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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
The reports were as varied as the weather this week. The best reports came from ponds and the Okefenokee Swamp. Saltwater was hit-and-miss. The southeast Georgia rivers are still high but are falling now that the leaves have budded out and the trees are pulling more water. St. Marys River: The Temple Landing is currently closed while the WRD boat ramp crew rebuilds the ramp. The ramp itself is complete, and the crew is working to improve the parking area. The project is winding down, and it should reopen in early April if weather and river levels cooperate (which they are currently not doing). Okefenokee Swamp: Mike and Matt Rouse fished the east side of the Okefenokee on Saturday in the cool, super-windy weather and still caught fish. They had a few warmouth and fliers on black sparkle/chartreuse Warmouth Whacker Jigs. They also caught a couple bowfin by flinging crawfish-brass…
Read MoreClarks Hill Lake Articles
The Eliminator Series matches top Georgia bass tournament anglers head-to-head, and the diaries of these competitions offer invaluable bass fishing information to anglers. This months matches took place on West Point and Clarks Hill, and they offer great insight to April bass fishing on these lakes. You’ve read about the fishing success of the Millsaps…
Few people have the reputation for their ability to catch fish that William Sasser has for catching crappie on Clarks Hill. Year round, William can catch fish. You may have seen him recently on the UPN fishing show, “Fishing with Ralph Barbee.” The trip took place on Valentines Day, when William says the fishing hadn’t…
The planer board closest to the boat on the right-hand side had been quietly cutting a wake through the smooth surface of the Little River. Suddenly it lurched backward, then accelerated away in reverse. Steve grabbed the rod from a rod holder and swept back, setting the hook and putting a nice bow in the…
As the summer heat begins to drive water temperatures well into the 80s, there will be a bass pattern developing on Clarks Hill that not too many bass anglers ever take advantage of. We’ll be talking with David Smith of Lincolnton, one of the lake’s top club fishermen, about how and where he is catching…
The 2006 Top Six tournament drew almost 500 of Georgia top bass-club fishermen and women to Clarks Hill Lake April 24-25, and for most it was a surprisingly tough two days of fishing. The tournament featured the debut of the new Harry Hall Memorial Cup that goes to the state’s top bass club in the…
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 | 1-lb., 9-ozs. | Kathleen Weeks | 06/23/11 |