Stockton Angler Sets New State Smallmouth Record At Lake Pardee!   By: Dan Bacher June 27, 2007 More Articles by Dan

It was only a matter of time until an angler set a new state smallmouth bass record at Lake Pardee, located in the Mother Lode foothills near Ione. Harold Hardin of Stockton did just that when he bagged a new lake record – and a pending state smallmouth record – weighing 9.83 pounds on July 3.

The lake has produced a number of fish over 8 pounds in the past years, topped by the 8.94 pound monster caught and released by 15-year-old Ryan Leveque on March 4 of this year. Hardin’s fish will eclipse the state record of 9 pounds, 1 ounce that Tim Brady of Weaverville set on Trinity Lake in 1976.

“I’ve been trying to catch the state record and Pardee Lake record for 20 years,” said Hardin after he loaded his boat on the trailer at Pardee. “My years of patience finally paid off. My key to success is to keep moving and not stay too long in one place.”

Harold and his brother, Ed of Westpoint, launched his aluminum boat on the lake at 5 a.m. Hardin hooked the lunker while tossing out a 6 inch Castaic charcoal-colored swim bait along the rocks at the mouth of the Mokelumne River in 15 feet of water about 6:15 am.

“The smallmouth were feeding on sunfish holding along the rocks,” he stated. “As I brought my bait by a boulder, the big bass grabbed my lure and took out 30 feet of line. He came out of the water once and then dived down towards the rocks. I held the fish, preventing him from getting stuck on the rocks, and forced the fish up to the side of the boat. My brother netted it.”

Hardin estimated that the battle took him between 15 and 20 minutes. He used a light Fenwick spinning rod, outfitted with a Quantum reel spooled with 10 lb. test Berkley Trilene, to capture the fish. Realizing that it could be a new lake or state record, he drove the back to the marina to have it weighed on the marina’s certified scale.

As big as Hardin’s fish was, he said that he and his brother lost another six big fish that day, in addition to 10 smallmouths in the 1 to 2 pound range.

“After I went back out on the lake, I hooked another larger bass that broke my line,” he said. “I got the huge bass within 10 feet of the boat before it came off. A friend lost a huge smallmouth between 10 and 12 pounds last year in the same area – and I’m hoping to catch a world record smallmouth out of Pardee.”

The bass measured 26 inches in length and 18-1/2 inches in girth. He is planning to have Bass Pro Shops mount the fish.

The record smallmouth is not the only large fish that Hardin has pulled from the waters of Lake Pardee. “I bagged a 7-1/2 pound smallmouth two years ago, while I landed 10 pound largemouth 3 years ago that I have now mounted on my wall.”

When the bass comes back from Bass Pro Shops, he plans to have the new state record mounted beside it.

“All of my biggest fish have come out of Pardee,” said Hardin, who fishes the reservoir at least once a week not only for big bass, but also for lunker trout and catfish. “My biggest Pardee trout weighed 10 pounds, while my largest catfish went 18 pounds.”

He also predicted that his state new state record would be shattered in the future. “Somebody will beat the record because there are bigger smallmouths in the lake. The fish grow big because they have so much food, including sunfish, crayfish, crayfish, trout and kokanee salmon,” he noted.

He concluded, “It was the best day of fishing in my life. If had landed the other huge fish that broke my line, I might have set the world record.”

On July 9, 1955, D.L. Hayes caught the world-record smallmouth bass, weighing 11 pounds and 15 ounces, while trolling a pearl-colored Bomber at Dale Hollow Lake along the Tennessee-Kentucky boundary. Hayes' record has withstood many challenges and a state investigation.

Mike Harris, DFG fishery biologist, examined Hardin’s fish and confirmed that it was a smallmouth bass on Thursday, July 5. He noted that the bass was very well-fed, having come from a lake that is heavily stocked with trout by the DFG and the lake concessionaire, Lake Pardee Recreation, and has an abundant kokanee population. “Our state record bass – whether smallmouth, spotted or largemouth – have come from lakes where lots of trout are stocked,” said Harris.

Hardin has filed all of the necessary paperwork with DFG and is waiting for their certification of his new state record.

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