For many years, the legions of trout and kokanee anglers that visited the lakes were either unaware of or uninterested interested in the fine black bass fishing that the lake offered. For a long time Pardee was one of the most jealously guarded secrets among Northern California trophy bass fanatics.

Pardee is unique among the Golden State's bass factories. Years ago many California reservoirs were home to smallmouth bass and northern strain largemouths. More recently plants of spotted bass have had a negative impact on smallmouth populations in most lakes and plants of Florida strain largemouths have diluted or eliminated the northern strain bloodline. Pardee is one of the few lakes that was not stocked with spots or Floridas and as a result it continues to foster strong populations of both smallmouth bass and northern strain largemouths.

Pardee's credentials as a trophy bass lake date back more than 35 years to 1971. That year an angler set the lake largemouth record with a 13.2 pound largemouth that has held up to this day. 16 years later in 1987, a lady angler named Frances Farmer set the benchmark for the lake's smallmouth bass when she weighed 7.5 pound bronzeback.

Talk of Pardee's trophy bass rose from a murmur to a full blown buzz February 24, 2005, when Paul Cunningham set a new lake smallmouth record boating a fish that weighed 8.05 pounds, the first 8 pound smallmouth caught at the lake.

Cunningham's bronzeback eclipsed the lake's previous record 7.78 pound smallie that was landed in April of 2004, by Jon Walton, proprietor of Walton's Pond in San Leandro. Cunningham's fish was hooked on a Robo Worm in the late afternoon. On February 12, 2006 Cunningham's record was surpassed by an 8.70 pounder that fell for a crankbait worked by Nick Welton of Galt. On the same day Welton busted his monster an angler named Kevin Looper landed an 8.22 pounder on a jig. The big bronzeback buzz of 2006 was capped off on September 24, when Jim Firmalo of Madera nailed an 8.24 pound smallmouth. Amazingly, when Firmalo landed his big fish he was trolling a trout spoon during the Kokanee Power trout and kokanee derby!

Lake Pardee closed for fishing on October 29, 2006 and was not slated to open again until February 2, 2007. Throughout the winter anglers speculated whether or not the big bass trend would continue. Tim Brady of Weaverville set the state record for smallmouth bass on May 20, 1976 when he pulled a 9.1 pound bronzeback from Trinity Lake. With Welton's bass weighing in within a pound of the state record, there was plenty of speculation that it was just a matter of time before a new state record came out of Pardee.

By the opener the speculation had reached a fever pitch, but the lake's big smallies must not have privy to the speculation, since they remained close mouthed for the first several weeks of the fishing season. All that changed on Sunday, March 4, 2007, when a 15-year-old angler named Ryan Leveque shattered the lake record once again with an 8.94 pound behemoth. It wasn't a state record, but it was 2.4 ounces closer than Walton's previous lake record.

Leveque caught the big fish at 7:30 in the morning on his first cast. He was working a natural colored worm with a chartreuse tail on 4 pound test line when the bass hit. The bass doubled his rod over and it took him nearly 30 minutes to bring the fish to the boat. After weighing the fish on a certified scale at the marina and taking some photos the fish was released unharmed.

A big fish, a new lake record, pictures and a successful release, you would think the story ends there, wouldn't you? It doesn't. 10 days later a trophy bass specialist named Chris "Fish Chris" Wolfgram headed out to the lake with high expectations. Fish Chris is no stranger to big bass. He currently holds the Rancho Seco record with an 18.4 pound Florida largemouth and has landed 74 individual bass over the 10 pound mark.

On the previous day he had landed a 10.3 pound largemouth at Pardee. "I had been wanting to catch a northern strain largemouth for a long time. When I got that big fish next to the boat it spit up a big planter rainbow and I was afraid that without the trout it might weigh less than 10 pounds, but it just squeaked by at 10.3," said Fish Chris.

During his second day on Pardee, Fish Chris was working a Bass Trix bluegill swimbait on an offshore hump in 12 to 14 feet of water when he hooked a big smallmouth. After a spirited fight he was able to boat the fish and weigh it on the certified scale that he keeps stowed in his boat.

"I've been hunting trophies for over 10 years. A lot of times when you get a big fish you don't have access to a scale, so I bought my own. It only cost me $35 and I get it certified at my local county Department of Weights and Measures," said Fish Chris.

After taking some photos of the big smallie, Fish Chris released it to fight again another day. "That smallmouth was one of the most amazing fish I've ever caught or seen and I owe Ryan Leveque a debt of gratitude. After looking at the marking pattern of his bass and the bass I caught, I am convinced it is the same fish. The markings on bass get lighter and darker depending on the conditions, but they don't change. The markings themselves are as distinct as finger prints and the markings on his fish and mine match up perfectly," related Fish Chris. "This isn't the first time that my fishing buddies and I have identified individual fish. We have caught several big fish multiple times and this really drives home the importance of releasing the big bass you catch. The bottom line is that if Ryan had kept his fish, I would have not gotten the pleasure of catching it. I'm pretty sure that when Ryan caught the bass, it had a stomach full of food. When I got it I think the stomach was empty and that accounts for the weight difference. If you look at both of our photos, it is clear the bass was still full of eggs and had not spawned yet," said Fish Chris.

In getting the facts for this article I talked to the previous record holder Paul Cunningham, along with Dennis Johnson the President of Pardee Recreation Inc. and of course "Fish Chris" Wolfgram. I put the question to them whether a state record would come out of the lake in the near future and they all agreed that it was just a matter of time.

"There will absolutely be a new state record smallmouth caught out of Lake Pardee and I think it will be caught this year," said Johnson.