Floating dock question....

[Brag]

I recently moved (seasonally) to a lake that has a relatively small Crappie population, but some real slobs. The local fishermen suggest that it's not really worth pursuing crappie here and that they're considered a bi-catch when you're fishing for Spotted bass or other species. I don't accept that and have vowed to figure the lake out and learn how to fairly reliably go out and catch at least 8 or 10 Crappie when I needed or wanted to. Folks do occasionally plant some brush, but it's not like the other nearby lakes that have tons of brushpiles and other cover for Crappie. It's a deep lake and there are tons of docks on the lake, but they're almost all floating docks (requirement of the energy company that controls the shoreline). It's a river run reservoir in the southeast and I'm typically down here from Dec 1 until April 30th or thereabouts.

My question is how to handle the floating docks and whether they really hold many Crappie (compared to the anchored docks with pilings on most lakes). The docks all have some cable system of anchoring them, but very few have any anchored posts or other structure. So, is the shade provided by the docks enough to hold Crappie? I've only caught a handful of Crappie on the lake so far (including some really, really nice ones), but as of now, I've only caught ONE on a dock. Do I need to just work harder and find a honey run of those docks that might reliably hold Crappie or should I ignore the docks and look for brush elsewhere? I do feel like I'm a competent dock shooter with small jigs, so I don't think it's an issue with my technique or inability to present a jig.

Just really curious what the dock guys do with these floating docks, particularly on a lake that only has floating docks.

[DockShootinJack]

I have caught some nice ones by shooting jigs up under the docks between the floats. The floating docks offer a lot of shade for the crappie to hide in. Algae growing on the floats attract minnows. Find a floating dock with a little brush under or around it and you have yourself a hot spot for sure. Look for docks with lights pointed down into the water. It is a good indication of fishermen using them. Also a good indication that some structure has been placed as well. Good luck. Hope this helps

[Brag]

Thanks. It's simply going to take me a while to find these places I guess. There really are very few other Crappie anglers on this lake, so even if they were willing to help me out with specific locations (I wouldn't ask), I'd get few responses from the locals. Like I said previously, I have tried to look with sideview (haven't really figured it out very well and don't have the success that some guys do with it) and I've shot quite a few docks thinking that eventually I'd find them, but so far only ONE Crappie from under a dock on this lake. I'll keep after it though. I also look for docks that have "fishing boats" in them and on this lake, 90% of the boats are pleasure boats and almost all of the other 10% are bass boats. I'm in the extreme minority on the lake who are running multi-species type or aluminum fishing rigs.

The other issue is that a lot of these docks have metal lifts on them and even when they're empty (a lot of people on this lake remove their boats in the wintertime) the homeowners tend to leave them down in the water, so it's often hard or impossible to shoot those docks because of the "junk".

[DockShootinJack]

What lake if you don't mind me asking?

[Brag]

Don't like talking about it, but like I said, there's not much interest in Crappie on the lake and some MUCH better options nearby, so it's Lake Keowee in SC. I consider myself to be a pretty experienced and accomplished fisherman, but I acknowledge that I'm not an expert Crappie angler, so if anyone really knows this lake and was willing to take me out and show me the ropes someday, I'd be happy to run my rig, burn my gas and buy lunch.

[catchNgrease]

Don't like talking about it, but like I said, there's not much interest in Crappie on the lake and some MUCH better options nearby, so it's Lake Keowee in SC. I consider myself to be a pretty experienced and accomplished fisherman, but I acknowledge that I'm not an expert Crappie angler, so if anyone really knows this lake and was willing to take me out and show me the ropes someday, I'd be happy to run my rig, burn my gas and buy lunch.

Drop a pin and give us the coordinates. Alot of guys here can find the crappie just by looking at a map. My first guess is shoot the docks. Takes a little practice to hit the cracks between some of them but man is it worth it

Sent from my SM-G975U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[Brag]

Drop a pin and give us the coordinates. Alot of guys here can find the crappie just by looking at a map. My first guess is shoot the docks. Takes a little practice to hit the cracks between some of them but man is it worth it.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

I'm one of those guy's who's a bit tech challenged and I'm not exactly sure how to do so. I presume I could link or copy a map of the lake, but it probably wouldn't show hydrography and I'm not sure how one might go about finding Crappie without more data than a simple 2-D map.

I intend to get out a couple of times this week and hopefully I can get the sidescan dialed in and then spend at least a bit of time cruising around and trying to find a dock or three that might hold some fish. I do appreciate everyone's help.

[catchNgrease]

I'm one of those guy's who's a bit tech challenged and I'm not exactly sure how to do so. I presume I could link or copy a map of the lake, but it probably wouldn't show hydrography and I'm not sure how one might go about finding Crappie without more data than a simple 2-D map.

I intend to get out a couple of times this week and hopefully I can get the sidescan dialed in and then spend at least a bit of time cruising around and trying to find a dock or three that might hold some fish. I do appreciate everyone's help.

I found your water it's a little bit South East of Salem. There is plenty of contour and structure on that water. Actually when I first looked at it I was overwhelmed. Beautiful place for sure.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

[Brag]

I found your water it's a little bit South East of Salem. There is plenty of contour and structure on that water. Actually when I first looked at it I was overwhelmed. Beautiful place for sure.

Sent from my SM-G975U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app

You're correct that there's plenty of structure in this lake and I should have said that COVER, not structure, is pretty limited. They cleared the trees before impounding the lake and other than junk that's thrown in there, there's not a lot of other cover (there are still a lot of stumps, but even those aren't available by the thousands). Not a ton of anglers residing on this lake, so there aren't anywhere near the number of brushpiles places as on other lakes in the area, for whatever reason.

[keeferfish]

Don't like talking about it

I have the answer but

Really don’t want to talk about it!