See every public fishing venue in Georgia on the map, with boat ramps, camping, parking and full rules for each one.
Hartwell Lake is a public lake in Hart County, Stephens County and Franklin County, Georgia, managed by Georgia DNR Wildlife Resources Division. It is public water managed for fishing by the Georgia DNR Wildlife Resources Division. Public access confirmed via marquee water.
Lake Hartwell (56,000 ac) on the Georgia–South Carolina line — a Bassmaster Classic lake, largemouth and spotted bass, a huge hybrid and striped-bass fishery, blueback herring forage, plus crappie and bream. A Georgia or South Carolina licence fishes the whole lake.
Hartwell Lake covers about 33,596 acres in the Piedmont region. Anglers here mostly fish for largemouth bass, spotted bass, striped bass, hybrid striped bass; channel catfish, black crappie, bluegill, redbreast sunfish are also on record. The nearest other mapped waters on PiscaMaps are Seneca River and Tugaloo River.
Species from GA DNR fish-management and boat-ramp data.
Night fishing: No statewide night-fishing closure in Georgia. Public Fishing Areas and some Corps day-use parks have posted hours; a few PFAs are closed at night. Bowfishing and jugging at night are legal on most public water. Trout streams on WMAs may be open only 30 min before sunrise to 30 min after sunset in the seasonal-catch reaches.
Boats: The big Corps and Georgia Power reservoirs have no horsepower limit; idle-speed / no-wake zones are marked near ramps, marinas, bridges and dams. Many Public Fishing Area ponds are electric-motor-only or trolling-motor-only, and some are car-top only. Georgia requires a boat-safety course for operators born on or after 1 Jan 1998.
Bank & bivvy camping: Camp at Georgia state parks (GeorgiaStateParks.org), Corps of Engineers lakeside campgrounds, and Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest sites. WMAs allow camping only in designated areas and often only during hunt seasons. The blackwater paddle rivers (Ogeechee, Satilla, Altamaha) have a sandbar-camping tradition on the exposed bars.
Tackle: Statewide black-bass daily limit is 10 in aggregate (only 2 may be shoal bass, and the redeye/Bartram's/Chattahoochee/Altamaha bass have their own protections); 15 crappie on many reservoirs; 8 trout with a Georgia trout licence. Several rivers and reservoirs have their own slot or size limits — check the current Georgia regulations for this water.
Boat ramps: 20 mapped — Boat ramp, Glenn Ferry Boat Ramp, Boat Ramp, Boat Ramp, Boat ramp, Boat ramp and others nearby.
Camping: 8 sites mapped nearby — Crescent, Watsadler, Watsadler Campground, Elrod Ferry, Springfield, Big Water Campground and others.
Source: OpenStreetMap contributors.
Anyone 16-64 needs a Georgia fishing licence — resident annual is about $15, non-resident annual about $50, and non-resident 1-day (~$10) and 3-day (~$18) licences are sold. A separate Georgia trout licence (~$10 resident / ~$20 non-resident) is required to fish for or possess trout. Georgia residents 65+ fish free. Buy from GoOutdoorsGeorgia.com. A Georgia fishing licence covers this water. The Corps reservoirs on the Savannah (Hartwell, Russell, Clarks Hill), the Chattahoochee (West Point) and the Florida line (Seminole) are fished lake-wide on a licence from either state.
Every water carries species, bank & boat access, current regulations and live water conditions — and members get Swim Mapper, Catch Logger and Trip Planner. It's the only US map with a dedicated carp-water layer.
Open the Georgia map Start your free trial