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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
Hartwell anglers are getting the topwater itch — it’s almost topwater time! Hartwell is famous for this post-spawn topwater bass-fishing blast. After the spawn is completed, the bass move out of the creeks and migrate to deep-water summer hangouts. At Hartwell that means main-lake points and humps that are usually lined with timber. The fish…
Lineside fishing guide Greg Beck snatched the rod from the rod holder and reared back to set the hook, but the fish was already gone. Before he could replace the rod, another planer board shuddered on the surface, then surged backwards, signaling a hit on the trailing blueback herring. Greg hurriedly set down the first…
By my watch, we started fishing at 8:49 p.m. Darkness was settling in over Lake Hartwell, but some fast-paced fish-catching under the lights was about to begin. Hartwell fishing guide Wayne White had pulled up on a “pull through” as he calls it, a narrow area, or funnel area that concentrates both bait and hybrids…
Nothing heats up a cold winter day like a bass on the end of the line. Two of the best ways to catch that instant heat are jigging spoons and crankbaits. These two classic cold-water hard lures can warm up a winter day in a hurry when the bass turn on. Working these two baits,…
It’s hard to believe, but you can catch bass on topwater baits all day on the brightest, hottest days in July on Lake Hartwell. The bass at Hartwell are looking for blueback herring, and the action can be fast. You can’t beat the excitement of hooking a bass on a topwater plug and watching six…
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 |