig heads.