Lake Hartwell
 

Any Hartwell boaters on here ?

Maybe one day, if all goes as planned. Beautiful part of the country you're in there, enjoy!

Yes, I boat on Lake Hartwell. How can I help you?

Yea pretty nice little lake. If in the area stop by for a beer.

Just like meeting new boating friends. We are riding up to Clemson Saturday to listen to Kickoff at noon. Then head over to Clemson marina for lunch.

Also in May I throw a little party out on the water. I have a double decker pontoon that is just a floating party barge. I tow it into a cove near Old Andersonville island. We raft-up, listen to live music, float, chill and drink a few beers.

We are planning to slip on Hartwell in a couple of weeks. The old Andersonville island is an interest we have to see.

How is the lake level holding up?

What marina ?

It is down about 7 feet now. About normal for this time of year. I actually like it down some makes for some great beach parties. Plus it is a deep lake.

I agree! Some great beach locations when the lake is low. It helps to have a pontoon boat as the lowered water depth and submerged rocks can make for some fun navigation.

Break out that pontoon and come ride up to Clemson with us Saturday. Im on Ga side close to T3 buoy. We heading out around 10:30ish. Plan is to get up there anchor off raft-up watch/listen to Clemson kickoff at noon from water. Then idle over to Clemson marina for lunch, football, beer, cornhole and chillin.

Planning to slip in at Portmans on Thursday next week and stay for the weekend.

I hope 7 feet down doesn't prevent us from running on the lake a good bit.

Good water from Portmans to Andersonville Island??

Anything south of Portman marina is deep and wide.That's really the start of the main body of the lake. Some standing timber could be near the surface in some coves and near the banks though. Been enjoying Hartwell since I was a kid in the 70's with my folks.You should have no worries.It's a beautiful lake, enjoy!

Oh no worries water is good at Portman. Hartwell is a deep lake. Even when it was 22 feet down we still boated. If you like history stuff. Run up the Seneca river to S53 there is an island right at that buoy. Beach your boat on the white sandy beach and walk a short trail to highest point. There are graves that date back to the 1700s.
If want continue to run the Seneca on up to Clemson. Clemson Marina/Grill has good water I was just there Saturday lowest water I saw was 30 feet. They still had 10 at courtesy docks. They have good bar food and cold beer.
The corp keeps the channels marked so just stay between the green & reds and hammer down.

Grew up boating on Hartwell. Mostly around Tugalo State Park, but have been all over it.

We had to visit other local lakes during that bad drought. All the boat ramps on the SC side of Hartwell were closed. Do you know of one that is still in the water when it gets really low. I would love to live on the lake, and will one day, but it will have to be on deep water so the dock could be moved in and out. It really made a lot of folks mad when they let it go to 20+ feet down. I was one of them. Oh well, lakes Keowee and Jocassee are always an option.

I'm planning a trip there next summer for the poker run/family vacation. Going to rent a house on the lake for a week. Really looking forward to it, we went to Lanier last year for the first time and loved it, really excited to check out the other lakes in the area. Like you guys, I'm hoping to live on one of the lakes one day.

Any advice for first timers? Any popular hang outs or places to go?

-Tom

I have been very fortunate when I go to different places to have folks show me around. I have meet boaters thru forums or just rafted-up. So I always repay the hospitality. Hartwell is a pretty go sized lake. We don't have the huge cocktail cove party place like lanier, but there are some party spots. Couple of different places to go to by boat for live music. Couple of places to go to by boat for food. They range from nice dining to dive spots. Im more than happy to buy you a beer and show you around. I think I saw your name on the TOY run if so I will there and we can talk more.

That would be awesome thank you! Yeah, not necessarily looking for a party spot, I boat with family and my 1 year old, just wanted to see if there was a cool place to go and be seen type of thing. I will probably be the only Advantage at the toy run so I should be easy to spot.

We put in at Portmans and had a great four days on Hartwell. The wind last weekend was the most I have seen on the water since Erie at PIB. Had to use a lot of tab to keep her level due to the wind but we had some fun splashing the bow and getting water blown over the windshield. We ran from Portmans to the Dam, Fair Play and up toward Clemson but did not go all the way up. Look forward to getting back on this lake sometime. Pretty cool water to run on.

Oh yea the Galley and Nami restaurants at Portmans were excellent eating. Definitely an awesome dining option for Hartwell.

Glad y'all had fun. Yea those are our fancy restaurants. There are a few more. Some I think the food is better, just not as easy to get to. Plus there is a mom-n-pop that has the best breakfast you could ask for.

Let me know when y'all are headed back.

Nice, sounds like plenty more to explore. A great breakfast place is always an interest for me.
We will definitely come back to Hartwell so I'll give a heads up when we do. Always nice to meet more of the boating community. This winter is forecasted to be warm and dry. If the lake levels are good enough we may be on the water for the holidays too.

I miss living in Anderson. I worked too much the short time I was there so I did not do enough boating. But it is beautiful up there.

Yes it is beautiful here. We live within a 30 to 45 minute drive to some awesome upstate lakes,Jocassee and the upper part of Keowee are expecially beautiful this time of year.I live about 15 minutes out of downtown Greenville just over the Anderson county line.So it is convenient to Hartwell, Jocassee,and Keowee. I really wanted to go to the lake this weekend with this beautiful weather we are having, but I decided to wait till next weekend when I'll be off of work for a long 5 day weekend.Think we'll go to Jocassee next weekend, before all the trees loose their leaves. Last time I was in the water was the 16th. We put in at Portman shoals marina and went down almost to the dam to a friends lake house. Beautiful weather and slick water made for a couple brief 70 mph runs. I keep telling myself this engine only has about 5 hours on it, take it easy, but dang it was running good! On the run back up the lake we went up to the Clemson marina where I saw another boat like mine so I had to go investigate. As I was trying to turn around between the covered row of docks I herd someone yelling HEY!...HEY!... I turned around to see someone running down the gangway to the docks waving their hands. I thought I was in some kind of trouble and remembered thinking to myself I was just puttin around with the boat exhaust buttoned up and not creating a disturbance... what gives? So I kill the engine and ask whats up? can I help you? To which he replied, is that a 29, I say yes, and from there a conversation started about boats! Turns out he had just sold the 29 I was checking out at the docks and was going to be moving up to a 38.We exchanged names and I got an invite back to check out his new boat.This sport boat thing is a sickness and I'm glad I caught it!

A couple of photos at portman shoals marina ramp.We need some rain![ATTACH=CONFIG]561298[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]561299[/ATTACH]

We sure do. I put off moving my dock as long as I could. I finally gave in and moved it this past weekend. But I have enjoyed this warm weather. Love still being able to get into the water, float and drink a beer or 2 in November.

The rain came last night for sure. Maybe some level changing for the better.

We plan on doing some boating on hartwell next year, just need to find a good ramp on the ga side. We live about the same distance from hartwell and lanier.

Harbour light marina is on ga side right at 85 bridge. Very close to 85. Gum branch mega ramp is just outside city of hartwell not so close to 85. But if coming up highway 29 easy to get to. I always launch at Crawfords Ferry small one lane corp ramp. Free never busy in very deep water.

Every year I throw a party to kick off summer. I call it DRINKO. This year it is May 20th. It is an adult oriented party. So normal lake fun. I have a party toon I drag out to a cove. Located here > https://goo.gl/maps/1CiDPpe745z
This year we will have a full live band playing. Music to start around 1 going to 5-6 range. It will be hard to miss us. Look for the double deck toon with a 3x5 pirate flag 20 feet in the air. Not to mention 15 or so boats rafted-up.

Is the party still on ?

Heck yea

My wife's family has a house up near Westminster, and if I weren't on call this weekend I'd be there.

Dang. I will drink a beer and do a shot for you.

Had a great turn out. This is a little glimpse of how day turned out. This was from early in day. We ended up with 15 boats in our raft-up and about another 10-12 in cove.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlzMw9Ju36o