Gosh! I watched a couple videos of crappie guys dock shooting: opening the bail, hand on the string like operating a trigger, rod tip flexed with line pulled back, hold it parallel to the surface, release the bait and the line at the same time . . . off it goes well back under docks, between tight openings.

So, I tried it the other day and kept popping it too far down, thudding a few feet beyond the extended rod tip. Hmm??? Today, I realized how important that getting down and holding the line parallel to the water. Before long I was shooting them way back behind the dock.

So cool to learn something new. I know that likely quite a few of you have done this for years and have it mastered.

One of the guys on the video said he used a 7 foot rod, not shorter rods like some use, that it was no problem. So, I was using my 6'9" ultralight rod shooting a small tube bait. I'd imagine it might be even easier with something shorter.

Here's hoping I can target panfish with it soon from my kayak. As low as I am sitting, I would think it is do-able, perhaps even better down low.

An old dog learns a new trick.

Brad

Good information, enjoyed the post

Lots of nice fish stage under docks. Dock shooting is a great tool to have!

I find that a shorter rod is best for me when I'm shootin'. B&M makes a decent dock shootin' rod but I tend to like my St Croix Triumph a little better. B&M has changed their dock shooter at least twice, maybe 3 times. The latest one is a 6' M power. It's a seriously stiff graphite rod that's a bit too stiff for my liking. It really does propel a jig a long ways, but seems to lose a bit of gameness on the back end. The Triumph I have is a 6' L power doesn't propel a jig back as far but it does the job for me. It gives more on the hookset and the drag out for really big sunfish and crappie, but I like the sportiness of it. If your docks have wall hangers and/or the docks have a lot of brutal structure under them, go with the B&M. If they are average to fairly big and the structure is a bit lighter or if you don't mind losing a fish to gain some sport, try the St Croix.

On the same subject, dock shooting (or skippin' in some crappie circles) is a lot like skipping rocks when we were kids. You want to make the trajectory of your jig as flat and as close to the water surface as possible. Also, a roundish bait like a tube with an internal jighead will skip much better than a bait with a lot of edges or appendages.

i've never shot docks for anything besides crappie, but i can see how this would be beneficial to catching some panfish under docks as well. Shooting, as the name implies tends to be a very accurate way of casting. I could see this being a good idea for targeting gills on beds or just sight fishing period.

Nice post. Good information. A good friend of mine dock shoots for Crappie and gets great results. Great tactic to know.

Great post. Always a good thing to have other methods to catch fish.

jagg makes some good points about the rod characteristics for shooting. What is best for shooting might conflict a bit with setting a hook and other qualities we often want in a rod. No one rod can do it all just like in bass fishing.

It would seem to me that the optimal rod, especially for shooting from a kayak, would be on the shorter side. Too, it would seem that one would want a moderate tip and not a fast tip so that the rod bows farther back toward the handle. The more like an archery bow the better, I suspect.

jagg/all, I wonder if this is what accounts for the PFS50ULM, the one listed on top of the attached list of St. Croix panfish rods, being a moderate action? Is it that this one rod is more designed for and suited to dock shooting?

Note that it is the only one in the entire PF series that doesn't have a fast tip.

Oh! And it is rated a tiny bit higher on lure weights: 1/16 to 1/4 ozs. instead of the 1/32 to 3/16 ozs. for many of the others.
Just a guess that it likely helps to skip lures that are just slightly heavier that don't get hung up with water friction.

Brad

Right on the button, Brad! The Moderate action allows the rod to flex way into the handle if you want. Some of the Northern guys I know like that rod in particular to dock shoot with braid. The moderate action protects the non stretch line and acts as a shock absorber. Seen the pull out some hefty slabs on that rig. The lure weight range is more due to the build of a blank. Not necessarily what weights they recommend, more along the lines of the weight range the blank can safely handle.

Of course, another reason the 5' is UL power and M action is tradition. Back in the day when almost all UL rods were short (like 4' - 5'6"), they were often more parabolic in their actions and rarely had a fast tip. For the longest time those were glass rods, but even in the early days affordable graphite, the super short UL's were still a moderate (but not often slow i.e. parabolic) action. The most popular were rods like the Ugly Stiks that were a graphite/glass hybrid.

jagg, yes, I recall some of those moderate/parabolic sorts of rods and I actually have a 4' 6" or 4" 8" Ugly Stik that a neighbor gave to me last year. It is very soft, very parabolic.

Interestingly, the moderate action on the St. Croix I mentioned might actually prevent pulling a lure clear of a panfish on a hook set since it applies force down the line slower than a faster tip.

And, I know this confuses a lot of people, but it also gives the angler more leverage over a fish once the fight is on . . . not that one needs much leverage for most panfish.

A moderate tip moves the lifting point closer to the hands, making for a shorter lever, giving the angler more power over a fish than either longer rods or those with faster tips where the lifting point is farther away from the hands.

I started to call St. Croix and ask them why the one moderate panfish series rod . . . but when I started learning how to "shoot" it suddenly all made sense.

I think I will buy one! This way, I'd have my 6'9" for longer ultralight casts, then a short one for up close situations, shooting docks.

Gosh, the 6'9" casts like a dream using 2 lbs. braid, even down to 1/32nd lures. And, I have now landed several LMBs and the rod has plenty of backbone to pull them in. I caught a large white bass several days ago, it fought like a 3 lbs. bass though it was likely 1.5 lbs. or thereabouts . . . I was too lazy to bend over and lift the fish so when I lifted it up at the dock by the braid, the lure broke off. Still, the rod and line does well for bigger more aggressive fish.

*** I tied on and tried to shoot a sausage head jig and found it to be too heavy to skip very well. It tended to hit the water and drop immediately. In general, the sausage head jigs fall through the water column very rapidly. So, I'll revert to shooting the small crappie tubes as they seem to fling/shoot farther back and skip much better.

Any "best" lures for shooting that anyone here prefers???

Brad

While a shorter rod has a power advantage in the direct approach, longer rods offer more forgiveness in the form of the rod taking the brunt of the fight rather than the line. Not only that, but it gives you the better angle options. Less stress on line plus more angle options typically equals more presentation options and better chance to land the fish. Both big and small.

I do agree with you also on the moderate action giving the fish more of a chance of getting the hook. One of the reasons I use glass rods with topwaters and other lures with trebles is because glass rods tend to have a moderate action that will give a fish a split second more to get hold of the bait before my hookset takes it away.

Glad you are enjoying the rod, Brad. I thought it was a super rod when I was using nylon, but now that I am using braid as well? Wow! What a combo!

Nice Post. I will have to try this sometime when I am crappie fishing on the docks!

jagg, all good points! I'd only quibble with the tension on the lines of various length rods. I actually did the math for a separate question the other day to answer it and saved my work.

And, I'll start by mentioning that if someone in a gym can leg press 700 pounds by pushing up on the sled at a 45 degree angle, it doesn't mean he can squat 700 lbs., that is lift it vertically. And, at 0 degrees, we can get behind and "push" very heavy cars. If the angle we push increases, we eventually can't. So, the formula is: Force = sin(of angle) * actual weight. A 700 lbs. leg press is then, in terms of vertical force like in a squat, about 495 lbs.

So, to this idea of steepness adds force (or resistance) if we compare a 6' and a 7' rod held out at the same 45 degrees from where a person stands in a boat and at the height he holds the rod so making comparing a rod tip of 11 feet versus 12 feet above the water (just guess at some heights here), a line that is twenty feet away in the water, results in an angle that is about 4 degrees steeper for the extra foot of rod length.

The longer rod, if you follow my logic, my math, actually creates a steeper angle, and steeper angles increase the tensile forces on the line.

On the idea of managing presentation options, for sure. You see short rods used over the gunwales for offshore fishing where one is pulling straight up on heavy fish off the bottom; for fish higher in the water column, you see much longer rods so these anglers can control the fish better as it swings back and forth in the fight.

I don't suppose there is a perfect rod. Likely the closest thing to a Jack of all trades, master of none" rod and reel would be something around 6'6" to 7', medium light to medium heavy, moderate tip . . . spinning reel over baitcaster. You can catch a lot of different species in that range!

Math below.

Brad

Shooting a bait or jig can also come in handy in other situations also. I use the technique to get baits under low hanging tree limbs, in between trees or brush when you can't cast in there and sometime with a float when fishing shallow. Sometime you just can't pitch it in there, so shooting comes in handy.

Later...don

Dockshooting=calculus ...wow foreals I'm learning