When fishing a bank with docks using topwater baits, is it best to fish parallel or perpendicular to the bank?

Yes.  Also try angles to the dock.

As stated;

 

The answer is D All of the above!

Senko, fat ika , squarebill, dropshot and a jig are my favorites for aggravating the bass around docks... 

 

I do my best to get em underneath the dock as far as possible. 

 

I also try to stay a nice distance away when making the first few casts so I don't spook em if they are on the outside of the dock. 

My personal experience has shown that the best approach can vary greatly depending upon general mood of the fish, water temperature/conditions, and skies clear vs overcast, etc

As a "general" rule I start perpendicular. If I can determine that most of the fish are a certain distance from shore/cover and it is consistent then I switch to parallel.

All of the above...  I tend to start out doing both until I figure out which way works best for that particular time.

 

I'd work the whole dock of course, but would start about a cast-length away, while the area is still unmolested.

My most anticipated cast (high-confidence cast) would be standing at the foot of the dock,

and casting parallel to the dock, missing the edge by inches.

Before leaving, I'd pitch underneath the dock as far as possible, this is when lures are lost  

 

Roger

It depends.  I think starting out throwing longer casts that land well away from the dock is a good start to work fish sitting well outside without spooking the ones likely sitting right on or under the dock itself.  After that, it's time to start taking notes.  Where are fishing sitting?  Are you catching fish off the deep edge of the dock?  Are you catching them in 2' of water near the shoreline?  Are they sitting along the shady edge of the dock? In the sunlight?  

 

Once you find the fish, you want the presentation to stay in the strike zone as long as possible.  If I'm catching them primarily along the shady side of the dock, you bet the majority of my casts are going to be perpendicular and along that shady side.  If I'm catching them in the middle of the dock sitting consistently at 4' of depth, I'm probably going to be working that depth perpendicular or at different angles to the dock.  Is there a weed edge boulders, or quality laydowns anywhere around that dock?  That's also going to be super high percentage and I'm likely going to want to keep my top water in those areas for a while, too.  

 

Part of breaking down cover efficiently, to me, is identifying high percentage areas and hitting them until I do so in a manner where I'm likely putting my bait in front of as many active fish as possible at least until I gather enough information to weed out what's inefficient and can establish a quality pattern.   And sometimes after putting in all that work and thought, I'll just throw into open water on a crap cast while not paying attention in between two docks and catch a random cruising fish.  That's valuable information, too.  

I fish the corners of the docks like they were natural points.