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.

[Brag]

The other issue is that I don't have a livescope system yet and I'd presume that would help a lot. I really want one and will eventually get one, just can't justify the cost right now.

[DockShootinJack]

For docks I use side scan.

[Brag]

For docks I use side scan.

Which is another issue. I have sidescan, but I have yet to really figure it out and can't really see well on it. I'm watching some Youtube videos currently to figure out how to get better contrast and sensitivity out of the sidescan, because I have yet to look at a dock and say, "Wow, look at those Crappie on my sidescan". So either this lake doesn't have any Crappie on the docks I've looked at with sidescan (unlikely) or I haven't figured out how to set it up and interpret what I'm seeing (I've seen plenty of videos where it was patently obvious that they were looking at Crappie, so I think setup is my issue, not necessarily interpretation).

[DockShootinJack]

Some real helpful folks here in the electronics section.

[Cane Pole]

I have dangling objects under our floating dock so to mess with people.