First, it's real important to analyze where boat dock bass should be, in regards to structure, depth, and other factors, irregardless of the presence of docks. If it's spring or fall, bass are probably going to be on the shallower banks, the flatter type banks, and so those are the dock locations you should concentrate on. Also keep in mind the bottom make up. This is getting into patterns within patterns, but for instance, during spawning season I'm often not only concentrating on flat banks, I'm also concentrating on the boat docks on flat banks that have pea gravel bottoms that are in protected pockets. During prespawn, late winter scenario, I'm usually looking for the 45-degreee banks that have some broken rock especially on the lakes in the midwest.
Boat docks on chunk rock banks seem to be the key then.
In summer and winter I look for the boat docks on the real steep, bluff type banks that have the good brushpiles underneath them. Brushpiles always make a dock better. The dock location can also be the key. Once in a while it has to be a dock on a point. At times it has to be a dock all the way in the back of the cove, maybe the last dock back there would be the one the fish stage on.