Lake Pardee
Ione / Buena Vista (Amador County) · near Ione · Gold Country & Central Valley
Fishing
At a glance
- Difficulty
- beginner
- Best season
- Mid-Feb opener; spring (Feb-May) prime; closed ~Nov 8-Feb
Permits and booking
- Licence required
- Yes
- Licence detail
- CA license (16+). EBMUD water-supply lake: NO body contact/swimming in the lake, strict clean-boat rules, seasonal (Feb-Nov only). Boat ramps closed through 2026 for golden-mussel control (rentals still run) - verify before trailering.
What is here
- Features
- Finest trophy trout & kokanee reservoir in the Mother Lode · Big opening-week rainbow plants · No waterskiing - calm water · Full marina, store & campground
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- Yes
Fishing detail
- Nickname
- The Trophy Trout Lake
- Water type
- lake
- Water
- fresh
- Methods
- Bait · Trolling · Spin
- Boat
- both
- Target species
- Rainbow trout (planted & holdover) · Kokanee salmon · Largemouth bass · Catfish
- Intl tip
- Come opening week in February - Pardee stocks big trout and the kokanee fishing is best early, before summer crowds. Check the current golden-mussel boat-ramp status before towing; rentals are the easy workaround.
The guide
Lake Pardee is arguably the finest trophy-trout-and-kokanee reservoir in the Mother Lode - a beautifully managed EBMUD water-su…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Lake Pardee — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 38.247, -120.852