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Lake Russell
Lake Russell is one of Georgia's youngest reservoirs, completed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1983 with construction of the Richard B. Russell Dam on the Savannah River bordering Elbert County, Georgia and Abbeville and Anderson counties in South Carolina. Lake Russell is 26,650 acres and sits between Lake Hartwell to the north and Clarks Hill Lake to the south. As a newer reservoir, environmental laws impacted construction, one factor being that thousands of acres of standing timber were left. Lake levels don't fluctuate much more than 5 feet. Pumpback features at Russell Dam can both pull and release water into and from the tailrace. In addition to the Savannah River, major tributaries include Beaverdam Creek on the Georgia side and Rocky River in South Carolina.
Lake Russell Resources
Russell: Level: 0.8 feet below 475. Temp: 64 degrees. Clarity: Clear. Bass: Guide Trad Whaley reports, “The shallow bite is tough, but the spots are starting to set up in their winter patterns. The key, as always, is finding the bait. The birds are just starting to show up. We have been catching a mixture of spots and really nice stripers on A-rigs and small swimbaits and Damiki rigs. The smaller spots seem to be on every brushpile and point in 10 to 20 feet of water. Jerkbaits, shaky heads and swimbaits get the call. There are some nice ones mixed in. We have found the better spots and some largemouth in 28 to 35 feet on jigging spoons and drop shots. Try the middle of the creeks and the edges of the timber. Fishing jigs in channel turns is also starting to heat up. Russell is a fun lake…
Read MoreLake Russell Articles
The look exchanged by my fishing partner and I was one of surprise, almost shock… a “can you believe that” kind of look. It was late afternoon on a beautiful mid-October day on Lake Russell. What could we possibly have seen that was so surprising? It was another boat, the first and only boat we…
Each time I go to Lake Russell, I am impressed with its beautiful, clear green water, and good bass fishing. With undeveloped, tree-covered shorelines, steep banks and abundance of cover, it looks like bass-fishing heaven. And it is. Filled in 1994, Russell’s 26,650 acres sit between the upper end of Clarks Hill and the Hartwell…
December is a great month for bass fishing. The fish are still active, and there are few other boats on the water. And if you choose Lake Russell, you will find a pristine lake with no shoreline development, low fishing pressure and lots of largemouth and spotted bass ready to hit. Russell is a 26,650-acre…
With a forest of underwater timber in deep water for bass to hold in, some attractive cover closer to the banks of Lake Russell might make fishing easier for the average angler. That shallow cover may be on the way in the form of pond weed. A joint project between the U.S. Army Corps of…
Intimidating, daunting, tough… all words that have been used to describe bass fishing on Lake Russell, usually by an angler who has never fished the timber-filled, clear water of the Savannah River reservoir. Beautiful, fishy-looking and awesome… words used by others to describe the bass fishing at Russell, especially during the postspawn period in May.…
Lake Russell Record Fish
| Largemouth Bass | 13-lbs., 4-ozs. | Eddy Propes | 03/04/90 |
| Spotted Bass | 6-lbs., 8-ozs. | Mike Strickland | 04/06/13 |
| Striped Bass | 63-lbs. * | Terry McConnell | 04/03/09 |
| White Bass | 4-lbs., 4-ozs. | James L. Payne | 04/12/94 |
| Walleye | 11-lbs., 6-ozs. | Neal Watson | 09/11/95 |
| Brown Trout | 10-lbs., 8-ozs. | Tim Harris | 07/04/93 |
| Black Crappie | 3-lbs., 6.08-ozs. | Aaron Jenkins | 02/23/24 |
| White Crappie | 3-lbs. | Tony Baker | 04/03/03 |
| Hybrid Bass | 14-lbs., 9-ozs. | Wayne McCollum | 01/11/04 |
| Yellow Perch | 1-lb., 5-ozs. | Vern Fulmer | 09/27/23 |
| White Perch | 1-lb., 4-ozs. | Eric Young | 01/02/21 |