Garrett and I knew right off the bat that our best bet to catching fish was gonna be at night after everyone left, so with the hour I had of day light left I just ran all over the place doing some scouting to see who was catching fish where and on what. I scanned the mud hole for a while and I didn't see anyone catching anything so I left there without even trying to fish it. I walked around to porcupine point close to the spillway and I saw two guys close to their limit just soaking powerbait and they said they haven't even been there an hour. Around the next corner I saw some other people catching a few on wolly buggers behind a clear bobber. I worked the area with kastmasters and my crappie jigs without a bite. Sun was going down so I took off back for camp to get the rest of my stuff put together before it got completely dark on me. After the rest of the guys came back Garrett had one that he said he got on a powerworm under a bobber. Atleast someone got something. Day isn't over for us yet though.
Couple hours went by all the other bankers left and we rolled back out on to the lake around 2000 in the darkness. Most of us tried powerbait on the bottom or under a bobber and casting glow jigs under bobbers. For the first hour no one gets a bite, so we run around trying different spots here and there. Garrett and I work out way back into another cove and we both manage to hook up on just powerbait off the bottom. With fish caught we call the rest of the guys over and we hit this spot hard. Over the next hour Garrett and I got one more and that was it.
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my two for the night.
With the bite being slow we called it quits from there, we were starting to freeze our asses off.
Next day Garrett, Adam, and Andrew woke up early and went to try the morning bite. Ray and I decided to sleep in and wait for the planter truck to show up. When I rolled out of bed around 0800 and just walked down to the island in the rec area and waited for the truck. I heard it was supposed to show up around 0830 so i got ready to hopefully be able to sight fish some passing schools with my crappie jigs and get some fish on a lure.
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While I'm waiting I can see Garrett in the distance landing fish every 20 mins or so. I thought ok sweet I can go over with him later after I get pushed out of my spot from crowds from the planter truck. I'm waiting for the truck to come. 0830 goes by, no tuck . . . . . . I look over Garrett catches another fish. 0925 comes by . . . . no truck, I look over Garrett is hooked up again. 1000 comes by, STILL NO TRUCK, and Garrett is over there putting on a clinic, he even let a little kid come over and reel in one of his fish. I can't take it anymore I have to go over there and see what Garrett is doing to be the only one catching fish on the entire lake.
I get over there and Garrett is fishing a powerworm on an jig head (so the fish wont swallow it) under a bobber, and just letting it drift in the wind. He told me he has already caught 8 fish this morning, letting them all go too pissing off people around him who really wanted fish to take home, lol. I tried fishing with Garrett for a little bit and, but I never got a bite over here.
1100 comes around and finally the planter truck shows up. I make my way back to the island hoping I can finally catch a fish on a lure. Plus it would be sight fishing which is my personal favorite way to fish for trout. I stand high up on a bench watching the fish get poured into the lake and just wait for the slaying to begin. I look though and the fish got planted, 30 mins. go by and everyone fishing next to the ramp by the truck, people on the other side in the mud hole, and all of the people fishing where I am on the island hasn't hooked a single fish yet. I'm not even fishing at this point I'm just watching and even after an hour after they planted I only saw two fish get caught. The word that was going around is because of the shallow water and higher temperatures all of the fish weren't sticking around in the rec area, they were just taking off for the main lake and colder waters.
Eventually I did notice about a dozen fish make there way to the island. Me and 20 other people threw jigs, flies, kastmasters, spinners, power worms, and everything in the tackle box at em for a chaser every now and then but no one caught anything. We go and check out the mud hole again and I can see some people with a few fish on a stringer just tossing powerbait, but man Lake Pardee sure is a bust this year. Slow fishing all around. After that we called it a break and ran back to camp for some lunch.
I fried up the fish we caught last night, cooked up some burgers and we all had some fish burgers.
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Seems like an odd combination I know, but it was awesome.
Food in our systems we had to give it one more shot before trying the night bite again. We all ran back to the area where Garrett was catching his fish in the morning and no more then 30 seconds after we got there. Garrett hooks up again.
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Only one catching fish on the lake that I saw.
Shortly after though I finally got one on powerbait.
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We fished till sundown for a couple more hits, Garrett got one more and that was it.
Another rest got some dinner and back on the water around 0700.
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Lake Pardee at night.
Same area again where we were catching fish and I ended up getting one more on power bait and that was it. With our spot not producing we set off to try and new area. I saw some people with some fish in the mud hole earlier today so we thought that might be our best bet. I actually dropped off the guys there and I went back to camp to spend a little bit of time with Deni back and camp. I get a call around 1130 from Adam telling me to come and pick them up cause everyone limited out. I got them cleaned up all the fish and then I had to get back out there and get my share. With the promise of an easy bite I took Deni and our friend Jazzy, since they don't have the patience like the rest of the guys do it works out that we could find the fish for them before they come out.
I get myself back on the water with the girls about 0000 and set the power bait rods out. The lines weren't sitting there for more then about 30 seconds and we were all getting hits. I tried doing two rods and one point but, between me getting bites myself and unhooking fish for both of the girls it just became too hectic. I eventually just pulled my rod out of the water and let the girls fish. While we were fishing I noticed the were fish surfacing everywhere, so I did try my glow jig again for a while, but they wouldn't touch it. They would only hit the powerbait for whatever reason. We all limited out by 0100 and called it a night from there.
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The nights catch.
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Some how I ended up cleaning everyones fish. lol
Next morning I slept in, but Garrett and Adam ran back to the same area where we were killing them last night in the morning around 0600, doing the exact same thing and couldn't even buy a bite.
Seems like its exclusively a night bite when there isn't any or very much pressure.
With not much to stick around for we left by 1100 and headed home to relax. Long tough weekend, but we did finally experience what Pardee should be like. Everybody ended up catching fish and we all had a great time regardless of how fishing was the majority of the time.
Oh and what was shocking for Pardee I never got check by a warden or a ranger once. I'm sure they were there, but last year I got checked for my license 4 times each day, even at night. With no one catching many fish I guess there was nothing to enforce.
Till Next Time Guys
Mark
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