Today I fished a 30 acre quarry near my house. It is mostly a cliff, with two sloping areas that are fishable. The water was really warm, ti my suprise. Also, the water was gin clear. The bottom had algae and hydrilla attached to the rocks. there is a drop off near the shallow ares too. Spawning bass cleared the algae away and left bare rock. I saw empty beds, roaming fish, and active beds. Most of my nearby ponds are mid spawn. I thought this quarry would still be cold and pre spawn. also saw bluegill on beds. some fish were finicky, others were not. 

 

Can bass spawn in 10' of water?

Why were the gills spawning already?

Does this quarry start the spawn earlier or later?

 

i caught 12 bass between a pound and 3 pounds. saw 3 schools of 20 bass. No big girls though.

 

Why were they in schools?

Where are the big fish?

Thanks!

Quarries bring a different dynamic to bass fishing, and are noted for giving up some true lunkers.

The classic quarry has a hard-bottom and gin-clear, semi-sterile water (needless to say they vary widely)

Though I've never mastered the phosphate pits around Mulberry, Florida, they taught me a lot.

 

In gin-clear water, bigmouth bass may nest 4 to 5 ft deep, but I'm not aware of any bed in 10' of water.

Solar gain in a crystal-clear waterbody is slower, but I've never found that to effect the spawn timing.

It flies in the face of popular wisdom, but I don't pay attention to bluegill activity (that's another topic).

 

Where are the big fish?      I heard that 

Anglers tend to focus on drop-offs and basins, but a quarry is essentially a crater lake

where drop-offs are a dime-a-dozen, but where shoals and shallow water are at a premium.

I'd focus my attention on the same areas you find bass nests (i.e. bedding flats).

In a quarry dominated by bluff banks, the scarce shallow lips can be pure dynamite.

Tangent to a bedding flat, I'd look for submerged hydrilla beds, which in a gin-clear quarry

can grow down to 10 to 15 feet or more.

 

Roger

 

 

 

1. in my experience bass spawn in 15 feet of water but rarely if ever more 

2. blue gill were most likely feeding on the eggs

that is all I can answer, never fished a quarry spawn.