This weekend I'm fishing a flooded quarry for the first time from a boat.  It's really deep (probably 50-70 feet).  I haven't been out there yet this year, but the water is usually clear with up to 10 ft visibility.  Around most of the shore there is a shallow shelf, then a steep drop to about 10 ft, and another shelf that's probably 5-10 ft wide.  There are a couple of points and one broad grass covered (in the summer) flat that's about 6-8 ft deep.  There isn't much shoreline cover to speak of, at least at this time of year.  There are a couple of beaver dams that have always looked promising, but I've never cuaght any fish off them.  

I don't know the water temp, but it's still pretty cool here in Central Illinois.  Very few if any bass are on their beds yet.  The weather's supposed to be sunny with an air temp of 72.  12 mph winds out of the SSE.  

Where would you look for the bass first?

What would you be throwing?

i know id have a jig tied on and id start at the first drop to 10 ft that you spoke of.  i would throw a 1/2 ounce football head jig if there is not too much grass out there

I would focus exclusively out from the shelf on the drop with a Rat-L-Trap type lipless crankbait. If that lure doesn't produce I would try a spinnerbait, soft plastics (Senko, Fat Ika & tube) and maybe a jig. The structure you describe is ALWAYS productive for me.

Fish the ledge by making long casts parallel to the structure in order to place your bait in the strike zone for maximum exposure. If there are any active fish in the quarry, you will pick up a few. Good luck! This outing has a lot of potential.

Sounds alot like a pit I fish.Very deep, sharp banks and stair stepping ledges.Althouth I have caught bass on many different lures(Jig&pig,plastics,spinnerbaits and crankbaits).I really like DD crankbaits this time of year(this week).Cast them up shallow by the bank.Work the bait Down letting it dig in the bottom (work slowly) Letting the bait come off the shelf(ledge)If there is bass hanging down off that ledge they will murder your bait.(Bigguns seem to love this presentation)Also,8 to 10 feet seems to be the magic number this time of year for me.That flat in 6-8 feet of water could be awsome.Exspecialy if the sun has had a chance to warm it up.I would try jigs and plastics around any avaliabe cover.  Good luck to ya, let us know how it goes.

      Turtle

I'd do just as RW suggested, except, replace the trap with an X-Rap, or the jerkbait of your choice. I'm in central Illinois too, the water's still a bit on the cool side, and the jerkbait bite has been decent the last couple of times I've been out. Went out this morning before coming to school. Got 3 on a spinnerbait, worked in a slow yo-yo, and 2 on an X-Rap, worked with long pauses.

Good luck,

GK

FatBoY

I have a quarry near my house very simliar to what you are explaining.

I know for a fact that there's fish in it because i seen them one year on the beds, some of which were very big also.

If possible I would reccomend putting maybe about 50-60 yards of flurocarbon on the end of your line if your not already using it. With water that clear, theres no doubt that fish will shy away from visible line, their eyesight and the clarity of the water makes it 10 times harder to draw strikes.

Good luck and let us know how you do next time.

I used to bank-fish a set of quarry pits in Parsippany, New Jersey (there was no boat ramp at that time).

The water was very clear, very deep, practically weedless and the fishing was notoriously tough.

A boat wasn't really needed though, because the pits were essentially a bluff bank that plunged to well over 100 feet deep.

We often fished the entire shoreline of all 5 pits, but most of bass congregated on the few "short sandy lips" we found.

The bass were on the drop-off of those short flats which I'm guessing ranged between 3 and 8 ft deep (at the ledge).

We fished the pits from early spring to late fall (they froze in winter), and all the bass came from the same shoreline lips.

My favorite lure in the sand pits back then, was the Johnson Weedless Spoon (I'd bend the weedless barb down).

I waited for the spoon to reach the bottom, then reeled just fast enough for a slow wobble. Meanwhile, my friend Victor,

who probably caught more bass than I, always did his best with a Sonic, using a slow, steady retrieve.

By the way, the Heddon Sonic was the forerunner of the Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap (yes, it was a while back).

Roger

Thanks for all the good ideas.  I'm heading out tomorrow afternoon.  I'm going to try the lipless cranks and x-raps (since that's my April challenge) parallel to the edges first thing.  I'll have a report tomorrow evening.

Sounds like a job for a lipless crank or a swim jig.

Well, my report is less exciting than I'd like.  Turns out that instead of the 12 mph winds forecasted, the wind was blowing at a steady 25 mph with gusts up to 35-40 mph, whipping up waves about 1-2 ft high .  The wind was blowing straight into the boat launch.  We unloaded my little plastic pontoon and put it in the water, determined to go out even in the chop.  But my 30 lb tm wouldn't even push the boat off the ramp.  We just couldn't go anywhere.  (It made me think of "the harder and harder I push, the righter and righter I go!" which got me a chuckle out of the situation at least. ;D ;D ;D)  So we loaded the boat back up and went home.  Ugh!!!

I won't get another chance to hit this lake for 2 weeks.