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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: 3.3 feet below 330. Temp: Low 50s. Clarity: Clear on main lake, some stain from rain in creeks. Bass: D.J. Hadden, with Hadden Outdoors, says, “January can be a really fun month when the weather allows for some nice time on the water. For the most part, fish will move deep in ditches and in timber. I’m going to attack those fish with jigging spoons and a Greenfish Tackle Tutu jig with a Zoom Winged Fluke using forward facing sonar. With any ditch fishing, the bait can get pushed up in the shallows early in the morning. A Damiki Vault or Spot Choker underspin with a Keitech swimbait will get bites. Up the river, the shallow guys can get some quality largemouth bites, but the bite will be less consistent at times. A Rapala No. 7 Shad Rap and a Berkley Frittside can be deadly in January.”…
Read MoreClarks Hill Lake Articles
Georgian Matt O’Connell, of Brooks, caught a five-bass limit weighing 18 pounds to win the Phoenix Bass Fishing League (BFL) Presented by T-H Marine on Clarks Hill. Hosted by Visit Columbia County, Georgia, the June 22 tournament was the fourth event of the season for the BFL South Carolina Division. O’Connell earned $6,805, including the…
What began as a slow day on Clarks Hill Lake for Tanner Hadden and his guide party turned exciting and memorable with one key bite. Tanner decided to find some keeper spotted bass in deep brush for his clients to catch. When Tanner cast a 3/16-oz. Greenfish Cleanup shaky head jig threaded with a green…
You would have to consider it quite unusual if a 45-year-old lake fishing record was shattered by someone fishing from the bank in a community fishing hole that everyone knows about. Well, Walker Crowe is a quite unusual 16-year-old. While others his age are playing video games and worrying about teenage anxieties, Walker is dominating…
Flathead catfish are spawning on rocks at Clarks Hill right now, and you can have fun catching them for the next two months. Go after a mess to eat, or try to break the lake record—but be forewarned, breaking a catfish record at Clarks Hill will require a monster fish! The flathead record was set…
Anderson Jones, of Lander University, saved the best for last en route to singlehandedly sacking up 43 pounds, 15 ounces and winning the Strike King Bassmaster College Series at Clarks Hill Reservoir presented by Bass Pro Shops. After placing third on Day 1 with 19-12, Jones stepped on the gas and sacked up a second-round…
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 |