There are times when the fishing is slow especially during the dog days of summer. Lucky for us who try our luck every chance we get, even at 103 degrees, there is the Bluegill. I can remember as a kid running up and down the dock where my Grandfather resided on his houseboat on Percy Priest Lake in Tennessee. My target was the hundreds of Bluegills readily visible suspended in the shade of the dock and the boats tied up to them. Another attractant around boat docks are the many brush piles created by used up Christmas trees and other brush often times set there by the boat owners who create themselves a great place to fish when the weather is a bit rough or rainy.

My memories of those days come into play many times throughout the year as I search for a boat dock when the fishing is less than good on the main lake. Again the target is Bluegills and it seems as though there are always a few that are ready and willing to step in and turn an otherwise mundane scorcher into loads of fun that at times lets you forget the heat or the reluctance of the other fish to bite.

My favorite technique is using a bobber and a cricket or worm. Sometimes the Gills are lying up against the pillars and the sides of the boats. I tend to move in close to the outside of the dock and pitch my presentation up into the shadiest part of the slip. Between the boat and the dock is a great place but my favorite is the empty slip with a boat on either side of that slip which creates a dark shady hole for the Bluegills to hide. I have found that these open slips give the angler many more feet of fishable dock and less chance of hanging a tie up rope on one of the boats which usually means physically unhooking your rig from the rope and possibly running the Gills out of that slip for several minutes.

You can catch several Bluegills from the same slip but after two or three you will find that the bite has slowed. Move on to the next slip and rest that one as the commotion of catching those fish will tend to send the remaining fish scampering for more relaxing domains. Remember to return to that spot later as there was a reason that the fish were there and they will be back. You can conceivably fish a relatively small dock all day with great success and fun.

Bass love to hang around the docks too so don