The shooting effect allows the use of jigs that normally can't be cast effectively. Baker favors 1/24- or 1/32-ounce jigs with some type of plastic trailer. When suspended crappie move to depths of 10 feet or more, he ties on a 1/16-ounce lure. The fish frequently suspend high in the water column, however, and a heavier jig is unnecessary then.

Other anglers, including Russ Bailey, use even smaller jigheads, some as light as 1/48 or 1/64 of an ounce.

Both Baker and Bailey mention the Southern Pro Stinger as their go-to dock-shooting grub. The skinny lure offers a lazy, tantalizing action that most crappie find hard to resist. The former likes the Stinger in black, blue and chartreuse; the latter favors lighter colors, relying on white, pink, red, and yellow, but makes use of darker colors under certain weather and water conditions.

"There is something about the Stinger that makes them especially effective for dock-shooting," Bailey offered. "They are very soft plastic baits, and the fish appear to like the feel of them.

Baker uses a variety of retrieves to entice crappie, -- all slow, relative to most crappie fishing. Sometimes he allows the lure to drop once it hits the water and watches for line twitches or slight pressure to indicate a strike. A slow, steady retrieve accounts for most of his dock fish.

USING FLOATING
While shooting docks doesn't require suitcase-sized tackle boxes or a lot of other gear, Bailey does add a feature that makes his presentation a bit different: He frequently uses a float or a slip-cork to drop the jig-and-grub just above suspended fish.

The traveling angler uses the tiniest cork possible. In Alabama, the smallest floats found in most stores aren't small enough, so Bailey uses ice-fishing corks, available via the Internet or through fishing catalogs.

"Once you've made a good cast, you want the lure to stay in that most productive area for as long as possible," the fisherman explained. "Standard shoot-and-retrieve won't allow you to do that.

"Depending on current and wind action, the float allows me to keep the jig in front of a crappie for several seconds and at times even longer than that. Crappie find that subtle action of the grub hard to resist when it is suspended in front of them."

Pegging the cork with a toothpick as much as 2 feet above the lure increases the degree of difficulty of shooting, but the advantages outweigh the disadvantage. One positive associated with the use of a float is the propensity of crappie to come up to a lure rather than take one fished below them.

Another advantage: When fish are holding in specific locations -- adjacent to a dock post, for example -- basic shooting and retrieving may not be able to reach them. Using the cork can to position the lure in exactly the right location.

"You want a cork just big enough to float the lure," Bailey said. "The toothpick makes for easy adjustments, putting the jig at the correct depth that the crappie are holding.

"A key to cork fishing is not a lot of movement. I'll pop it or move it slightly and let it sit. The fish can't resist this approach."