Thurmond Lake: More Than a Place to Fish

by Rob Pavey

William Sasser spent a magical childhood fishing the rocky points and shadowy coves of the mammoth inland sea known today as Thurmond Lake.

The best fishing spots were legendary, even for a child growing up in the 1970s. "There was Bass Alley and a place way up in Lloyd's Creek the old-timers called the 'Fish Camp,' where a lot of vagrants lived."

Today Sasser returns to the lake as often as he can and has idled other business ventures to pursue his first love: guiding anglers to favorite places for crappie and largemouth bass.

The lure of Thurmond Lake is a common denominator shared by countless thousands of people who have come to love its tranquility and open water, in addition to its history and wildlife.

Sasser, who lives in Evans, is a second-generation fan of the 70,000-acre reservoir that has become so many things to many people. In 1972, his father, Carl Sasser, landed a 14-pound, 14-ounce largemouth one morning that was certified as the official lake record. To date, it remains unconquered.

"It amazes me, to this day, that no one's caught one bigger than that after all these years," Sasser says, adding that his dad, now deceased, would have been pleased to see his record persist for so many decades. "If I caught it, though, I don't know if I'd tell anybody. It's one of those father-and-son things."

Commissioned in 1944 as a water storage and flood control reservoir and completed a decade later under its original name, Clarks Hill, the lake has come full circle in its role as a regional destination that has spread from fishing and recreation to housing developments, timber and historical intrigue.

Although officially completed 53 years ago, the project's origins date back to 1890, when a federal survey concluded that periodic floods ravaging Augusta could be stopped only with dams on the upper Savannah River. In 1927, Congress authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to investigate potential sites and a 1933 report identified Clarks Hill and Hartwell as likely sites for hydroelectric dams that also would control flooding. On Aug. 8, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed a board to study the feasibility of a dam at Clarks Hill and the project was authorized by Congress in 1944.

Lost beneath the rising waters were fragments of history dating to prehistoric times, when Indian tribes traded, fought and traveled along the Savannah River's banks. The ruins of Petersburg, a Colonial settlement at the confluence of the Savannah and Broad rivers, can still be seen during the occasional drought that lowers lake levels enough to reveal forgotten foundations of a town that thrived-and later died-in the 1700s.

Although not widely known to lake visitors, Thurmond Lake is one of few places in the region that harbors deposits of gold. "We get a handful of people each year who apply for permits to pan for gold," says Tom Lewis, park operations manager for the 60,000-acres of collarlands under the Army Corps of Engineers' stewardship. What they find is unknown. "They don't tell us," Lewis laughs.
At the lake's rural upper end, the Broad River Wildlife Management Area near Lincoln County's Chennault community harbors some of the more interesting ruins from the nation's early industrial settlements.

The brick walls and towers, which rise like ancient tombstones from the forest floor, include remnants of the Hopewell Cotton Factory, its auxiliary buildings and Burton's Mill, which once stood across the river at Anthony Shoals-now inundated by Thurmond Lake.

According to research commissioned by the Corps of Engineers, the mill was built in 1840 with slave labor. The raw materials likely were gathered on-site from the whispering rapids of the Broad River nearby.

A few miles away, near Chennault crossroads, is where bushwhackers hijacked a wagon train loaded with Confederate gold the night of May 24, 1865. Some people believe the missing treasure is at the bottom of Thurmond Lake. The gold, valued at $450,000 in 1865-and worth many millions today-belonged to Virginia banks and was evacuated to Georgia after the fall of Richmond in the closing weeks of the Civil War.

One of the rumors was that the gold was dumped into the nearby Savannah River, now part of Thurmond Lake. So far, no one has found the lost treasure, though, according to Lewis. Or if they have, they aren't talking.

One of the most fascinating pieces of history is the name of the lake itself, which has stirred controversy since 1987, when Congress renamed Clarks Hill in honor of U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond. Although the change quietly cleared Congress, there was plenty of noise closer to home, where supporters of the Clarks Hill name gathered 72,000 signatures on petitions to restore its original name. Congress ignored the pleas, but the Georgia General Assembly reacted by passing a new state law that all road signs, official highway maps and other publications would keep Clarks Hill as the lake's official name. Official highway maps in South Carolina, however, call the reservoir J. Strom Thurmond Dam and Lake, as do the Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies.

Almost forgotten in the controversy was the lake's true namesake-an Augustan named John Mulford Clark, who owned land where the community of Clarks Hill, S.C., now sits. When Congress authorized the reservoir in 1944, the government's policy was to name projects after towns or geographic areas. Thus, the dam was named after the community of Clarks Hill and not Mr. Clark.

In addition to harboring lots of history, the lake's once undeveloped upper end is attracting interest from a new type of visitors: real estate developers. The catalyst for a burst in high-end housing was a sudden sell-off of lands bought by timber companies who invested in surplus government property decades ago.
Lincoln County, for example, is home to at least seven major developments where homes are being built on lots that can sell for $200,000 or more. The buyers are mostly out-of-town investors, and many are from major cities like Atlanta and states like Florida, where resort real estate has become too expensive for some. Lincoln County Commission Chairman Walker Norman estimates the influx of $1 million-plus homes during the next decade will generate millions in ad valorem tax revenues and other economic benefits to his rural county.

Closer to Augusta, Columbia County's Wildwood Park-where taxpayers invested more than $1 million three years ago to create a bass tournament facility-is gaining regional and national fame among professional fishing fans.

The 2007 CITGO Bassmaster Elite Series is returning to Thurmond Lake this year as part of its national tour and other tournament trails-including Southern Angler, SKEETERS Owners Tournament, FLW Super Tournament and the BFL Regional Tournament-also are scheduled to fish at Thurmond this year.

The lake has also gained fame with the National Striped Bass Association, which held its national tournament there last December. Striped bass and their feistier cousin, the hybrid bass, are stocked in great numbers in the lake each year from hatcheries in both Georgia and South Carolina. Each spring, biologists at Georgia's Richmond Hill Fish Hatchery near Savannah perform their annual magic ritual in which they "manufacture" about 6.5 million hybrid bass by mixing eggs from female white bass with the sperm from captive male striped bass. The resulting sportfish are fast-growing, easy to catch and can live in water less favorable to stripers. About 280,000 hybrids are stocked at Thurmond Lake each season, along with similar numbers of striped bass.

One key difference between hybrids and stripers-in addition to their size and rate of growth-is that striped bass, which often weigh 40 pounds or more, prefer open, cold water with high levels of dissolved oxygen.

Currently, the tailrace below Russell Dam at Thurmond Lake's headwaters is one of the best such locations, but the use of Russell's reversible hydropower turbines can warm the tailrace waters and reduce its oxygen levels.

One pending project, which is subject to the funding whims of Congress, would invest $4.6 million later this year-and another $6.9 million in 2008-2009-to develop an oxygen injection system near Modoc, S.C., specifically to benefit striped bass fishing in Thurmond Lake's lower end.

Bill Lynch, district project manager for the Corps of Engineers' Savannah District, described the project as a submerged system of perforated pipes extending several miles along the lake's bottom.

A cryogenic oxygen plant on the shoreline would pump liquid oxygen into the lines, which would allow it to bubble up toward the surface, providing an attractive environment for striped bass.

The corps agreed to finance the project as mitigation for the damage that occurs from using Russell's reversible turbines at the lake's headwaters. Until the oxygen system is in place, the corps has agreed to operate no more than two of Russell's four reversible turbines during warm summer months to avoid further impacts to water temperature in the tailrace.

Although many changes have come to the lake in addition to the creation of Russell Dam upstream, Ralph Barbee, a professional fishing guide who has fished the lake continuously since the late 1970s, believes the quality of the lake experience is as good today as it's ever been, due in part to newer changes that have occurred in the past decade. "In a lot of ways, the fish are getting bigger up there, and even changing their habits," Barbee says. "The places to go are the points, pockets and humps-that's Clarks Hill right now."

The unforeseen arrival of the invasive aquatic weed known as hydrilla has done much to alter the angling landscape of the reservoir by creating new habitat and cover for both baitfish and sportfish, he says. "It's changed the whole perspective up there and changed the way people fish 100 percent."

Thurmond Lake also has a great fishery for lesser-known species including white perch, yellow perch and even catfish, says Albert Moody, who has fished the lake for decades, and who liked the area so much he left his job in automobile sales to buy and operate the Clarks Hill Herring Hut in Clarks Hill, S.C.

His favorite species is the unglamorous-but quite tasty-yellow perch, which school and spawn in late winter, long before other species. All it takes, he says, is an ample supply of the tiniest minnows you can find, some very light tackle and enough patience to locate their favorite holes.

"Sometimes, you can be out there and nothing's going on. Not a bite. Not a
fish. And all of a sudden, they'll turn on like you wouldn't believe," he says. "Now that's fishing!"

Where the Wild Things Go
Most visitors to Thurmond Lake are awed by its 70,000 acres of water. But the Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the project, also controls 65,000 acres of "collarlands" along its wavering, 1,200-mile shoreline.

Those wooded acres provide wildlife habitat for countless species. The corps-and Georgia and South Carolina wildlife agencies-also manage huge public parcels for deer, turkey and other wildlife opportunities.

The lake is home to many popular traditional game species and those populations have been supplemented in recent years by the Canada goose-re-established at the lake in the 1980s. Also gaining a foothold in some areas are feral hogs. Although they are unwanted and considered a nuisance, reports continue to trickle in about their existence along the lake's shoreline. Other often seen wildlife species include the following.

Whitetail Deer
Few species enjoy the notoriety and importance bestowed upon Georgia's most popular big game animal, the whitetail deer. From the time the region was settled, unregulated hunting and trapping led to their gradual decline, and by 1920 they had vanished entirely except for small populations hidden in dense coastal swamps.
In 1928, a Georgia state wildlife ranger named Arthur Woody bought six deer and released them in north Georgia, spawning a statewide move to re-establish a resident herd. By the 1950s, the effort had grown in momentum, and Columbia County-listed by the state in 1953 as having a population of only 10 deer-was one of the areas chosen for the release of captive animals.
According to records maintained by Georgia's Wildlife Resources Division, 168 separate stockings of whitetails occurred in subsequent decades as efforts to restore the animals to all Georgia counties gained speed. During that period, the collarlands along Thurmond Lake's shoreline gained a new inhabitant that today provides public hunting and wildlife viewing opportunities on thousands of acres.

Eastern Wild Turkey
Wild turkeys were plentiful-and hunted year-round for food-when settlers first fanned out across North America. But by the late 1800s, the bird was in peril as forests were being stripped for agriculture. Market hunters shot turkeys by the thousands, often wiping out entire flocks by shooting roost areas at night. By 1900, a total flock that likely exceeded 7 million in Colonial times had dwindled to 30,000. Georgia had fewer than 17,000 wild turkeys in 1973 and the birds were confined to dense swamps and remote mountain regions. Today thanks to groups like the National Wild Turkey Federation, there are more than 350,000 birds in the state and Georgia's turkey season is one of the nation's longest and most liberal, with a three-gobbler limit.
The rolling, wooded lands surrounding Thurmond Lake are important habitat for the wild turkey and the big birds are commonly seen during the spring mating season as gobblers strut and call for hens. During early autumn, the birds travel in flocks and are frequently seen in late afternoon along field edges and timber clearcuts. They nest in spring and summer.

Bald Eagle
With its mature timber and jagged shoreline, Thurmond Lake is perfect habitat for the bald eagle-and as many as a dozen nesting pairs are known to inhabit the lake during the fall and winter.

Unfortunately, the lake's eagles have fallen victim to a mysterious ailment known as avian vacuolar myelinopathy (AVM), a fatal brain disorder thought to be linked to a neurotoxin connected to the aquatic weed hydrilla and coots-small waterfowl often eaten by eagles.

Visitors are still likely to see bald eagles at the lake, but the AVM disease also takes its toll, having killed more than 130 eagles nationwide since its discovery in 1999, including 36 birds at Thurmond Lake.

The good news, however, is that more and more eagles were spotted in annual census trips in recent years. Just five birds were seen in 2004 and 14 were seen the following year. The best places to look for eagles are in the lake's remote upper end, particularly in Lincoln County.

Bobwhite Quail
The South's signature bird once thrived among fence rows and field edges on countless thousands of family farms. But changes in agriculture, including the transition from row crops to massive corporate timber operations, nearly eliminated the bird from the regions along Thurmond Lake. Today the call of the bobwhite is once again heard in many areas along the lake, due to efforts by wildlife agencies in Georgia and South Carolina, the Corps of Engineers and the Edgefield-based conservation group Quail Unlimited.

In 1999, the corps earmarked about 375 acres near Thurmond Dam's Georgia side for development as a quail habitat demonstration site, where practices such as selective timber thinning, proscribed burning and planting of native seed-bearing vegetation preferred by quail are undertaken on an annual basis. Today the area is open to sportsmen who want to train and work bird dogs (but not to hunt quail) and the improved habitat also has increased populations of songbirds, fox, bobcat and
other creatures.
- Rob Pavey

Thurmond Lake Facts
• Originally named Clark Hill, then Clarks Hill, it was renamed in 1987 after U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond.

• The lake has 71,000 acres of water surrounded by 80,000 acres of federally controlled land.

• The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that the dam has prevented more than $45 million in flood damages.

• Each of the dam's seven generators produces 40,000 kilowatts of electricity, marketed by the Southeastern Power Administration in Elberton, Ga.

• A $70 million turbine rehabilitation, completed last year, increased hydropower production by as much as 30 percent.

• The corps operates or leases out federal land for six day-use areas, 13 campgrounds and several state and county parks.

• Visitation is estimated at 6 million people annually, making Thurmond Lake one of the 10 most visited corps areas in the nation.

Source: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Casting About
Professional fishing guides often make the experience of fishing at Thurmond Lake more rewarding-and less labor intensive. For their fee, they generally will provide fishing tackle, live or cut bait, boat, gas and-most importantly-their expertise.

Fees usually include a full day's fishing (eight hours) or a limit of fish (10 per person), whichever comes first. Rates may vary. Clients must have a valid state resident or nonresident fishing license and provide their own beverages and food. Proper clothing should include a rain suit and/or jacket, depending upon the time of the year and the weather forecast, a hat or cap and sunglasses. It's best to check with each guide before going out to be sure there are no hidden charges that can lead to misunderstandings and ruin a good day.

Here is a list of some of the guides available at Thurmond Lake:
• Ralph Barbee. Professional guide specializing in largemouth, hybrid and striped bass. (706) 860-7373.

• Capt. Tommy Dudley. U.S. Coast Guard-licensed professional guide specializing in stripers and hybrids. (706) 833-4807.

• Capt. Buddy Edge. U.S. Coast Guard-licensed, full-time professional guide specializing in hybrid and striped bass. (803) 637-3226.

• Craig Johnson. Professional guide specializing in largemouth, hybrid and striped bass. (706) 364-6437.

• Daniel Ladow. U.S. Coast Guard-licensed, full-time professional guide specializing in hybrid and striped bass. Cell phone: (706) 373-1004. www.acestriperguide.com.

• Jay Letterman. U.S. Coast Guard-licensed professional guide specializing in hybrid and striped bass. (704) 689-0060.

• Albert Moody. Clarks Hill Herring Hut, yellow perch, crappie, hybrids, other species. Clarks Hill, S.C. (864) 333-2000.

• Billy Murphy, Jim Murphy, Brad Murphy. Professional guides specializing in crappies, largemouth, hybrid and striped bass. (706) 733-0124. www.doubletroublefishingguides.com.

• Capt. Mike Patrick. U.S. Coast Guard-licensed, full-time professional guide specializing in hybrid and striped bass. (864) 333-2513. Cell phone: (706) 833-3355. www.clarkshillguides.com.

• Capt. William Sasser. U.S. Coast Guard-licensed professional guide specializing in crappies, hybrids and striped bass. (706) 589-5468.

• Evan Williams. U.S. Coast Guard-licensed professional guide specializing in hybrid and striped bass. (864) 554-3896.

• Capt. David Willard. U.S. Coast Guard-licensed, full-time professional fishing guide specializing in hybrid and striped bass and trophy largemouth bass. (803) 737-6379. Cell phone: (706) 214-0236. www.crocketrocketstriperfishing.com. ]
-Compiled by Bill Baab

Timeline: The Birth of Thurmond Lake
• 1890: An Army Corps of Engineers survey concluded that the best way to stop flooding in Augusta would be a series of dams on the upper Savannah River.

• 1927: Congress authorized the corps to investigate potential sites and two areas, Clarks Hill and Hartwell, were proposed in 1933.

• 1935: President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed a board to study the feasibility of a dam at Clarks Hill.

• 1944: After additional studies, the project was authorized by Congress in 1944, with an estimated price tag of $45 million.

• 1946: Construction began August 1, with a contract for a railroad to bring materials to the site. Soon more than 2,000 workers were involved.

• 1951: After years of work, the gates were closed in mid-November to enable the reservoir to begin filling with water.

• 1952: The corps accepted contracts on the project as complete June 30. Final costs were $79 million.

• The last of the dam's seven hydropower turbines sprang to life, officially completing one of the nation's largest man-made lakes.

Tidbits & Trivia
A Half Century of Anecdotal Oddities
• Thurmond Lake is widely known for its giant stripers, serene sunsets and the occasional tall tale, especially where fishermen are concerned. Yet over its half-century of existence, some of those wild stories have proven to be true and give the 70,000-acre reservoir part of its identity-and its charm.

• In 1955, newspapers in Augusta and McCormick carried an unbelievable story about a gentleman from North Carolina named Buck Perry, who came to the lake to demonstrate his amazing new invention, the Spoonplug lure.

• Incredible as it sounds, on July 24, 1955, Perry hurled a silver Spoonplug into the lake 30 times and landed 30 bass. The feat was witnessed by dozens of spectators and the press. "I believe I could have caught 100," Perry told a reporter who covered the event.

• There were other tales from the early years that turned out to be true, including the capture of a sea turtle by a man from Abbeville. According to newspaper accounts, H.E. Staples was fishing with his son Leon on July 25, 1955, when a 95-pound sea turtle was hooked. It took three men to haul it into the boat "alive and kicking and strong as a mule."

• At first, the catch fueled speculation that saltwater fish and turtles that had swam up the Savannah River from the sea had somehow become landlocked when the dam was completed a few years earlier. It turned out the creature had been released by humans. The proof: Folks who gathered at Jake Cooley's gas station to see the turtle discovered the initials "A.T."

Here are other selected anecdotes, taken from news accounts and Corps of Engineers records. Some events are reprinted from a story first published in The Augusta Chronicle in 1992:

April 1952: The Little River Wildlife Federation gathered in Thomson with fish and game authorities to discuss wildlife management needs for the lake area, which was said to hold 100 whitetail deer-one of the largest herds in Georgia.

September 1952: Columbia County scheduled a special court term to handle a growing load of cases against people caught fishing without a license. In one day, 60 such defendants pleaded guilty and forfeited $15 bonds. Solicitor George Hains declared the lake to be "right profitable for the county."

Oct. 7, 1952: O.L. Bumpas, reservoir manager, angered farmers with a curt letter giving them 10 days to remove cattle from government land. The resulting outcry, channeled through local politicians to Congress and the corps' commanding general, yielded a reversal of the order three days later. In those days, nearly 1,000 farmers lived and farmed in the lake area.

Feb. 24, 1953: Local 4-H Club children were mobilized into teams to rescue rabbits trapped on islands by rising water. The children were paid 75 cents for each bunny. The animals were used to replenish their species in Georgia and South Carolina.

March 26, 1953: A Grumman Bearcat fighter plane on a training mission crashed on the lake's shoreline. The pilot, Lt. Francis Kendall, parachuted to safety, wandered to a highway and was taken by passersby to Lincolnton, Ga., where residents fed him a warm breakfast.

April 15, 1953: Concern over the previously unheard-of problem of drunken boating on the reservoir prompted the Georgia Legislature to adopt a bill authorizing prosecution of such offenders by state game wardens.

April 18, 1953: A press tour of the reservoir sponsored by Augusta's Chamber of Commerce drew interest from across the nation. NBC's Ray Scherer won a prize for the largest fish. President Eisenhower was unable to accept his invitation, but two U.S. Secret Service agents from the White House competed instead.

July 4, 1953: Judge Henry C. Hammond of South Carolina proposed a major zoo be developed at the lake. The islands, he said, would serve well as habitat for free-roaming animals. His idea, although never pursued, came from a zoo in Denver that used the same principle.

Feb. 15, 1954: A local congressman suggested renaming the lake Hamilton-Moody Reservoir. Thomas Hamilton was an editor of The Augusta Chronicle, and Lester Moody was secretary of the Augusta Chamber of Commerce. Both men supported the creation of the lake. The proposal never passed.