When I first fished a big pit I set my stall out and fished at 40yds or less for 90% of my fishing, especially when seeing most anglers casting as far as they could. I also concentrated on the bays on this particular lake as the fishing was comfortable for me and more into my style. Im not someone who likes to fish as far they can so I only ever launched baits to the horizon if that's where the fish were.
Don't get sucked into what you see everyone else doing.
And the obvious one is location, location, location. Also Write down where you see them , the wind direction, weather, the atmospheric pressure (in my opinion and my findings were these factors play a bigger part on larger pits than smaller ones)all these will help you get a picture of the fish are up to.