A Clark's Hill Story - Lake Thurmond                                                                                 Written by:  Danny Norwood - Janauary 17th 2009 My name is Danny Norwood and what I enjoy doing is fishing and boating on the lakes in South Carolina.  Consequently, I have spent many years of my life doing just that.  So with twenty eight years of experience on the waters of South Carolina, I have decided to share one of my adventures with you.  This particular story is about a terrifying trip that my fishing buddy Shaun and I took on a very cold and windy day back in February 1997 on Lake Thurmond.  At that time Lake Thurmond was called “Clark’s Hill Reservoir.”  Anyway, I remember the story well because sheer terror makes a deep impression on the mind that time can’t easily erase.  So here is what happened on that trip.    First of all, we got to the lake at sunrise with the air temperature in the 30’s.  It was pretty cold, but we were dressed well for the cold weather. We put the boat in at Parksville Recreation Area and took off across the lake.  Lake Thurmond is located on the border between Georgia and South Carolina, and we wanted to fish the Georgia side first because we knew some good fishing holes over there.  We traveled maybe two miles or a little less and started fishing.  As we fished a few hours, we noticed the wind speed steadily increasing, but we kept on fishing thinking the wind was not going to be a bad problem.  We were entirely wrong about the situation.  The wind was an enormous problem because of the small boat we were traveling in.       The boat we were fishing in was a 15 foot aluminum bass boat with a small 25 horsepower outboard motor.  The hull of the boat is designed as a flat bottom boat with only 18 inches of depth.  So, as you can see, this boat is not designed for the type of environment we were going to be traveling in.     The wind picked up to around 25 to 30 mph causing waves so large I thought we would turn over.  I estimate the waves got as high as 3 to 4 feet.  I know those size waves don’t sound dangerous, but they were very dangerous for my little boat.  Each time we hit a wave head on it sounded like a ball bat hitting the hull.  Next, we would get hit in the face with freezing cold water spraying from the busted wave.  We were quickly turning into human popsicles bobbing up and down in an ocean like lake.    Even though Shaun and I were wearing our life preservers and we both can swim, we were certifiably terrified.   Consequently, with the dead of winter here, hypothermia was a definite threat if we fell in the water. We had traveled too far out to swim back to land with the water so cold.  Luckily, Shaun had been in the Navy and he suggested we do a zigzag pattern across the lake.  This strategy actually worked.  Of course, with every wave we crossed we could still taste fear.  The water we were crossing was like a 4 foot hill with an immediate 4 foot hole which repeated over and over.  While running the zigzag pattern we had to change direction to keep our course to the boat ramp.  It was these course corrections which terrified us the most.  Changing direction would force us to hit waves head on until the course correction was completed.  Hitting a wave head on was really bad but hitting a wave sideways was much worse. The best thing for us to do was hit the waves at angles.   This reduced the massive hit on the boat that occurred with a head on hit.  We also found out the hard way not to cut back too far on the throttle.  If the boat looses power all control is gone and the waves can certainly hit the boat from the side which could overturn it.  Once we got near the shoreline, the waves were drastically reduced in size, and we could go a little faster to the ramp.  To conclude this tale of horror, we finally made it to the boat ramp and wrestled the boat on the trailer.  We got the heck out of there shaking in our shoes and vowing never to do such a crazy thing again.  With twenty eight years of boating experience under my belt, this trip was the only one that I had the fear of dying consuming my mind.   Copyright © 2009 Danny Norwood Websites - All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten without the express written consent of the owner.  Internet Publication Date:  01/17/09                                                              Shop the Clearance Department at Basspro.com