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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
The never-ending heat wave was back. With temperatures tickling triple digits and not a cloud in the sky, eight hours on the deck of a boat had Clarks Hill feeling a little like Clarks H-E- you-know-where. However, two key variables turned less-than-ideal fishing conditions into a pretty good day on Georgia’s largest lake. First, a…
Ask a man to produce a 16-lb. bag of largemouths on any given tournament day and he may be able to do it; ask him to do it again and the odds go way down. Patrick Brown from Swainsboro weighed in another 16-pound-plus bag of Eliminator Series bass. On April 10, he won his Round…
Last May, B.A.S.S. anglers Davy Hite and Kevin VanDam were talking after the day-two weigh-in of Bassmaster’s Elite Series tournament on Clarks Hill. Davy had weighed-in back-to-back 20-lb. sacks, and all Kevin had after day two was a pair of 10-lb. bags. Kevin wanted to know just what in the heck Davy was throwing to…
Clarks Hill Lake is the largest reservoir in Georgia. At 71,000 acres, it’s a center of outdoor recreation and is one of the best-known lineside fisheries in the state. And well it should be; Ed Bettross is the Georgia Wildlife Resources Division (WRD) fisheries biologist assigned to Clarks Hill, and he has been working cooperatively…
Craig Johnson is one of the most confident anglers I’ve ever had the pleasure of being in the boat with. “I can put the camera down there and show you 50 fish. You can sit there for three hours and not have a bite and then all of a sudden they turn on and you…
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 |