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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: 2 feet below 330. Temp: 60s. Clarity: The main lake is clear, with some stain in creeks. Bass: David Earl Thorton says the unseasonable weather has the fall bite slower to turn on. Some schooling activity on the main lake will produce bites on an ima Skimmer or Gunfish 95. If it is windy, throw a Mini-Me spinnerbait in the same places the bass are schooling, especially on humps. For shallow fish, rig a Greenfish Toad Toter and Zoom Horny Toad or the Bass Slayer Hawg Frog and cove the shallows. Jon Hair, with Greenfish Tackle, says to keep it simple. Run shallow cover, especially wood, with a buzzbait early, and then probe 10- to 20-foot-deep brush with a jig when the sun is high Clarks Hill Page: Archived Articles, Fishing Reports & Lake Records
Read MoreClarks Hill Lake Articles
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…
David Matthews couldn’t believe his bad luck. Just minutes into a 150-boater on Clarks Hill, this local boy’s strategy hit a brick wall. In practice he’d found several bass on the bed, including a 4 1/2-pounder by a stump that he hoped would still be locked down and ready to jump on a tube bait.…
My dad taught me to fish at the two lakes in Stone Mountain Park. He enjoyed taking me in April — a prime time for fishermen, and kids of all ages, to get bit shallow. He’d give me a canepole equipped with a gold hook, a small sinker, a long-skinny bobber and a minnow. While…
Keep it simple. That’s Joe Ludwig’s approach when it comes to a winning strategy for bass fishing on Clarks Hill this time of year. I fished the lake with Joe on January 10, 2006, and we fished all day with just two baits: a lead-head fluke and a jig ’n pig. According to Joe that’s…
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 |