Pardee Lake Recreation Area will reopen Thursday February 17th for camping and Friday February 18th for fishing. As of today, lake level is approximately five feet below spill and holding. There is little or no debris in the water with good visibility to 10 feet and water temperature in the mid to high 50's. Bank anglers should be very successful this opening due to the unprecedented opening plant scheduled for this week with 4800 lbs of Rainbow Trout from the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery, 2000 lbs from the Calaveras Trout Farm and another 2000 lbs placed by California Dept of Fish and Game. There will be another 5000 lbs planted the following weekend bringing the total to over 12,000 lbs for the first week. The most popular and successful set up used by shore anglers is the sliding sinker cast about 30 feet from shore with power bait that floats up off the bottom, also effective on recently planted fish are blue/silver Kastmasters and black Wooly Buggers. At the close of last season Power Eggs, Maggots and Rainbow Power Bait were the hot baits. Trollers usually work the River Arm, Rock Wall and the Face of the Dam at opener. Trout are usually very close to the surface at 5 to 15 feet. Any of three methods are used, lead core (3-4 colors) with small flashers and a night crawler, flat lining or drift fishing are all effective. Lots of Large German Browns are caught early in the season; try a mid-size broken back Rapala trout minnow behind a silver/green dodger at 50 feet near the Rock Wall. Some beautiful fish come out of there every year.