Attracting fish to your boat dock and rigging it for
fishing.
Your dock
can be a great place to fish if you have sufficient
water depth under it. In this article we'll share
some tips that have helped us to catch fish year round
and to attract bigger fish to the dock. To attract
fish to your dock you need to meet their basic needs: a
ready food supply, protection from predators, and shade
in the summer which your dock provides in its very
design. Your dock can provide all these items to
fish and in so doing you will have many hours of
enjoyment watching the fish and if you choose catching
them.
To provide
a ready food supply to fish mount photo cell activated
lights to your dock. The brighter the bulb and the
closer to the water within reason the better. Use
halogen bulbs if possible since they will penetrate
deeper into water. Florescent bulbs are not a good
choice for this application. They are, however, a
good choice for over all dock lighting since they are
cheaper to operate, draw fewer bugs, and cast a smaller
shadow. The use of a photo cell activation
provides a means to turn the lights on at dusk and
off at dawn each day without having to set and reset a
timer.
The lights
will stimulate the growth of plankton which will draw
minnows and shad if your body of water has them.
These bait fish will then draw the larger fish in.
The best time to fish around the lights is about one
hour after dusk until you get tired of catching fish!
The best bait to use is minnows or shad of the same size
as your lights have attracted. If it is legal to
do so on your body of water you can use a
minnow
trap
or
cast net
to catch bait right from your dock. Please see our
article on
keeping
bait alive at your dock
for tips on building a bait tank or to
purchase
one of our boat dock bait tanks.
To provide
protection to the fish sink or suspend fish attractors
below your dock. The important item here is to stimulate
algae growth on the attractor to draw in bait fish and
to situate the attractor in the fishes comfort zone.
The fish attractors should be made out of approved
materials and anchored in such a way as to not interfere
with boat traffic. The comfort zone is deep enough
to not be seen from the surface and above the
thermocline. Please check out our
fish
attractors
that are easy to assemble and can be suspended below
your dock or anchored to the bottom. They provide
protection for fish and stimulate the algae growth that
attracts bait fish.
Lastly
be sure to mount
rod
holders
at appropriate intervals on your dock so that you can
fish multiple poles while keeping your hands free.
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