Anyone fish strip pits

[bassgirl21]

What works well for you all in the pits?

[Bassn Blvd]

I'm going to sound dumb but I'm not sure what strip pits are. I do however fish a rock pit all the time. The deepest I found was 80'. The edges drop from 1' down to 20' almost instantly in some places. I can be 15 feet from shore and be fishing in 30' of water. The visibility is sometimes 20'. There are loads of concrete slabs and rocks along the edges and some submerged down 15-20'. The deepest I caught fish was about 45' down on a jig. I haven't really tried much deeper. The bass in this 75 acre pond hit just about every color worm from 6 inches to 12 inches. My biggest is 9.13 pounds. Topwater produces very well also as well as crank baits.

I know I'm rambling on but I've been up 40 hours and am about to fall asleep. The fish in this pond are very aggressive so it's not very difficult to fish but catching the big ones can pose a little challenge. There are only 3 of us that fish this pond over the past several years so there is darn near no pressure which I believe is what makes the fishing somewhat easy.

This pond goes against all "rules" of color selection. For example; I have caught as many as 100 bass in 6 hours with 17 pound mono (not fluorocarbon) and also on braid, even though the visibility is gin clear. I have used black worms and light colored worms and caught just as many bass. I fish other lakes where you HAVE to use smaller diameter line or Fluoro (if you plan on being productive) where the visibility is only 3-4 feet with 10-15 feet max depth.

Basically go out there and experiment until the fish dictate what they want. This may take several trips. If your water is deep and clear (8 plus feet visibility) I would start with 8-10 pound mono, the smallest worm weight possible and a 6 inch light colored worm. If that works well then I would start experimenting with heavier line and bigger baits to see if the fish will react to it or if they back off. The rule of thumb is dark water and overcast then use dark colors, clear water and bright days use lighter colors, however this has no bearing in the pit I fish.

Most importantly though you're going to want to find and fish structure, humps, bumps, ledges and so forth versus open, deep water with flat bottom and no structure.

Here are a few pic's of my pit.

[bassgirl21]

Well around here in western Kentucky where i live they do alot of mining and drilling. I fish mostly where they gotten pure clay out of the ground and have dug 30 to 40 feet holes to do so. They eventually fill up with water. There not way to get a bass boat to these pit so im not sure how much structure is in these. I usually use a john boat to fish out of these lakes. These lake are great to fish.

[wavewalker]

try the roads they are still there .get a depth sounder or do like i did when i was a kid. make one . a weight an line make a marke every foot or so.magic marker.theres a lot of ways to make one.

[aceman387]

i fish allot of strip mine pits the water is deep and clear i use lighter line 4# and have had the most luck using 4 inch senko worms watermelon colored wacky rigged  and also watermelon colored grub type jigs on a jig head . I'm not a night person but allot of guys around here catch some big fish fishing late at night when the fish aren't so spooky because of the clear water.

[WRB]

See Locating big summertime bass by PithNbass on this page.

Scale  the worm size down to 5" & 6" , hook to size 1, slip or split shot rig.

WRB

[DINK WHISPERER]

I work for a mining company and fish FL pits a lot! They are very difficult to get used to. The water is deep and the bottom has hardly any structure. The fish have a great abundance of food and are slow to take any artificial offerings. I have most success with a Carolina rig or a drop shot.

[Nkybassfisherman]

bb

Well around here in western Kentucky where i live they do alot of mining and drilling. I fish mostly where they gotten pure clay out of the ground and have dug 30 to 40 feet holes to do so. They eventually fill up with water. There not way to get a bass boat to these pit so im not sure how much structure is in these. I usually use a john boat to fish out of these lakes. These lake are great to fish.

where at in western, KY are you fishing??

are you fishing the strip mine pits located on the PEABODY WMA??

[crw]

As kid, I spent a lot of time fishing strip pits around Central City, Kentucky.  We did not fish for bass,  we fished for catfish, bluegill, and perch.   The strip pits I remember would be very hard to get a boat into.  The pit access roads had been dynamited to prevent anyone from accessing the pit.  Of course, this was in the last 50's, early 60's.