Fishing a Flooded Quarry

[Pond Hopper]

I am going with the in laws this weekend and get to fish a 50 acre flooded quarry.  While this is not my first time there I have never done that well on bass.  The structure of the quarry is limited to a few stumps and trees that fell in otherwise it is crystal clear water(can see 10-15 ft deep).  And it consists of nothing but shelves.  I dont know the best way to expalin this but there is an old access road to get in and out that spirals nearly the entire way down.  So basically there is about a 15 foot shelf then the next dropoff goes down another 15-20 feet and so on.  I am just curious as to how many would approach this.  I know there are huge fish in there because it is an old lake that is spring fed, maintains constant water levels, and is over 100 hundred feet deep in areas.  There are a couple smaller ponds that I will focus on but would like to pull some fish out of the big lake.  Thanks in advance for any help.  

Corey

[FatBoy]

Hey Corey, where is this lake?  This sounds almost exactly like River Bend in Mahomet, IL.  I was there on the 4th for the first time.  I didn't have much luck either.  We got a late start, about 11:00.  A couple of friends with me caught a few bass (including a 21" one) cruising the ledge after first drop off on deep diving cranks (chartreuse in one case and fire tiger in the other, I believe).  But then the bite died totally at about noon.  After that we got absolutely nothing, not even a nibble.  

Sorry I can't help.  But I'll be curious to see what tips you get!

[Pond Hopper]

This is up around Galesburg, IL.  It is privately owned but Im looking enough that my girlfriends dad is a VP for the company.  Its a gorgeous lake, Ill take some pictures of the lake and cabin.

[roadwarrior]

I would fish a Gitzit. If you are fishing from a boat, cast into the bank and work SLOWLY across the shelf, letting the bait free-fall and then sit as you come over the edge. In crystal clear water, long casts can be an advantage.

If you are fishing from the bank, I would still fish a tube, but work it parallel to where you think the shelf drops off. Bass will stage along the ledge. T-rigged worms are another option I would try. If you are comfortable with jigs, that would be another suggestion.

[Raul]

The structure of the quarry is limited to a few stumps and trees

Stumps and trees are not structure, structure is the bottom contour of the quarry, in this case the structure is man made due to the human activities of mining the quarry. Fishing a quarry is not that different from fishing a lake that looks like this:

The catch is the abrupt change in depth between one step and the other, normally quarries are mined in steps pretty much like a stair, you have a step that extends for several feet then a vertical drop and another step, fish like bass use the near drop area as an ambush point so what you do is to position yourself parallel to the drop and cast your offerings like deep diving cranks parallel to the drop or your drop baits like worms, jigs and tubes not parallel but perpendicular to the drop, why cranks parallel and drop baits perpendicular ? the answer is: the fish will be hanging on the wall, a crankbait casted perpendicular to the wall is useless because unless it dives almost vertical ( and the closest one to do that are Rapala 's DTs ) is going to be immediately out of depth and out of range for the fish. You cast your drop baits perpendicular to the wall because the fish are hanging to it as the bait drops the fish will follow the bait beacuse it 's in range, preferably fish with suspending crankbaits like Shad Rap RS, Glass Shad Rap, Pointers and Staysees. The idea is to drop the bait and let it slide through the wall. Tubes fall vertically on a slightly slack line and so do jigs, worms on a split shot rig will also fall vertically on a slightly slack line. Opposed to regular worming where you move your rod tip to make the bait hop when fishing a vertical wall what you do is to lift a little the rod tip, that is enough to lift the weight and allow it to drop several inches deeper. Senkos rigged on a split shot rig are lethal when fished that way.