Mastering Dock Fishing for Bass with Mark Zona

Since he was a kid, Mercury Pro Team member Mark Zona has been obsessed with teasing bass from beneath boat docks. To this day, skipping a lure into the darkest shadows of the dock shade is a thrill he relishes.

“When you go poking around in the lion’s den, you might just tangle with a lion,” Zona said with a laugh. “You must put the lure in the beast’s lair to tickle his ribs for a reaction.”

The host of “Zona’s Awesome Fishing Show” still vividly remembers wading the shallow banks of small Michigan lakes near where he grew up, targeting his favorite boat docks. Wade-fishing provided a unique perspective of docks at water level, allowing him to observe bass relating to the structures.

“Wading was my primary bass fishing education,” Zona added. “Being so low to the water, I could skip way back into the hardest-to-reach places. That taught me that getting to the right places was key in getting bit by bigger bass.”

Zona admits that skipping prowess is more challenging from a boat but very rewarding when the perfect skip-cast produces a chunky bass that no one else can reach.

How bass use docks in every season

After years of chasing bass across the country, Zona has found docks to be reliable fish producers all year because they provide everything bass need: cover, food, ambush points and spawning grounds.

“If a lake has docks on it, bass are relating to them,” Zona said. “It does not matter where, when or even what kind of docks they are. Bass use docks. Period.”

In the early spring, docks offer staging areas for the prespawn period. Bass suspend around poles, pilings and cables as they acclimate to warming water. When the spawn begins, bass move to the backsides of docks to seek the security of cables and catwalks. After the spawn, docks provide a haven for bass fry. As the water warms up, shad and bream also gravitate toward docks. This is like a food delivery service for postspawn bass. 

How to fish docks in every season

“For me, a dock is basically a large strike zone,” Zona said. “Fish enough strike zones, and you’re going to get bites. It’s the law of averages. In doing so, you can use docks as a barometer for what the fish are doing: spawning, guarding fry, wolfing shad or eating bluegills. One thing is for sure: Dock bass tattle on their neighbors; catching one from a dock is a solid clue as to what the others are doing.”

In the colder waters of early spring, Zona targets the fronts of the docks, closer to deeper water. As the waters warm during a fishing season, he focuses his fishing efforts on shallower parts of the docks. By summertime, he moves up to target the shallowest parts of the docks where they connect to the bank.

He notes that many anglers steer clear of docks in the summer because of all the swimming and boating activities around them. They think all that commotion scares the fish away.

“I can assure you that activity doesn’t bother bass one bit,” Zona added. “I have watched them eat my lure with people stomping all around on the docks.” 

How to skip a dock with a spinning reel

Zona advises anglers who want to learn the dock-skipping game to start with a spinning outfit. The spinning reel offers much better line control and eliminates the possibility of backlashes, which are more common with baitcasters. Load the spinning reel with 15- to 20-pound-test braided line and tie on a fluorocarbon leader. Weightless or lightly weighted baits like wacky rigs, Neko rigs and shaky heads are perfect for skipping beginners. He prefers a 7-foot rod. Anglers taller in stature might have to go with a rod that’s a few inches longer to swing the lure closer to the water’s surface.

“The most critical element to look for in a good skipping rod is a fast action with a soft tip and quick backbone,” Zona said. “The tip must be limber in the first 15 to 20 inches to load the bait properly – almost like a slingshot.

“Loading the tip correctly is the key to accuracy and skipping the bait efficiently,” he continued. “The tip should be limber but then transition quickly into a strong backbone for hooksets. The moderate action of a slower rod is too parabolic to get the job done.”

To practice skip-casting without any pressure, Zona suggests getting into a calm pocket and skipping a lure over smooth, open water without docks around. In time, you’ll get a feel for the correct “whipping action” to load the rod tip and then time the release to send the lure low across the water’s surface.

“Don’t force it,” he said. “It’s like skipping stones across the water. It’s not how hard you throw it that counts. It’s how low and parallel to the surface the lure gets that determines how well the lure skips. In time, you get a feel for where that sweet spot is in your skip-cast. As skipping becomes a little easier, test your trajectory on docks to see how low you can go.” 

How to skip a dock with a baitcaster

Once confidence has been established skipping docks with a spinning rod, it’s time to graduate up to casting gear for skipping heavier lures such as jigs and hollow-bodied frogs. Due to the free-spooling nature of casting reels, they are prone to backlash in a split second.

“If you keep blowing your reel up like a haystack when trying to skip-cast with a casting reel, be patient,” Zona said. “Trust me, this takes time to learn. One thing that will help is a shallow-spool reel designed for skipping – like the Team Lew’s Pro SP. Also, when first starting, try turning the backlash control, or brakes, up higher to keep backlashes under control. As you get better at it, you can ease off the brakes and let the line flow off the spool for better distance.”

Zona’s favorite skipping bait on a casting rod is a 1/2-ounce Strike King Structure Jig teamed with a Strike King Rage Craw, tied to 20-pound-test Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon.

“The primary difference between the spinning rod and the casting rod is speed,” he added. “Spinning outfits are fine, but they are slow in terms of covering water. A casting rod helps you pick up the pace because you can use heavier lures that cover more water faster. Again, the more docks you can fish in a day, the more fish you will catch.”

Keys to dialing in a dock-fishing pattern

Another aspect of boat dock fishing that Zona enjoys is unlocking the pattern of where bass position on dock structures from day to day. This requires fishing numerous docks as fast as possible to discover the particular dock features the fish are using at any given time.

“If you want to see undisputed proof that bass pattern well, fish boat docks for a couple of weeks,” Zona said. “When you dial in what part of the dock they want to be on, in what depth, you can run that combination like clockwork to make dock-fishing magic.”

Dock components to pay attention to include swim ladders, harnessing cables, low catwalks, submerged boat lifts in boat slips, swim platforms flanking off the sides of the dock and any part of the dock that provides the darkest shade.

“If I catch a couple of bass off a shallow swim ladder, I’ll just idle down rows of docks looking for shallow swim ladders,” Zona explained. “It’s amazing how predictable dock patterns can be once you find the right combination of dock sections and depth. When you figure out which 20 percent of the dock the fish want to use, then you can focus on that high-percentage cast and compound the number of bites.”

In today’s modern fishing age of high-powered electronics, Zona still likes to bring the mystery back into fishing with some old-school dock skipping for bass.

“Each time I make a perfect skip-cast into the dark shade of a dock, I hold my breath,” he said. “You never know what kind of beast lives in those shadowy haunts.”