I’ve done a fair amount of dock fishing this summer. My initial question still isn’t clearly answered. Is it better to hammer the same dock or 2 all day with mullet and mud crabs or is it better to move from dock to dock as the fish stop biting?
So far I’ve tested fishing the same dock for 15 minutes and moving on if I didn’t get bit. If I get bit, its usually rather quickly as the fish (reds, flounder, sheeps) are pretty aggressive. My guess is that I catch the aggressive fish on the initial fall of the bait or within 30 seconds of the bait being on the bottom because the current seems to push it out of the strike zone. I’ve tried using heavier weight but then you compromise feeling the bite as well.
I’ve seen guys that tie their boats up to docks and will hammer the same dock for the day. My experience favors going dock to dock until I find the fish.
Anyone else have any input?
Going often and knowing tides and water temp is your answer. imo I’ve got a favorite dock and other areas, as do most, that pretty much only produces heavy at slack low. I’ve other areas that about the two hour mark on incoming produce good. Some docks seem to produce all through the tide phase if targeting different species and presenting different baits and presentations. (probably the areas you see people hanging around all day?) They could be targeting whitning, sheep head, trout, reds, shark, etc…
Maybe swap up your mullet and mud crabs for some live shrimp. Maybe some different plastics spiked with a small piece of shrimp.
I’ve always found the 15 min move on thing better for fresh water fishing. In the salt the next 20-30 min might be the turn on that only lasts 15 min. Again going often and knowing tides, structure, temp, and if you feel real fancy like most true guides keeping a written record including moon phase and barometric pressure.
Good luck out there! And again don’t forget going often will sometimes land you in that perfect zone where you can do no wrong and they will bite most anything contrary to all your previous attempts.