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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
Topwater baits over rocky humps and points, and dragging jigs on them and down the sides as they drop off into deeper water—that simple pattern is a great way to catch Clarks Hill bass in October. Clarks Hill’s 72,000 acres of water have gone through many changes since the river was dammed in 1950, but…
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has set the deer hunting dates for the 2019 season at the corps’ Bussey Point Management Area. Bussey Point is a 2,545-acre peninsula located in Lincoln County on Clarks Hill Lake (J. Storm Thurmond Reservoir). All hunts are limited to 100 hunters per day. Hunters are registered on a…
Finding a quiet and safe place for a nursery tops the priorities for new parents, be they humans or fish. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and state partners help fish in Savannah River reservoirs find those safe places for their young. To make those safe places this summer, workers, student interns and volunteers have…
(Editor’s Note: GON policy has always been to use the original local names for lakes, rather than names later enacted by Congress to honor fellow politicians. So this lake is always referred to in GON as Clarks Hill rather than J. Strom Thurmond. Likewise, we use Lake Eufaula rather than Lake Walter F. George. The…
The third-annual Peach State Crappie Club (PSCC) Veterans Event was held March 16 on Clarks Hill as a way to show appreciation to those who have served our country in the armed forces. “We take them fishing, it’s a great day of fellowship and a way to thank them for their service to our country.…
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 |