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Lake Hartwell
Lake Hartwell is a 56,000-acre Corps of Engineers reservoir bordering Georgia and South Carolina on the Savannah, Tugaloo and Seneca rivers. Lake Hartwell is one of the southeast's largest and most popular recreation lakes, and it offers good fishing, particularly for bass and stripers. Three recent Bassmaster Classic tournaments have been held at Hartwell. The lake is created by Hartwell Dam located on the Savannah River 7 miles below the point where the Tugaloo and Seneca rivers join to form the Savannah. Interstate 85 crosses Lake Hartwell at the Georgia-South Carolina line.
Lake Hartwell Resources
Hartwell: Level: 0.8 feet below 660. Temp: 48-53 degrees. Clarity: The main lake is clear, but there is stain in the creeks. Bass: Cole Wilson, with Spot Chaser Guide Service, reports, “When March rolls around, there are a lot of different patterns and ways to catch fish. In the early part of the month, continue to look in the ditches early in the morning using Damiki jigs or small swimbaits since fish will still be out there feeding up. As the sun rises and temperatures rise, look for rocky points in the 10- to 25-foot range and target them with a shaky head, jig or small swimbait reeled slowly along the bottom as the spotted bass will be feeding up heavily. Of course, there is always a prespawn rock bite with a crankbait. Target the rocky banks with deep water nearby with a crankbait. A mud-bug color in the Spro…
Read MoreLake Hartwell Fishing Articles
In today’s world, competition for your time and resources abound. As a society, we are relentlessly marketed to through smartphones, apps, television, radio, internet and almost any place we visit. Restaurants have stores that you can shop in while you await a wireless pager to signal a table’s availability. Stores have restaurants so you can…
Mix postspawn bass and blueback herring, and you can be in for a fast and furious bite. Lake Hartwell bass are mostly finished spawning by early May, and they are munching herring to recover from the stress of the spawn. Meanwhile, the herring make it easy for the bass because they are spawning, which concentrates…
Die-hard bass fishermen hope most folks are enjoying watching football and hunting deer—that just means fewer boats on the water during one of the best months of the year for bass fishing. At Lake Hartwell, both largemouth and spotted bass feed heavily in October, and anglers can catch bass using a variety of techniques. Lake…
“Show up and dominate” is the motto of high school bass tournament partners Dylan Parham and Thomas Zaczek. The pair fishes for Mill Creek High School in Gwinnett County and are currently practicing for the B.A.S.S. Nation State Classic Oct. 17-18 at Lake Hartwell. To qualify for the State Classic at Hartwell, anglers must fish…
Think it is too hot to go fishing during the day in July? Big bass busting on top will make you forget how hot it is. Plan a trip to Lake Hartwell, and enjoy catching quality fish on topwater plugs. Lake Hartwell is a sprawling 56,000-acre U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lake on the Savannah…
Lake Hartwell Record Fish
| Largemouth Bass | 12-lbs., 6.5-ozs. | Jack Breshears | 03/08/76 |
| Spotted Bass | 5-lbs., 6.08-ozs. | Raulie Bleech | 03/18/07 |
| Redeye Bass | 3-lbs., 7-ozs. | Steve Williams | 04/17/04 |
| Striped Bass | 59-lbs., 8-ozs. | Terry McConnell | 02/03/02 |
| Hybrid Bass | 20-lbs., 1-oz. | Buster Green | ----- |
| White Bass | 4-lbs., 5-ozs. | H.T. Davis | 02/06/67 |
| White Crappie | 4-lb., 4-ozs. | Charles McCullough | 04/27/68 |
| Black Crappie | 3-lbs., 1.76-ozs. | Jimmy Burns | 03/02/22 |
| Walleye | 9-lbs. | T.O. Sherriff | 1974 |
| Blue Catfish | 30-lbs., 8-ozs. | Melvin Wall | 06/26/03 |
| Flathead Catfish | 66-lbs. | Darrin Sealey | 04/04/10 |
| Shellcracker | 1-lb., 4.16-ozs. | DJ Hill | 05/13/23 |
| Chain Pickerel | 2-lbs., 5-ozs. | Jay Franklin | 03/16/23 |