Fishing off the dock can be a good technique

Every summer a number of our anglers "discover" how good the fishing can be right off the dock at camp.
Usually they fish for walleye with live bait in the evening and are delighted to find they can do as well as out in the boat. Sometimes they even do better!
We've had several groups where someone simply couldn't fish in the boat, usually because of back problems. So they took a lawn chair down to one of the many docks we have and tried their luck.
When their buddies came back at lunch they were astonished to find the man on the dock had not only caught a lot of fish but big ones as well. We're talking 26+inch walleye, 44-inch northern pike and in the spring, lunker lake trout.
I remember one elderly gentleman, probably in his 80s, who got a nine-pound walleye and 20-pound pike on the same day. They were netted by his wife and the pair of them were absolutely thrilled. Soon the rest of their family joined them and they were all hauling in fish.
While it is possible just to cast a spoon or spinner and catch a fish at any time, the people who do the best use live or dead bait and a float. The very best system is a slip bobber because the bobber slips down your line right to the hook or jig and lets you cast it out in a natural motion.
The old red-and-white plastic bobbers also work but since they are clipped to the line they have to be flung out in a cumbersome manner. You usually want the bobber about 8 feet or more from the hook. It's a difficult thing to make a cast with eight feet of line, bobber and hook beneath your rod tip.
What you are trying to do is let the wind or the current (there is a current in our narrows) take your bait down the shoreline while keeping it within a foot or two of the bottom.
If your bobber that was moving along stops or tips over, it indicates the hook is on the bottom. You can reel it back in, move up the bobber or stopper in the case of slip bobbers, and cast it out again.
In this manner you can also detect underwater structure that may hold fish.
There is as much to know and learn about bobber fishing as any other technique.
The dock is a good place to master this.
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