When it’s hot and sunny outside it’s usually a good time to consider targeting docks. Bass don’t have eyelids and if it’s really bright and hot outside it makes sense that you would find some in the shade under a dock. Plenty of anglers have figured this out and skipping docks is definitely not a new concept. In fact these days they’ve even got casting reels like the Lew’s Pro SP that are specifically designed for skipping. Having said that I tried fishing around docks with a casting reel and eventually decided to try using a spinning rod instead. Today I’m personally at a point where I prefer a good spinning rod for this purpose. Most anglers still seem to think a casting reel is better for doing this and so I decided I’d take a few minutes and explain why I prefer a spinning rod for skipping docks.
TLDR – Backlashes
In general backlashes aren’t fun and I’d imagine most people would agree that they are the biggest downside to using a casting setup. There’s certainly some upsides to a casting setup and as an example I prefer one for pitching and flipping or for throwing larger baits and wanting to get as much casting distance as possible with them. But in those situations I don’t really get backlashes all too often and even if I do they are usually pretty easy to deal with. On the other hand, if you have ever thrown a lure as hard as you can at a dock that wasn’t too far away from you and it ended up hitting something that you weren’t expecting to hit then chances are you have gotten one of the backlashes that I’ve experienced when I’ve used a casting rod around docks. Normally you could just put your thumb on the reel before the lure hits whatever it was that you weren’t intending it to hit but there’s a couple of drawbacks with that:
- If you’re in a kayak like me you might be doing two or three things at once and so your attention isn’t always going to be entirely on making your cast and getting your thumb on the reel as soon as possible.
- There’s also a fair amount of shade and things that are sort of hidden around docks and you might not even see what your lure hit until it’s too late.
To make matters worse, if you do get a backlash while doing this chances are it’s going to be nastier than one that you might get from a regular cast. In fact to this day the worst backlash I’ve ever got happened while I was doing this and it was so bad that I immediately knew that the entire spool of relatively expensive fluorocarbon that I had just spooled up on that reel was going to need to be replaced and that rod was essentially out of commission for the remainder of that trip.
On the other hand, if you haven’t already noticed you can have the same thing happen with a spinning setup and there’s basically no downside. You’ll just hear a large thump and probably end up winding your lure back in and in under a minute you’re already making the next cast. I’ve also not really noticed any advantage to casting setups when it comes to actually skipping a lure and have found that I pretty much get the same results with a spinning setup.
Ok so now that we’ve covered the why let’s get into what I would look for when it comes to a good dock skipping rod. Most spinning rods these days have a foregrip on them, but in my case I don’t prefer a foregrip on my spinning rods so that limits my options a bit. If you prefer a foregrip that’s fine and I’m not going to try to argue which one is better but will say that if you haven’t already figured it out you might want to pay attention to this before you purchase a new spinning rod. Aside from that I would argue that you don’t really need a super sensitive rod for skipping docks, and I usually find that a shorter rod works better for me. So having taken all of that into consideration if I were to go out and buy a dock skipping rod right now, I’d probably opt for this one:
In case you’re not already aware of them that’s a Dobyns Champion XP and in my case I’d opt for the DC683SF model. This one is 6’8″ so it’s a shorter rod and it’s also a medium power rod with a traditional fast taper. In my case I actually already own a 7′ Sierra from Dobyns and while I would technically prefer this one and would probably choose it over the Sierra, the Sierra is also a fine rod and I probably won’t be replacing it any time soon. But there are also plenty of other options out there (especially if you do like spinning rods with foregrips). The main thing I would suggest is looking for something that’s a little shorter to help with your accuracy, and making sure it’s a medium power rod with a fast taper. I also don’t necessarily feel that sensitivity is as important with this technique, so a line like the Champion XP would work fine and I personally don’t feel that I would need something more sensitive than that. If you are out skipping docks and find that you are getting a lot of backlashes try picking up a spinning rod…you might end up liking it!
