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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: 1.9 feet below 660. Temp: 60s. Clarity: Clear. Bass: Trent Gober, with Fish Hartwell Guide Service, said November is a great month to fish Lake Hartwell. The fish are moving shallow into the creeks. Many baits will catch them, from topwater for schooling fish to crankbaits on rocky banks going into the creeks. Pay attention to channel swings in the creeks. The baitfish tend to load up in those swings. Not all bass will go into the creeks. There will still be a main-lake bite, just a little deeper. Use a green-pumpkin jig or Senko to catch fish around brushpiles and on roadbeds 20 to 35 feet deep. Keep your eyes on your electronics for big pods of bait, and you will find the fish close by. Lake Hartwell Page: Archived Articles, News & Fishing Reports
Read MoreLake Hartwell Fishing Articles
Spots and largemouth at Hartwell respond to cooling water by moving shallow and feeding heavily in October. You can catch them on a variety of baits on main-lake points and humps, as well as on banks leading into coves. Hartwell is a big 56,000-acre reservoir on the upper Savannah River. The lake regularly produces 20-lb.…
As summer hits us Georgians in full force this month, you can bet anywhere you decide to fish it’s going to be hot, and I mean hot. About the only thing in the northern portion of our state that you can expect to be hotter than the sweltering daytime highs is the striper fishing. As…
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…
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 |