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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: Full at 330. Temp: Mid 70s. Clarity: Clear. Bass: Jon Hair with Greenfish Tackle says the herring bite is wide open right now. Fish shallow flat points with topwaters, like an Ark Topwater Blower, and also soft jerkbaits, like flukes. Always watch for surface action. When the fish go down, follow up with a shaky head or a little rubber jig, like the Bad Little Dude. Brushpiles and canepiles make the bite better. The bite is pretty good all day long with this combo. D.J. Hadden, with Hadden Outdoors, says the herring spawn will be going on until mid-May and that plays heavy on the Clarks Hill bass bite this time of year. Focus on major creek and main-lake points. By mid May, they will move to shallow shoals. Fish marked shoals or find unmarked ones with a good GPS map. Work topwater hard baits and soft…
Read MoreClarks Hill Lake Articles
Kelly Chavous, of Columbia County, finally got to hold a once-in-a-lifetime flathead catfish out at Clarks Hill Lake in Lincoln County on May 25. Kelly, his nephew Tyler and Kelly’s buddy Mike “The Catfish King” Arrington dropped the boat in the lake around 7 p.m. and set out a few jugs with live bluegill in…
Clarks Hill bass will soon be moving up and staging for the spawn like they always every year in late February as early March do as water temperatures warm. Some winters in Georgia are dry, and Clarks Hill is known for low-water levels. This year, the lake is 12 feet below full pool as bass hit the…
Blake White, 27, of Thomson, has been fishing his whole life and picked up limb lining when he was 14 years old. Limb lining has been around for many years, and no doubt it’s a fun and very productive way to catch catfish. For limb lining, Blake uses 250-lb. braided cord with a 6- to…
A great recipe for bass fishing would be to start with Clarks Hill, add in the month of May, stir in blueback herring, and you have action that is hard to beat. Clarks Hill has always been a spring favorite of bass fishermen, and the introduction and expansion of blueback herring has made the May…
March weather is fickle, and fishing can be set back with a single front. Now, with April finally here, things have settled down, and the fishing is wide open. Bass are feeding and spawning, and they are as easy to catch right now as any time of the year. Clarks Hill is just about the…
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 |