Even though the outside temps are hot enough to make a camel beg for mercy, summertime fishing in August and September can be some of the best times to be on the water. It might surprise most crappie anglers but I catch a lot of good crappie this time of year shooting docks in as little as 2 - 3 feet of water. First thing I look for, knowing it is summer and the boat traffic is going to be brutal on Weiss Lake, are the little out the way places where you don't see a lot of jet skies and ski boats. When fishing docks this shallow they will take a pounding by 3 foot waves when you have a lot of boats running back forth. Little coves and pockets close to the river channel is a great place to look for crappie under docks. I like to wait to around mid-morning before I will start shooting docks. I like to wait for the sun to get high and hot to push the crappie even tighter to the docks looking for shade from the sun beating down on the water. Another little trick for success at shooting docks is boat position. I like to approach the docks with the sun to my face as to make sure I don't cast a shadow with my boat around the dock. Crappie are very spooky fish this time of year the more you can do to not let the crappie know your coming the more success you will have at this technique.

  Equipment

  The best rod I have found for shooting docks is the BnM Sharpshooter. They have three available lengths in this rod but I like the 5 ½ footer the best. These rods are designed just for shooting docks and even though it is an Ultra Light rod you will have no trouble pulling that big slab out from under his hidden water haunts. The reel I use is BnM's West Point Spinning Reel. It is very light weight reel and that helps keeping your combo light and manageable. In a full day shooting docks you may shoot 200 to 300 times so the lighter you can keep your combo the better off you will be. I do about all my crappie fishing except for spider rigging with 6 lb. Sufix Siege line in clear and the neon Tangerine. The Tangerine is a neon orange line that is very visible when watching for those faint little taps.

  Lures

  Lure color and type are one of the most important parts of shooting docks. The one that I have found that works great on every lake I have fished including Weiss is the Southern Pro 2 inch Crappie Stinger. The Crappie Stinger has a solid body with a whip/stinger type tail and holds up very well for this technique.

  The color that produces day in and day out would be Black/Blue with the chartreuse stinger tail. Southern Pro has eleven colors available in the 2 inch Crappie Stinger but for shooting docks with a lot of shade I like to stay with the darker colors. The size jig head you use is very critical in presenting the bait that catches the crappie by surprise. You want a light jig head for these shallow water docks and most times I am using a 1/24 oz jig head. This lets the jig hit the water with very little noise and also lets it fall in a natural slow fluttering manner.

  Presentation

  I like to shoot the jig right at the dock pilings in the very back of the dock. Most times the crappie will hit the jig within the first foot or two when on the fall. If you get no hits on the fall let your lure go all the way to the bottom and then start a slow steady retrieve back to the boat. A lot of times you will catch crappie as soon as your lure breaks the shadow line that the dock puts off. I like to work the dock very thorough shooting at every piling before moving on.

  Tips

  Here are a few things to know that may help you when shooting docks in the summer. Like I said before, look for those little out of the way places that don't see much boat traffic. Another key to shooting docks is to look for things on the docks like rod holders mounted to the dock lights close to the water. This lets you know that this dock is fished regularly and there is structure close by. If there is structure around the dock there will be crappie under it that the owner can’t get to. Some of the best docks I shoot here on Weiss Lake in the summertime are docks that are in 6 to 8 foot water at the very end and are built on shallow water points with deeper water close by. Wait until the sun gets up high and hot around 10:00 am. That is when the crappie will be holding tight under the dock.

  Most crappie anglers put up there gear after the spring spawn waiting for the first sign of fall. Summertime can be just as good if you will try this technique, you just have to experiment with different areas of the lake but when you find those special docks they will produce crappie day in and day out all summer long.

  Thanks for your time and I will see you Weiss Lake. Kelly Matthews

  For more information on fishing Weiss Lake or to book a day or two of fishing visit Kelly’s site at www.weisslakeguides.com or e-mail him at kelly@weisslakeguides.com.
 

  Growing up in southeastern Oklahoma during the 1970’s and 1980’s was not exactly growing up on the frontier, but in many ways it was the end of the era. During my teen years to early twenties I saw Oklahoma move from the # 1 state in the nation for quail hunting to a state with game management departments trying to figure out how to bring the quail population back in areas where the beautiful bobwhites once flourished. The quail themselves went from calm birds who would often flush and spread across the lush pastures in easily hunted patterns and cover to crazed maniacs darting almost woodcock fashion among the trees to scurry rat-like into the densest honeysuckle or briars along the grown up creeks that make shooting impossible.

  The regal white hunting dogs that everyone referred to as simply a "setter" or "pointer" no longer abide in the back yards of the weekend hunters across the little towns in the area I grew up. In Haskell County my grandfather was known as one of the best bird dog trainers in the country and many weekends I can remember attending the meetings he had with buyers from all over the state and men who traveled from Texas and Arkansas to watch my grandpa’s dogs run. Now grandpa’s kennels hold a handful of dogs and the 8 to 12 trips he walked every day running his dogs have lessened to a small fraction of what they once were (He is 81 years old so some slow down is expected.).

  My first hunting trips were basically long, briar-scarred walks following the tall old men I doted on. These old men were in their 50’s and 60’s then, the older Browning Auto-5’s, Remington Model 11’s and Winchester Model 12’s all have a similar appearance to a small boy. The Red Ryder I carried never killed a quail, but it went on many quail hunts.

  When I was 8 years old I spent a summer doing slave labor mowing my great-grandmother’s yard (She had passed away in 1972 and this was in 1975) for a miserly man (grandpa) in which I would get paid 5 dollars. When I told grandpa that a yard this large in town would bring 10 to 12 dollars he reminded me I was using his mower and gas, an argument I could not parry at the age of 8. However, at the end of that summer I took my hard earned $80.00 and spent $55.00 tax included for the most beautiful gun in the world at the time. The new Winchester Model 37A Youth fit me well and the 20 gauge was the most powerful shotgun in the world, second only to a 12 gauge which was a waste of weight and powder when it came to quail hunting. I still own that gun.

  By the time I was 11 more rabbits, squirrels, quail, dove, and ducks had fallen to the mighty boom of the Winchester than I could possibly count. I had even taken a muskrat with it along the edge of an old pond. The muskrat brought $2.50 from the local fur buyer and suddenly a desire to be a trapper was born. That however, is a different story.

  With the Winchester came an important responsibility as well as important graduation. Suddenly I was walking as a near equal within the company of old men. The ride to and from our hunting grounds had always been filled with glory days of bird hunting as well as stories of the wars the old men had fought in. My great uncle had not been in a war, but he had been a lawman in Oklahoma when it was still a young state. He had followed the footsteps of his father and uncle, both who had rode for Judge Isaac Parker, known as The Hanging Judge in Ft. Smith Arkansas.

  The old men smelled of tobacco and coffee, a combination that makes gives me a sense of safety even now. They grew up in a time when men faced their own challenges, their own problems and they dealt with them, fairly always, friendly if possible, harshly if necessary. The stories of adventures and life in their youth kept me mesmerized with stories that would rival Where the Red Fern Grows or Old Yeller. I never heard a vulgar cuss word from them though I did learn the fine use of language from these old men.

  I learned of history and life in a day I could only imagine. I learned of corn cob fights, the location of the road from Ft Smith to Webbers Falls and I may be one of the few people my age that can show you the old "baptizing" holes in the various creeks in the area I grew up. The most important thing I learned was honor was not something a man could contract on a piece of paper. Honor was what a man had inside and made his word good. No laws could dictate it.

  The old men who hunted quail were a breed of man that is rare in today’s mechanized and computerized society. As with the demise of the quail, many of those old men have moved on to that last hunting ground. My grandfather’s best friend, Joe Wells told my grandfather in April of 2006 during the opening weekend of turkey season, "Hell, Perry just about everyone we knew is dead!" We laid Joe to rest in August of 2006 from terminal brain cancer. Joe said he never wanted to be in a nursing home and he would rather be hit by a truck. The cancer took only a few weeks from learning of it to succumbing to it, so in a sense, Joe got his wish. With the demise of these men whom a boy could look up to and see what it took to gain their respect went a part of America that is going to be hard to revive when our children would rather be playing computer games than wading in creeks or surfing the internet rather than climbing trees. The Red Ryder has been replaced by the Ipod and I wonder how long it will be before we pay for it as a country. Progress for a country is needed lest it grow stagnant. But, just once, I wish my children and grandchildren could stand in the shadow of the men I knew and considered great, to bask in the experience of their lives and their personalities and see if they could see what I saw and remained unchanged.

  I think not.