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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 Lake Fishing Report – May 2025

By GON Staff | April 30, 2025

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

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Clarks Hill Lake Articles

Clarks Hill Lake Live-Bait Linesides In December

Live-bait fishing for hybrids and stripers can be crazy good this time of year on Clarks Hill, with limits in minutes when the fish are bunched on points and humps feeding on herring—if you’re there at the right time. If you’d like to see proof, take a look at fishing guide Eddie Mason’s Facebook page…

July Bass On Clarks Hill

Bass at Clarks Hill are feeding on main-lake humps all summer, but you have to find the right humps and the right depths to catch these bass consistently. When you find the right places, fat 2- and 3-pounders are common, with a few 4s and an occasional 5-pounder in the mix. Clarks Hill is our…

Clarks Hill LiveScope Crappie

Somehow, somewhere along the line, the whole video game thing managed to pass me by. Guess there were better things to do with my metacarpus at the time. Making a living, for example. But after a day on Clarks Hill Lake looking for—and AT—bunches of crappie with Troy Thiel, I could easily find myself working…

Joshua Rockefeller ‘Frogs’ To Take BFL Title On Clarks Hill

Boater Joshua Rockefeller, of Harlem, brought a two-day total of nine bass to the scale weighing 21 pounds even to win the Phoenix Bass Fishing League presented by T-H Marine South Carolina Division Super-Tournament at Clarks Hill Lake. For his victory, Rockefeller earned $4,668. “I caught them frogging,” says Rockefeller, who earned his first career Bass Fishing League…

88 Pound Clarks Hill Flathead!

A flathead catfish weighing 88 pounds on certified scales was recently caught from Clarks Hill Lake by Blake White, of Keysville. The fish was caught on a bush hook and can’t be recognized as either a state or lake record. However, it’s a giant fish that GON is excited to share. “I told my wife…

Clarks Hill Lake Record Fish

Largemouth Bass14-lbs., 14-ozs.Carl Sasser02/16/72
Spotted Bass5-lbs., 7.2-ozs.Tanner Hadden04/23/2404/23/24
White Bass3-lbs., 9-ozs.Ed Lepley03/09/15
Striped Bass55-lbs., 12-ozs.Sam Porter05/27/93
Hybrid Bass16-lbs., 12-ozs.Jim Hankinson-----
Black Crappie4-lbs., 8-ozs.Dewey Marks1979
White Crappie4-lbs., 12-ozs.Weldon Clark03/30/06
Blue Catfish72-lbs., 3-ozs.Walker Crowe05/07/24
Flathead Catfish70-lbs.Michael Dollar03/04/23
Channel Catfish25-lbs., 2-ozs.James Gunn05/13/93
Yellow Perch2-lbs., 8-ozs.Brad Murphy12/89
Sauger4-lbs., 3-ozs.Stuart Bowers04/05/86
Warmouth13-ozs.Daniel Rawlins04/15/01
White Perch1-lb., 4-ozs.Dennis Franklin02/22/15
Shellcracker2-lb., 6-ozs.Allen Fitzgerald04/24/25