Skip casting lures under docks and trees is a great way to catch inshore fish like redfish, snook, and trout. If you’re worried about getting hung up, try skipping in open water until you get confident, then head to the docks. I fish with a buddy who is very, very good at catching fish from under docks. Jigs are a perfect first lure for baitcaster skipping, as their flat heads and skirts slide well across the surface. If you’re skipping lures under structure, I recommend using a soft plastic on a weighted wide gap hook because it’s light and weedless, so it’ll skip well and not get snagged. I still remember back at the age of 18, my first introduction to skipping lures under boat docks — it was 1983 and my second ever Tacklebusters B.A.S.S. And before you know it, I was almost completely weened off of using live bait ( in fact, I stopped taking my 12-foot cast net out a couple of years ago )… Soft plastic stick baits like the BioSpawn ExoStick or Strike King Ocho skip better than a flat rock, so they’re the first thing you should try when learning to skip. The goal should be to release the jig about a foot from the water’s surface and have it hit the water about a foot or two in front of your target. Since the head is loose, it can easily get caught on the surface and stop your lure from skipping. Good stuff as always Tony. You also want to avoid jig heads that have a swivel head, like the Texas eye jig head. Use a 6 to 7 foot medium power spinning rod spooled with light braid or … If you try to skip the wrong lure under a dock, you could get snagged, or it might not skip very far (if at all). Sign up for FREE to receive the latest saltwater fishing videos, tutorials, product reviews, and fishing product discounts! Available in a range of colors hand-selected by Cliff Pace, the V&M Pacemaker Skipping Jig is the perfect jig for attacking docks and shallow water cover. Standard 4- to 6-inch worms do nicely, too, particularly straight-tailed designs. On the back end A skipping jig trailer has a job to do, but it’s more about creating the right balance of profile and aqua dynamics than enticing fish with lots of active appendages. More times than not, the surface of the water will catch the hook or the edge of the lure and it’ll end up just plopping right down in. I also don’t like skipping gold spoons because although they can skip well if they hit the water just right, they’re very inconsistent because of their shape. Skipping your lure deep under a dock will lengthen your cast and help you get to areas other anglers might not have reached. Practice, especially time spent off the water, as Seifert explains. Once you’ve mastered skipping with a spinning rod, the next logical step is to start learning how to skip with a baitcaster. Fishing Docks for Largemouth Bass. The Yo-Zuri has the diameter of 17-20 pound flouro but I find it much tougher and better knots than flouro. You want the lure to hit the water just below … Here are the lures I don’t recommend for skip casting: Hard baits, like topwater lures, usually skip across the surface pretty well, but the problem is what happens once you get the lure under the structure. Lures melting together is really common, but easily preventable if you just store them in... Would love your thoughts, please comment. 6'6" MH/H. Best bait for Skipping distance? Focus on docks with quick deep water access. In December of 2014, these two brothers shocked their clients, friends, and family by quitting their 6-figure jobs to start their dream focused on helping saltwater anglers: 2. If you're fishing slowly with finesse baits target single docks or areas with limited numbers of docks. The key to skipping is making sure your rod is parallel to the water at your point of release. The Picasso Hank Cherry Dock Rocket Jig, as the name suggests, has the perfect combination of head design and balance for skipping docks, blowdowns, and other cover. Lastly, choose docks based on the type of fishing you plan to do. Had to dust off the spinning gear for that though. If there’s ample water clarity, just a few casts will suffice. Whether you're fishing in the heat of the summer or in the coldest part of winter, you can bet there will be some quality bass hanging out under docks. Huge differences between floating and pylon docks. You want to avoid jig heads because they put the weight toward the front of lure and if the weight gets caught on the surface, it won’t skip. But just because it’s the easiest, doesn’t mean it’s easy. The place was Lake Minnetonka (in Minnesota) and Bob Kuhn was the guy who showed it to me. But, spinning rods are the easiest to start skipping with and they’re preference for light weight baits. “Before I even thought about shooting I did a lot of trying to skip baits under docks, but it’s not nearly as accurate as this. The perfect amount of tip. The skipping is mechanically the same as it is with a jig, but it’s a little tougher due to the heavier rod and lure required to fish them effectively. Aesthetics match its performance. These are the tricks you need to know to skip your jig wayyyy back under cover. Docks and boat houses are important cover for bass, particularly when shoreline development has depleted natural cover. Instead, try aiming for smoothness. I do want to hear advice on best line for skipping. But what you also need is to have the right lure rigged correctly. Be the first to rate this post. Bobby Garland Baby Shad w/ Bobby Garland 1/16 oz. Also, gold spoons are effective because they wobble as you retrieve them, but if you try to retrieve a gold spoon out from under some mangroves, you’ll very quickly pull it right out of the strike zone, which defeats the purpose of getting it under there in the first place. Leave about a foot and a half of line down from the rod tip, and use a sidearm cast – releasing the line when the rod is near the surface of the water. The proper rod/reel/line outfit will greatly affect the proficiency of this technique. Here are my favorites (in order of preference): Jerk shads Paddletails Shrimp Skipping baits long distances was a must to get to walk ways. I’m not a huge fan of the Zman material but for some reason they skip incredibly well, maybe because of the buoyancy. For more tips on skipping your baits fishing tips video from Intern Gavin: No votes so far! And if you know someone who wants to get better at skip casting, please TAG or SHARE this with them! In order to effectively skip your lure far under a dock takes a little bit of practice, but if you’re dedicated, you’ll be shooting like a pro in no time. You can use both a push-button or open-faced reel, as well. Want access to our best fishing spots and tips, plus discounts to our online tackle store? 25:21 Best areas to skip lures under, and times of year to target them there 35:24 Hooksets and landing fish when the bait is skipped under something like a dock 39:49 What kind of hook does Bryan Thrift like for wacky rigging a Damiki Stinger Soft Stick Worm Here’s what you’ll receive today when you join: Save 30% And Put An End To Your Monthly Charges. Skipping docks and overhanging cover is easy with the right equipment! P.S. Reel Settings For the Best Skip. From Senkos to swimbaits to jigs, this is the information you need to improve your dock fishing this year. Am just starting to use the Strike King skipping jig in 3/8 oz plus a Rage bug trailer. I'm okay at skipping my 1/16 oz … Use a 6 to 7 foot medium power spinning rod spooled with light braid or monofilament. How To Store Soft Plastics To AVOID Them Melting Together, 130 W. Central Ave, Winter Haven, FL, 33880. The biggest mistake many anglers make when skipping with a baitcaster is to overpower the cast (this is the quickest way to a birds nest). Once you can skip a jig on a baitcaster, you can quickly begin experimenting with other presentations, like swimbaits. Once I learned how to effectively skip a lure under mangroves, I began to catch slot reds and snook more consistently without having to bother waking up early to catch live bait in the morning. First, let’s talk about how not to rig lures for skip casting. These types of lures have exposed hooks and there’s a good chance you’ll get snagged. Skipping baits is one of the most productive ways to fish docks and overhanging trees.. To get your baits into some of these spots, there really is no way to get it done efficiently, which is why skipping is such a popular technique for targeting these bass in hard to find spaces. In this video, Bryan Thrift will teach you how to skip docks to catch more and bigger bass. We are sorry that this post was not useful for you! Zona likes a 7-foot, 1-inch G. Loomis NRX Jig & Worm, with heavy power and fast action (NRX 854C). Boat docks are without question one of the greatest bass holding structures in the game. club event. Skipping is best learned with a spinning rod, as the line rolls off the spool without concern of a backlash. For lures you can use a large variety of plastics, but I will narrow it down to the best three available. Most anglers agree that the most popular rods for skipping docks are casting rods. MoGlo Jig head • Colors: (Clear water – Monkey Milk, Threadfin Shad, Blue Ice) (Stained water – Lights out, Devils Grin, Black Hot Pink) Also, if you try to skip the right lure under some trees, but it’s rigged incorrectly, then you might run into the same issue. It skips really well and again has a screw lock to keep the plastic up. In places where you can fish an exposed hook without snagging, such as under floating docks, insert a narrow tube jig inside the hollow plastic bait. Yeah sometimes they skip too good and bounce off the water into a tree haha. The main time frame for skipping is in the springtime around the spawn. For that reason, skipping docks should be near the top of the “essential skills” list for any aspiring bass angler. They can be found in almost every lake, and provide bass both shade and easy access to the schools of little panfish that frequently live beneath them. The main idea behind skipping is to get your lure as far back into the cover as possible. I like to use as light as possible of a weight (or even a bare hook) to skip and I try to not go above 1/4 oz because heavier lures don’t skip as well. Tim shows the 4 combos and the baits he uses for dock fishing. The spawn usually lasts about a month from the very beginning to the end and will begin and end at slightly different times in different areas of the lake. For this task, Montgomery goes with the Strike King Rage Bug, a streamlined bait with a … To help shorten your learning curve – we put together the following dock skipping guide, starting with the easiest presentation to learn with, and stepping up to the more advanced presentations. 1. Snook and tarpon love those things. Click here to join us in the Insider Club! You can skip under all sorts of overhanging cover, but Thrift has one type he likes the best: “Docks are hands down my favorite thing to do,” he said. Baits: Not every lure is “skippable.” Montgomery’s favorites are bladed jigs like the 1/2-ounce Strike King Thunder Cricket, the 1/2-ounce Strike King Skipping Jig, and buzzbaits with soft plastics bodies instead of the conventional skirts. I’ve presented here, the easiest lure of all to skip – the stick worm. Rig them with pegged 1/16- or 1/8-ounce slip sinkers. He’s prone to hit 70 to 100 of them in a day. Many times the fish will be holding in very shallow water and the only way to target them is to skip your lure much like you would skip a rock. Casting rods will give you more accuracy and more control when you catch a fish. Here’s how I do like to rig lures for skip casting: I like rigging lures for skipping on weighted wide gap hooks, like the Owner TwistLock hook. Advertisement. Skipping lures under docks is a difficult skill to master. Boat docks and pontoons are my favorite targets. Here are my favorites (in order of preference): And choosing the right lures to skip is only half of the battle. The sv spools make skipping a breeze, and it's even better with the magforce 3d braking on the t3 reels. So in this video, I’ll show you my favorite types of lures to skip and how to rig them to cast them deep under structure to the fish. Learn what equipment Bryan uses, the baits and the technique for skipping a jig under docks. Weekly fishing reports and TRENDS revealing exactly where you should fish ever trip, Weekly “spot dissection” videos that walk you through all the best spots in your area, Exclusive fishing tips from the PROS you can’t find anywhere else. And here’s one last reason to avoid jig heads when rigging lures for skipping: jig heads are usually not weedless and if you’re skipping a lure under structure that has an exposed hook, you’re just asking to get snagged. Paired with Tatula SV and works great. The Daiwa Elite Skippin' Jig rod is listed as a 7-foot, 1-inch heavy-action rod, but don't let ... Makes skipping feel like second nature. as coangler I have fished with some great experienced pros and none of them are able to go backlash free when skipping all day. Something I have had some good action with lately is skip casting a Pop Shadz in the mangroves. If you want to maximize your skipping ability, you need to also rig your lures correctly. Thrift isn’t too picky when it comes to reel selection for skipping, … Skipping a jig underneath boat docks is an outstanding way to catch big fish throughout much of the year. 40 pound braid and 12 lb Yo-Zuri. Shooting, you can put a jig into places that you’ll be amazed. The Pacemaker Skipping Jig also features a 5/32” fiber weedguard to protect from snags, allowing you to confidently fish a variety of heavy cover. High-percentage spots depend on water depth and cover options. 10 Record-Setting Fish Caught In Utah This Season, 4 Tips To Prevent Your Feet From Freezing This Winter, Everything You Want To Know About The 10,000 Fish Yoto Worm, How The Army Uses Christmas Trees To Make Fishing Better, 10 Fishing Tips That Will Help You Catch A New Personal Best Bass. Start out with a light ¼ or 3/8 ounce jig like the Greenfish Craw Jig, and practice short, sidearm casts while controlling the spool with your thumb. But then using the submerged cross support beams as a tool to present baits vertically also became necessary. Walker Smith. most of the time you skip is docks, so you want short and stiff as possible. Everything you need to start catching fish more consistently (regardless if you fish out of a boat, kayak, or land). Skipping is best learned with a spinning rod, as the line rolls off the spool without concern of a backlash. Cracks 'em on the hookset. He says the amount of practice that is required for skipping with a baitcaster can be intimidating, but it starts with the right rod-and-reel combination. Do what the “SMART ANGLERS” are doing and join the Insider Club. If you want the best baitcasting skipping reels, I'd definitely be looking at any of the daiwa sv reels, or t3 1016, mx, or sv reels. To tempt bites, flip or pitch jigs or softbaits like tubes, soft stickbaits, worms, or craws by pilings and into boat stalls. Soft plastic stick baits like the BioSpawn ExoStick or Strike King Ocho skip better than a flat rock, so they’re the first thing you should try when learning to skip. “You don’t have to spend 10 to 15 minutes on each dock,” he explained. The best way to nurture that hand eye coordination? They’re waiting in ambush for a little shrimp or baitfish to swim by and when your lure drops right in front of their face…. Want to keep your lures from melting together? Final impressions. Skipping docks on Lake of the Ozarks is an amazing way to catch fish and have a fun time doing it. Although it may be a little tricky at first, once you get the hang of it you’ll spend a lot more time catching and less time fishing. Create memories that matter through fishing, Email: fish@saltstrong.comToll-free: (855)888-6494130 W. Central Ave, Winter Haven, FL 33880. If you want to skip your lure far and accurately, you need to have skill, which takes practice. For that, he … Because they’re usually flat, swimbaits like the Bruiser Baits Super Swimmer actually skip pretty well and can be a deadly way to quickly cover water while dock fishing. Bryan Thrift grew up skipping jigs under docks in North Carolina and took what he learned to launch his FLW career with a 2nd place finish in Texas, using those techniques. Designed by Bassmaster Elite Series pro, Hank Cherry, who is renowned for his ability to skip jigs where big bass take cover. 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