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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: 2.7 feet below 660. Temp: 49-52 degrees. Clarity: Clear. Bass: Cole Wilson, with Spot Chaser Guide Service, reports, “February is one of my favorite times of the year to fish Hartwell. Fish are feeding up heavily and are very aggressive. In the creeks, most fish are still being caught in ditches and on rocky points near their staging areas. A crankbait in the red and brown color fished along the points is a great option. Another great bait to throw is a Fish Head Spin paired with a Fluke Jr. slowly rolled along the bottom in the ditches. Keep an eye out for bait in the ditches because the fish will be nearby. Early in the mornings, focus on the backs of the ditches. As the sun rises, the bass will move out and the fish will follow. There is a main-lake bite, as well, that is producing…
Read MoreLake Hartwell Fishing Articles
Hartwell largemouth and spots have spawning on the mind in April, and you can catch both on predictable prespawn and postspawn patterns, as well as on the bed, this month. Then near the end of the month both species will be concentrating on the herring spawn and feeding heavily, an exciting time to fish Lake…
Over the last few years, Lake Hartwell anglers have expressed concern about the declining numbers of striped bass in the lake. “We attribute the decline in the striped bass population to low levels of dissolved oxygen found down deep where striped bass live during the summertime,” said WRD fisheries biologist Anthony Rabern. “Droughts and floods…
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…
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 |