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Clarks Hill Lake
Lake Strom Thurmond, known by most Georgia fishermen as Clarks Hill Lake, is a reservoir at the border between Georgia and South Carolina in the Savannah River Basin. It was created by the J. Strom Thurmond Dam during 1951 and 1952 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers near the confluence of the Little River and the Savannah River. Fishing for largemouth bass and striped bass in particularly popular at Clarks Hill, and the lake also offers very good shellcracker fishing during the late spring spawn, and there are some giant catfish in the lake. Crappie fishing can also be very good on Clarks Hill. At 71,000 acres, it is the third-largest artificial lake east of the Mississippi River, behind Kentucky Lake on the Tennessee River and Lake Marion on the Santee River. The J. Strom Thurmond Dam is located upstream from Augusta. Clarks Hill is one of the southeast's largest and most popular public recreation lakes.
Clarks Hill Lake Resources
Clarks Hill: Level: Full at 330. Temp: Low 70s. Clarity: Clear. Bass: David Earl Thorton, with Franklin Gun Shop in Athens, reports, “The herring bite is in full effect on the lower end of the lake. Spinnerbaits, flukes and topwater will get the job done. Fish them over shoals and shallow gravel points. Blow-throughs are especially good and wind helps. After that early bite, go to the bank and run shallow, shaded pockets with a Greenfish Toad Toter Buzzbait. Bream will bed around the full moon, making this shallow bite much better.” Clarks Hill Page: Archived Articles, Fishing Reports & Lake Records
Read MoreClarks Hill Lake Articles
May fishing is good anywhere you go in Georgia, but blueback herring have made Clarks Hill one of the best bets in the state to catch big largemouth this month. Fueled by spawning her- ring, postspawn bass are hitting on top, the most exciting way to catch bass. You can’t go wrong with a trip…
If you’re a gambler (which I am not due to a streak of bad luck as wide as the Savannah River), there aren’t many things you can make easy money on. However, were you to place a friendly wager with a fishing buddy you could start counting your winnings on a few facts. First of…
A Bandit 200 and a 1/2-oz. Rat-L-Trap fished in dirty water in Georgia’s Little River was exactly how Tony Green became this year’s Georgia Bass Chapter Federation (GBCF) Top-Six state champion. Tony weighed in 30.40 pounds of Clarks Hill bass for the March 10-11 tournament, where the top-six anglers from 73 GBCF-affiliated bass clubs converged…
The day was absolutely beautiful. Blue, cloudless skies, no wind, and a high of about 80 degrees. It was Dec. 10, and an unseasonable warm spell had hit the Southeast driving temperatures far higher than their normal. As a result, the water temperature was also on the rise, so the typical winter striper pattern was…
“Year-round, there are fish in this hole,” said Clifford Swygert, who was keeping track of eight rod tips, his depthfinder and his GPS as we slow-trolled over a deep area far up Little River on the South Carolina side of Clarks Hill Lake. “There’s one bumping it,” he said, nodding toward a 12-foot rod off…
Clarks Hill Lake Record Fish
| Largemouth Bass | 14-lbs., 14-ozs. | Carl Sasser | 02/16/72 |
| Spotted Bass | 5-lbs., 7.2-ozs. | Tanner Hadden | 04/23/2404/23/24 |
| White Bass | 3-lbs., 9-ozs. | Ed Lepley | 03/09/15 |
| Striped Bass | 55-lbs., 12-ozs. | Sam Porter | 05/27/93 |
| Hybrid Bass | 16-lbs., 12-ozs. | Jim Hankinson | ----- |
| Black Crappie | 4-lbs., 8-ozs. | Dewey Marks | 1979 |
| White Crappie | 4-lbs., 12-ozs. | Weldon Clark | 03/30/06 |
| Blue Catfish | 72-lbs., 3-ozs. | Walker Crowe | 05/07/24 |
| Flathead Catfish | 70-lbs. | Michael Dollar | 03/04/23 |
| Channel Catfish | 25-lbs., 2-ozs. | James Gunn | 05/13/93 |
| Yellow Perch | 2-lbs., 8-ozs. | Brad Murphy | 12/89 |
| Sauger | 4-lbs., 3-ozs. | Stuart Bowers | 04/05/86 |
| Warmouth | 13-ozs. | Daniel Rawlins | 04/15/01 |
| White Perch | 1-lb., 4-ozs. | Dennis Franklin | 02/22/15 |
| Shellcracker | 2-lb., 6-ozs. | Allen Fitzgerald | 04/24/25 |