Today’s Friday Finale historical photo, Woo’s Ways, dates back to 1987 and features fan favorite, Woo Daves. The picture is from a story titled, “Fishing the Docks, You don’t have to go far from launch site to find good fishing,” on finding fish close to the ramp by Outdoor Editor Tom Fegely. Fegely fished with Daves on Kentucky Lake this day.
Daves stated that a lot of his success had been from fishing the very obvious places close to weigh-in sites over the years. Many times, he said, the closest, most obvious places get overlooked because everyone assumes they’ve been beat to death.
Daves shared a few tips and tricks in the story. One was to use a deep diving lure thrown to one side of a dock, then submerge the line while moving to the other side so that you can retrieve the bait underneath the dock and at an angle most guys never fish. Another tip was to use spinning tackle and pitch and skip a small bait like a 6 inch worm around dock posts, the spinning gear allowing the bait to have a more vertical fall and staying closer to the support posts. Skipping was a favorite tactic of his.
Other tips included taking the time to fish isolated docks, figuring many anglers won’t take the time to troll over to fish a single pier away from the rest. He also feels that the normal “people traffic” around docks doesn’t bother the fish, as they become adjusted to the constant presence. Again, a situation where many anglers might pass on taking a few casts.
