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SD 9 UO 8 M CK MSER T IM E
Story
BY PETE ROBBINS
Photo credit Clark Reehm
It’s possible to pattern dock fishing - determine if they’re in the shade, on the edges, holding on ladders or even adjacent ramps.
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t’s shortly after the July 4 th holiday, and at 6
a.m. sweat is already dripping down the back of
most competitors’ necks; but as the majority
of them head toward offshore humps, ditches and river ledges, FLW Tour pro Clark Reehm is idling
far back into a skinny pocket, motor trimmed high
and still kicking up silt.
There’s not a grassbed back here, nor a ditch
leading into an open pond, just a lone decrepit dock.
Reehm thinks there might be a big one back here
that hasn’t seen a lure in months, and on the first
cast his bluegill-colored swim jig is hammered.
Before he’s fully awake, before most of the field has
made their first cast, he’s got a five-pounder in the
livewell.
What’s so surprising to many is not that docks produce in the summer, but how shallow some of the most productive ones are. Reehm said that he’ll often target structures that have less than 2 feet of water off the end of them, but that “on river systems there’s no such thing as too shallow.”
It’s a strategy that Elite Series veteran Kurt Dove also pursues. “Of course, the first question is whether the lake has docks at all,” he said. “On some lakes, at summer pool, there’s not a whole lot of cover in the water, so you’re forced to stay out deep, but on lakes that have them, even if there is a smaller percentage of fish that stay shallow in July, August and September, they might not see nearly as much pressure.”
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