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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
“Get the net!” said Sarah Willard, who was hanging onto her rod as a hybrid bass flashed and pulled next to the boat. Sarah’s dad, Clarks Hill linesides guide Dave Willard, stepped to the gunnel with the net, scooped, and netted a silvery, 3-lb. hybrid. Dave unhooked the fish, and was holding the fish in…
The Georgia Bass Chapter Federation’s first Junior Club State Championship was held April 30, 2005 on Clarks Hill Lake. Three junior teams participated in the first championship tournament. Anglers competed into two age classes, 11 to 14 and 15 to 18, with the winner of each age group advancing to the Junior World Championship, which…
For the May 14, 2005 Easter Seals tournament at Clarks Hill Lake, catching big sacks of largemouths compliments of the blueback-herring spawn was hit or miss. For those who found schooling activity, they had to weed through the hybrids and stripers to fill their livewell with largemouths. By 1 p.m., the team of Dale Gibbs…
It took about 30 phone calls before I finally began to tap into a few folks who backed a boat into the gin-clear waters of Clarks Hill with the sole purpose of trying to hook into a flathead catfish. The flathead makes its most famous Georgia home in the Altamaha River, where it’s known for…
If you like fishing shallow water for bass, there is an unusual condition at Clarks Hill this year that you should love. The lake level was low for several years, and now there is a lot of dead grass under water. This month the bass will be in that grass feeding and getting ready to spawn. You can catch a lot of bass shallow this…
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 |