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Lake Burton
Lake Burton is a 2,775-acre Georgia Power Co. reservoir located in the northeast corner of Georgia in Rabun County. Burton offers very good bass fishing, and it also has a unique fishery for reservoir trout. The lake is lined with exclusive homes. It is the first lake in a six-lake series of small reservoirs on the Tallulah River. The chain begins with Lake Burton as the northernmost lake followed by Seed, Rabun, Tallulah Falls, Tugalo and Yonah.
Lake Burton Resources
Burton: Level: 1.8 feet below 1866.66. Temp: 68 degrees. Clarity: Slight stain. Bass: Guide Wes Carlton reports, “Most of the bass have completed their spawn and are staying shallow for the time being. We have caught a few really nice postspawn largemouth the last week or so. They seem to be biting a frog well in the mornings. Try using a Stanley Ribbit Toad in the white or bullfrog color in and around brush in the shallows. The spotted bass seem to be in the backs of the creeks chasing blueback herring around. We have had our best success casting a Rapala Skitter V4 silver color. We have also caught a few trout on this plug while bass fishing. This bite should continue to get better and continue longer throughout the day. Be sure and watch the shorelines and seawalls for spawning herring. These are the best areas to target…
Read MoreLake Burton Fishing Articles
In February 2005, Lake Burton produced a new Georgia state-record spotted bass, a fat 8-lb., 2-oz. fish. Burton is full of big spots, and a surprising number of largemouths, and the bass are on a pattern this month that can produce some outstanding catches. Burton is a small Georgia Power Co. reservoir just off Highway 76 between Clayton…
Fisherman Paul Turman lives in Hoschton. He is a transplant to Georgia from Ohio, where he grew up catching walleye and yellow perch from Lake Erie. When he moved to Georgia, he went to school on the perch (and walleye) in Georgia’s mountain lakes, and he has been catching them for 30 years. You may…
The heaviest spotted bass ever caught, weighed on certified scales and verified by state biologists is a Lake Burton fatty that pulled the scales to 8-lbs., 2-ozs. Wayne Holland, of Blairsville, caught the Burton spot on Feb. 23, 2005. The official Georgia state record, and Lake Burton record, measured 21 1/2 inches long, but it’s…
A 2.70-lb. black crappie set a new lake record for Lake Burton, but it only placed third in Week 1 of the 1994 GON Fishing Contest with a score of 83.1 percent. Tom Cook caught the slab on March 7. The GON Fishing Contest had weekly winners, with each species of fish having a benchmark…
A huge mountain largemouth bass caught in 1993 set the lake record for Lake Burton. Carl Lovell Jr., of Clarkesville, caught the bass on May 28, 1993 while fishing a plastic worm. Carl’s big largemouth weighed 14 pounds even.
Burton Lake Records
| Largemouth Bass | 14-lbs. | Carl Lovell Jr. | 05/28/93 |
| Spotted Bass | 8-lbs., 2-ozs. | Wayne Holland | 02/23/05 |
| Smallmouth Bass | 4-lbs. | Jeff Blair | 10/15/08 |
| Striped Bass | 47-lbs. | Robin Vaughn | 12/02/88 |
| Hybrid Bass | 12-lbs., 12-ozs. | Richard Sokolowski | 05/03/15 |
| White Bass | 3-lbs., 2-ozs. | Tod Hickman | 05/02/12 |
| Walleye | 11-lbs. | Steven Kenny | 04/13/63 |
| Yellow Perch | 2-lbs., 9-ozs.* | Emerson Mulhall | 02/18/24 |
| Black Crappie | 2-lbs., 11-ozs. | Tom Cook | 03/07/94 |
| Brown Trout | 12-lbs., 4-ozs. | Tom Fox | 05/30/22 |
| Rainbow Trout | 6-lbs. | Lila Kilby | 10/21/22 |
| Shellcracker | 3-lbs. | Greg Taylor | 05/21/75 |
| Bluegill | 1-lb., 15,5-ozs. | J. Gary Simmons | 07/03/76 |
| Channel Catfish | 18-lbs., 12-ozs. | Bland Burroughs | 10/14/94 |
| White Catfish | 4-lbs., 4-ozs. | Bill Papineau | 10/02/93 |
| Chain Pickerel | 2-lbs., 12-ozs. | Shelby Cathey | 7/17/24 |