Another Shot At Pardee

Rich and I decided to meet at Lake Pardee yesterday. His son Mark, Mark's friend Ethen, and "Guppie" who's also a friend of Mark's, met at the "Mud Hole". The "Mud Hole" is named for obvious reasons. Every where you walk it's slimy, muddy, and wet, but there are trout there. At least I saw one or two caught.

I got there at 0835 (told Rich I'd be there 8:30ish) and put out two rigs with Rainbow Power Bait. Amid slogging around in the mud and socializing, I managed nothing in the first hour and a half. I packed up my gear and went over to the penninsula by the spillway. I think they call it Porcupine Point. The crowd was huge. About 10 feet between groups all the way around the point, across the spillway, and down the other side of the lake. Looked like everybody had two rod licenses because each group had at least 4 to 8 poles out depending on how many in the group.

I set up two rods with PB on the back side of the penninsula and shortly there after, Rich came over and set up next to me. The kids wandered over to the crowds on the other side of the penninsula. They found some friends and were blended into their groups. Rich was fishing one rod with Power Eggs and a Power Worm and the other with a variety of lures. We fished that spot for about an hour and then the group next to us left. We migrated to their area and put our rods back out. Still nothing, so we moved again to the point of the penninsula hoping for some drive-bys from the open part of the lake.

At just about Noon, I got my first bite. A nice chunky Rainbow about 10 inches. The weeds at the point were eating several of Rich's lures, so he decided to wander back to the "Mud Hole' and try his luck, again. I stayed at the point and right after Rich left, I landed another Rainbow about 13 inches. For me, that was it for the day.

Rich dropped me an email later and he didn't fair any better. "No room at 'Mud Hole'. Fished Rainbow Point for zilch except to enjoy the afternoon sun. Went back down to check 'Mud Hole', still all taken up. Went back to spillway. Saw them tearing the trout up off the spillway itself in the corners. Besides that, nothing outstanding". By the way, I don't think the Ranger allows people to fish on the spillway itself, but I'm not sure. I do know that the spillway at Amador is off limits, but that doesn't stop fishing there.

When I left home at 0730 it was 20 degrees. I don't know the temperature at the lake since I don't have a thermometer in my truck, but I can tell you it was cold, windy, and generally miserable, but the sun was shining. Every cloud has a silver lining. When I got home at 2:00pm, it was a blazing 40 degrees. I almost got out the lawn chair and shorts, but restrained myself.

We have two more storms coming in this week, but they appear to be "warm" storms. Warm being snow levels above 5000 ft. Hopefully some, if not all, of this snow, still on the ground, will be washed away and I can start cleaning up. I've found several more trees down on the property that need to be cut up and stacked for the burn pile although at this point, I can't find the burn pile.

That's it until the next adventure. till then.

Mark