Strip pits near Pittsburg, KS...

[WaterDawg]

I'm in Joplin, MO this week for my son's baseball tourney. Several of us dad's are avid anglers and are looking for a fishing hookup around Joplin between games.

I posted a couple of weeks ago and was told about the reclaimed strip mine pits around Pittsburg, KS, which is about 30 mins away. We'd like to give it a try, but have a few questions:

What is the best way to find info on these pits?

Are they on private or public land?

How do you obtain access?

Are their any maps of the area?

BTW, none of us have boats with us, so we'll need walkable banks.

Also, I'd take any other recommendations around the Joplin area.

Thanks in advance...

Donnie

[KansasBassin]

http://www.kdwp.state.ks.us/news/content/download/1055/5053/file/Brochure%20Mined%20Land%20WA.pdf

There you go. I have been there, nice place, you should be able to find some nice banks. There is at least 100 different pits. Bring your bug spray and plastics.

[WaterDawg]

Thanks KB,

We went out to the pits W of Pittsburg this evening.  Fortunately Travis from John's Sports Center in PBurg left us some maps outside their store to p/u (they closed at 5:30 today). 

We were able to locate a few areas to fish pretty quickly (about 4-5 miles) out Hwy 126 W of PBurg.  If using the MLWA maps, we were at area's #5&6 to the N of 126 and areas #7&8 to the S of 126 on CR 180.

The signage got us started.  Nothing serious in the way of a catch, but this looks like some serious bass terrain.  Hundreds of acres of fishable water.

What stood out to me most after spending several hours out there today was the necessity to have some type of small boat to fish these lakes. 

Although there are quite a few areas to bank fish from, you really have limited access to the water.  Many of these banks are straight-down steep, as one might expect, and most banks are fully overgrown with brush. 

**I would recommend using the buddy system when fishing these lakes.  It would be very easy to fall in due to the steep and congested nature of the banks.  As dark as the water is, I would estimate some of these pits to be 10-20' deep at the sides.  I know some can be as deep as 50-75' deep.**

If one has a fishing kayak, canoe or jon boat you could really do a lot of fishing here. 

I think Friday, we're going to check out the area's in the  West Mineral and Scammon Units.  Those lakes appears to be a little larger.

Thanks again for all the input, and I'll post a re-cap with photos of the areas for anyone who may be interested.

All in all, this part of the country is a very interesting place to explore with an amazing ecological history.

This was my first trip to Kansas.  You folks have a beautiful state and much to be proud of.

Now if we could just get on the fish!!

Donnie

[KansasBassin]

yeah in my experience there I used a little 2 man boat, so it was easy to lug around. 

Come back to Kansas soon!

[WaterDawg]

Today, we were rained out in Joplin. So we went out to do some more exploring...couldn't resist.

We drove to West Mineral and saw Brutus, the massive shovel machine that dug many of the pits. It is one impressive piece of machinery. Its worth the drive if you haven't seen it.

From there, we drove to Area 30 to check out Trout Lake. It's a beautiful lake with good gravel roads to and from. There are even a couple of cabin shelters w/ AC that you can rent. This lake is apparently heavily stocked with brown and rainbow trout. Fished it for about 1-1/2 hrs with nothing more than a few hits. Just wanted to check it out.

There are many other lakes that we saw, but didn't have time to explore. We had to be back in Joplin for a ballgame.

Anyhow, if I learn how to fish for trout we may go back tomorrow.

Donnie