Fishing Midwest Strip Pits

[hoosierbass07]

  I now have access to two or three nice sized strip pit lakes/ponds and four or five smaller strip pit ponds here in my party of Indiana. These are part of the local chapter of the Izaak Walton League, I joined a few weeks ago.   I have a canoe to use on these strip pits too.  

 

​ I have mostly done bank fishing at a big state park reservoir and a small city park pond.  So these strip pits at Izaak Walton are new to me.  

 

 The water is very clear and there's a ledge that runs out five or ten feet then it drops down deep.  I was told my another member that the water is clear on the lakes and it can be hard to get the big bass to bite. 

 

Are there any good secrets or hints when it comes to fishing deep strip pit lakes for bass?  Do bass usually hang out on-top of the ledges in shallow water, near the ledges, at the bottom of ledges, or in the middle of lakes

in deep water?  

 

The shallow parts also have weeds growing under the water.  When I fished from my canoe for the first time yesterday my Texas rigged plastic worm kept getting caught in the weeds when I would cast in the very shallow

parts.  How do you fish those shallow weedy parts without getting hung up?  

 

I'm a mostly plastic worm fisherman.  Do crank baits work good in strip pits?  Spinner baits?  Etc...?  

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

  

[aceman387]

I fish a few strip pits here in Illinois and my favorite soft plastics  are a 4" wacky rigged watermelon  yum dinger, yamamoto shad shape worms in watermelon and shad color. I like to texas rig the shad shape worms weightless on a 1/0 ewg hook and toss it near some cover or along the shoreline and let it float down slowly.  Drop shotting and small robo worms work great in gin clear strip pits,try using those shad shape worms on your drop shot also. I have good luck using the bps brand triple ripple grubs in watermelon rigged on 1/8 jig heads and just throw it out,let it sink and reel back in,sometimes mixing up the retrieve for a different look. You might hear people telling you to go with all greens and browns but i have caught bass on all kinds of colors from bright pink and black to one of my favorites a blue fleck colored berkley power worm. I have seen other anglers in the pits by me catch bass on spinnerbaits,swim baits, rattle traps,jerk baits etc. I don't know if you peg you worm weights or not but i find it helpful pegging the worm weight to the worm with a rubber bobber stopper,It will come through the weeds with less hang ups. I like fishing the tops of the humps and ledges in the early morning and then parking my kayak on top of them  as the sun gets higher and casting out to the deeper water.I look for humps,ledges drop offs,anywhere shallow water leads to deeper darker water. 

[Dave P]

They will be where they want to be and they will eat what they want to eat! Having said that, you can try a lighter weight so it doesn't penetrate so far down into the weeds. I have good luck using a dropshot rig on clear strip pits. Cranks and spinner baits will work as well. Watermelon usually works well, but don't be afraid to try purple.

[hoosierbass07]

  I bought one of those wacky rigging tools with o-rings so I hope to start doing more wacky rigging.  

[Amoore9900]

I live on a large former strip pit (100 acres) in indiana. Right now the fish are in about 4-6 ft of water we position the boat along the ledges and throw a square bill crank or spinner baits and rip them along the ledges. We also hit all of the points hard.