Flipping, skipping, shooting, shaking — the common dock fishing tactics lean heavily toward soft plastics, either as primary baits or trailers. However, you don’t want to overlook those hard baits. From topwaters to squarebills; these presentations should occupy a prominent position in your game plan.

FLW pro Terry Bolton flips and swims plenty of jigs around docks of all sizes and styles, but he knows he knows he’s not the only one doing so. The fact is that dock fish, like ledge fish, tend to get wise to certain baits of high frequency.

“Fish get jaded by seeing the same lures over and over again,” Bolton said. “Hard baits gives them a different action; something the fish aren’t used to seeing.

“They’re used to seeing spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and things of that nature. By the time you get into fall, the fish get pretty lure educated.”