Fishing open deep water

[tie1on]

Every lake that i fish has either wood cover or vegetation.And I normally dont fish in more than fifteen foot of water unless im catfishing.I just got permission to fish an old gravel pit that is 20 to 50 foot deep and has no vegetation and just a few trees.I've never fished anywhere like that before so any info from you deep water fisherman would be appreciated.I almost forgot but the water is very clear you can see down 6to7 feet.

[Big_Bass_Rich]

I fish a quarry pond like that sometimes in the summertime. Our best tactic has been 3 inch plastic grubs on a 1/4oz jighead fished on edges of drops or points. Another good tactic is topwater casted into the middle of nowhere, early in the morning. In these small pit ponds bass will often cruise around looking for bait, since cover is sparse. The low-light periods are their best time to hunt, therefore their most active period. Slim wooden crankbaits seem to do well too, especially in the afternoons.

[ernel]

One thing that I have learned is that if a body of water does not have any vegitation, but has some type of wood cover you better throw something in to the wood pile. Also the edges of most strip ponds have verticle walls. This is as good as a rock bluff on a resevoir. It gives the bass a place to suspend at different depths without having to swim long distances to follow the structure. When having to fish clear water you will sometimes need to scale down the sizes of your lures. If you are going for smallies then scaling down in line, or using flurocarbon will help also.

[Nick_Barr]

I have fished a gravel pit pond that was around 30 feet in western washington and you drop a jig ar a worm, creature bait and let it deflect of the branches working it through everything. I dont use a jigging spoon but you can catch bass on those if they are relating to the outside of the tree.

[fishin_fool]

  Fish a tube rigged texas style  I fished a lot of strip pits and they all had humps and sand bars,if you have a good depth finder set it up to find the thermocline and fish the drop offs at that depth

[Chris]

countdown crankbait, dropshot, heavy jig, heavy spinnerbait, heavy little george, jigging spoon, Deep billed crankbait with suspend dots, heavy worm, tube, heavy roadrunner, rattletrap style baits, or a carolina rig

[earthworm77]

Textbook drop shot water!

[Nick.Culver]

I agree with Earthworm77. Text book dropshot water. In washington a lot of lake are clear. More that 6-7 foot visibility. A lake I fish quite a bit has probably 15 foot visibility. Any deep water structure such as a ledge or drop off is ideal for a dropshot. Don't throw big loud baits except for in the mourning. If your going to throw a spinnerbait or crankbait twitch it and move it fast so the bast don't get a really good look at it. The less time they get to see it. The better your odds. Thats just my .02 cents worth.

[Raul]

You 're going to be fishing from the bank or form a boat ? from a boat you 're going to need a depthfinder to find the structure that holds fish if you are away from the bank, from the bank it 's relatively easy, look at the contour of the terrain that surrounds the lake, what you see above the water most probably is going to continue underwater, the steeper the bank the faster you gain access to deeper water, look at the weeds, weeds only grow where they can get enough sunlight, in several lakes where I fish the water is ultra clear ( more than 20 ft of visibility ) but the banks of the lakes are very steep, weeds only grow in them along the bank and they extend no more than 15 ft into the lake and in those lakes 15 ft into the lake you 're speaking of a depth of more than 20 ft.

[dangeruss]

this is my biggest problem to overcome on any body of water. without expensive electronics in my boat. it is very difficult to pinpoint bass suspended when there are other spiecies of fish in the lake, such as walleye,croppie northerns carp etc, i think im going to have to spend alot of money on a trustworthy fish finder.