<br /><br />Practice a little in the garage, to learn how much line to let out, how much bend to put in your rod, etc.<br /><br />You should be able to shoot an weighted fluke up under a dock 20, 30 feet or more. Works great with crappie jigs, too. <br /><br />I never tried it with a crank - might work, you might want to use a pair of pliers to grasp the lure. nah, what the heck, be a man, grab those treble hooks & fire away! 
I have to differ on that statement. I believe that most strikes you get Bass fishing are reactionary strikes. Also, if you use nightcrawlers for bass, you are going to be plauged all day with smaller fish chewing on your worm. Can you catch bass on night crawlers? Absolutly, but not the best in IMHO.
I'm trying to perfect my skipping technique right now, seem to be a safer anyway but them backlashes are a you know what.
I have used them a lot this late summer and early fall, I think I have to eat my words from a previous thread I posted a while back.
Without a doubt, the fish hold on to them longer than other worms. I mean if my wife can catch a bass on a plastic, they have to hold it a while.
In the spring, I use a bunch of different baits and work them near the surface a lot. In this senario I impart a lot of action to the bait in question. This time of the year and around docks as the question was, I let them sink about four to six feet then lift the rod, reel in the slack and repeat untill I work the edge of the dock. Strikes come normally within the first few feet. Around structure I let it sink untill it hits bottom and then lift the rod. I dont let the bait set very long on the bottom, however sometimes it does work to let it sit for a while. Called dead sticking. Depending on how deep it is, as I have descibed I add a splitshot to the hook. I like the way that plastics sink so well rigged this way, the only time I use a slip sinker any more is in heavy vegitation. They also sell hooks with weight already on them, but I like the splitshot Idea for the simplcity of rigging, and instead of having to buy a bunch of different hooks, I just have a few different weights of splitshot, much cheaper, and Im cheap.<br /><br />The best thing I have ever done was to spend a day in a freinds swimming pool with a mask and snorkle watching different baits, cranks, spinnerbaits, worms, jigs. I was in amazement at what little suttle changes made to different baits. I was a prune when I was done, and was underwater for so long I got an ear infection but it was worth it.
