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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: 3.5 feet below 660. Temp: Mid 50s to low 60s. Clarity: Clear. Bass & Stripers: Trent Gober, with Fish Hartwell Guide Service, said the bait is moving into the creeks and ditches, and bass and stripers will follow. Look for both back in ditches where the 20 to 25 foot deep water ends. Drag a green-pumpkin Senko on a 1/4-oz. Gamakatsu jig head or a jig ’n pig on the bottom for bass. Everything will be bottom related. Find rockpiles or rock ridges that concentrate the bass at that depth. A Fish Head Spin will also catch fish when reeled slowly along the bottom under bait, as will a spoon dropped under the bait balls. For stripers, get in areas of bait and fish live bait in very shallow water. The big stripers often cruise in 5 feet of water looking for food. Cast your bait to the…
Read MoreLake Hartwell Fishing Articles
If you are an angler, you have to love the fall. We get less competition from our hunting brothers while they put on their camos and pursue game, the recreational boaters are home waiting for a football game to start and the lakes are quiet and smooth. Add to that the fact that almost every…
Ziiiipppp. I heard the drag on Randy Childers’ reel make that distinctive sound that tells anglers they have just hung into something solid. When I turned and looked, Randy’s rod was doubled over, and his line was still. “Stump?” I asked. “Good fish,” Randy replied, not really talking to me as much as affirming the…
Kim Carver and Matt Ferman said changing weather conditions and a spinnerbait were key ingredients in their win at Berry’s Lake Oconee tournament Saturday, May 13. “We struggled all morning,” said Kim. “We mostly caught our fish off a Zoom lizard. We’d catch one on a dock, then one on a seawall, we probably only…
If the catfish in Lake Hartwell could complain, they would probably complain about these two: catfishermen Red Duncan and Melvin Wall. When these two go catfishing they usually catch fish — lots of fish, and lots of big fish. A friend recently asked them to keep him the catfish they caught one day so he…
I cast a Lil’ Fishy out onto the end of a narrow, rocky point in Coneross Creek on Lake Hartwell and began a slow retrieve. The white, soft-plastic bait had moved maybe 10 feet when something bumped it. “I just had a hit,” I said to Hartwell fishing guide Steve Crenshaw and his friend Preston…
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 |