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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: 1 foot below 475. Temp: 60-65 degrees. Clarity: Clear on main lake with some stain in the creeks. Bass: Tournament angler Kerry Partain reports, “Now is a perfect opportunity to catch fish and take a kid to enjoy the great outdoors. The month of April is one of the best times to catch bass in a variety of different ways. If you like to fish shallow, you can catch them in the creeks on crankbaits, spinnerbaits and a Texas-rigged Zoom Baby Brush Hog or lizard. There will also be some prespawn bass out on the points and in the major pockets cruising before they go on bed. For these bass, I like to throw a Blade Runner with a Zoom Fluke or a shaky head out deeper on the points. Later in the month the topwater bite will start to turn on with the herring spawn, and I…
Read MoreLake Russell Articles
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.…
“The clear water at Russell lets you see bedding and cruising fish in early May and catch them. I would much rather fish where I know a bass is seeing my bait, rather than just casting to a place hoping one will see it,” Bobby Stanfill told me as we discussed plans for fishing for…
A 11-lb., 6-oz. walleye would make any northern angler green with envy. The lake-record fish was caught Sept. 11, 1995 at Lake Russell by Neal Watson, of Martin. Neal’s huge walleye held the Georgia state record for quite some time until his walleye mark was eclipsed by a 14-lb., 2-oz. fish caught at Lake Rabun…
Tim Harris ought to go fishing more often! On his single trip to the Lake Hartwell trailrace last summer, he caught a trout bigger than anyone else has caught from Lake Russell. On Fourth of July, 1993, then 14-year-old Tim Harris, of Hartwell, went fishing in the tailrace below the Lake Hartwell dam, which is…
In a precedent-setting move, the first Georgia parks property has been opened to deer hunters. The Beaver Dam Creek marina site at Lake Richard B. Russell has been opened to archery-only deer hunting. The 350-acre tract located off Hwy 72 is owned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and leased to the Georgia Parks…
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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 |
