During the hot and sunny summer months, bass in lakes and rivers seek out shade, taking up positions under boat docks or beneath overhanging trees.

By positioning themselves in shade, bass stay cooler, as the water temperature will be slightly less than the water on the main lake or river. Second, by lurking in the shade, a bass is in a better position to ambush its food.

Whether under or around a boat dock, or in super-shallow water beneath an overhanging tree, small minnows or panfish will be hanging in the shade as well. Bass can grab a quick snack if silhouetted in the shade.

On many lakes and rivers, the number of boat docks lining the shore can seem endless. It is therefore important to identify key boat docks and their features.

When starting your angling quest for bass holding around docks, you need to identify where they are positioned. Bright sunshine versus cloud cover plays a huge factor in fish location.

Fishing outer edges

During lowlight periods of the day, or if there is cloud cover, bass will likely not be positioned far up underneath a boat dock; they will be holding on the edge of the dock, or in secondary cover in the vicinity of the dock.

I like targeting these bass with moving baits that mimic the food bass are feeding on around docks, which is likely bluegills or small baitfish. My first choice is a buzzbait, as it catches a bass’s attention and will bring bass in that may be cruising nearby. A buzzbait can also be cast into tight quarters that often go together with fishing boat docks. Using buzzbaits, you don’t have to worry about getting hung up on the abundant amount of manmade snags present.

I like using a 3/8-ounce War Eagle Buzz Toad under these conditions. It has a unique head shape and a soft-plastic frog on the back that make this bait easier to skip underneath boat docks and overhanging trees.

I retrieve my buzzbait parallel to each side of the dock to ensure that I do due diligence identifying where bass may be positioned. I also skip my buzzbait under the dock or overhanging trees, which is why I fish buzzbaits on braided line. My 40-pound Seaguar Smackdown Braid is super smooth, allowing me to make key casts. I know it will aid in me getting bass out from underneath a dock.

Another lure that I use when bass are cruising around and under boat docks and overhanging trees is a vibrating jig. The bait’s action mimics bluegills and baitfish and you can pitch it underneath the cover creating the shade. Many times, the cover in the immediate vicinity of the boat dock is vegetation or laydowns, and bass will move back and forth from the protection of the boat dock to the nearby fish-holding cover. As the sun starts to move higher in the sky, the shade cast down on the water from the dock draws bass to position themselves in the shade to ambush unsuspecting meals.

The premium components of Z-Man’s 3/8-ounce ChatterBait Elite EVO aid its ability to deliver maximum vibration, ensuring you will hook up with a hungry bass holding under a boat dock. The Elite EVO also has a unique ability to track over and around the “under workings” of a boat dock.

Down under

Once bass have moved up underneath boat docks, you need to put your lures in places that many anglers will not dare to fish. Underneath boat docks, a multitude of items attract bass: support poles (both vertical and horizontal), cables and floats. These components provide bass with cover to sit behind or under to ambush a meal. The problem is, all these items are possible places to snag lures, or to fray or break your line.

First, fish the openings of the boat dock around the perimeter of the dock, as you want to peel back the layers of the dock first. As mentioned previously, we started with bass that may be holding on the edge. Now, you are targeting bass in the easy-to-target openings of the boat dock.

A common error anglers make when fishing boat docks is that they cruise by the front side of the dock and only make casts to the most accessible openings. One area that should always be fished on a boat dock is the area directly beneath the walkway of the dock.

This area does not get targeted by anglers as frequently as the other areas of the dock, resulting in less-pressured bass. These areas are also productive for holding bass because the surface area above the bass’s head is greatest, providing them a great deal of shade, cooler water temperatures and prime opportunities to ambush prey.

To fish walkway areas, you must rely on your equipment to not disrupt those bass, along with not disturbing the lake owner’s property. I keep my Minn Kota Ultrex QUEST trolling motor on a low speed to sneak up on the bass and keep me in complete control of my boat. Once I’m within good casting distance and have the casting angle I want, I’ll deploy my dual Minn Kota Raptors. By doing this, my boat will stay in one spot, allowing me to focus on making precise casts while keeping my boat from bumping the boat docks surrounding me.

My main presentation for targeting dock-dwelling bass is a Texas-rigged soft plastic bait. You can put a Texas-rigged soft plastic bait underneath a dock and fish it without getting hung up on the plethora of snaggy items. I like using 17-pound Seaguar Inviz X Fluorocarbon, as it is very abrasion resistant and will hold up to the abusive conditions underneath the dock. The line has little stretch, so when I set the hook on a bass, I get a solid hookset and am able to turn bass and keep them from wrapping around a dock pole.

I generally rely on a Texas-Rigged Beaver, rigged on a TroKar TK133 Pro V Bend Flippin’ Hook (5/0), behind a 7/16-ounce tungsten weight. If the water is super shallow and the bass are finicky, I drop my tungsten weight down to 1/4-ounce.docks that have deeper water under them are more productive than docks with little water underneath. Yet this is not always true; sometimes, bass only need a few inches of water to live in, and with the overhead cover a boat dock provides, shallow water underneath boat docks is not necessarily a bad thing.

If you determine that bass are using boat docks in shallow water, or underneath overhanging trees in the shallows, use a presentation that makes minimal disturbance as it enters the water. This is when a wacky-rigged stick bait is a great option. This presentation is also a good option if the bass in and around boat docks have seen a lot of fishing pressure from other anglers.

I use a Wacky-Rigged Senko on a TroKar TK137 Pro-V Bend Finesse Hook (size 2) or 1/16-ounce Northland Fishing Tackle Weedless Wacky Jig. I use the Weedless Wacky Jig when I need to make long skips with an X-Zone Lures True Center Stick. The added weight of the jig helps me make longer skips, and the True Center Stick has a tougher center of the bait that won’t rip off the hook when skipped.

When I am skipping a wacky rig on a spinning rod/reel setup, my line choice is especially important for hooking bass and getting them out from underneath docks. I use hi-viz Smackdown Braid in Flash Green so I can see my line and easily skip the bait. To keep my presence to the bass unknown, I connect my braided line to a fluorocarbon leader. Seaguar Gold Label is Seaguar’s thinnest leader material available, which is perfect for finesse presentations. My setup is a 30-pound main line of Smackdown braid, connected to a 10-pound Gold Label leader.

Summertime heat and sun are here. The time to chase bass under and around boat docks and overhanging trees is upon us, so be sure to scout them out. Whether fishing the shade of boat docks or overhanging trees, your eyes are crucial. A good pair of polarized sunglasses is important for seeing bass cruising, and to see underwater cover that bass may be holding on. I wear RLVNT Rangers with the Freshwater Green Lens. This lens color helps open up the underwater world for anglers, especially in waters with vegetation.