Saluda River lunker bass falls to 30-year-old crankbait
On his 15th birthday, Dylan Suber of Pelzer had the fishing trip of his lifetime, catching a 10-pound largemouth bass from the Saluda River.
Suber was fishing on March 8 with his father, John, in a small john boat powered by an electric trolling motor.
“We had put in at the lower ramp in Pelzer and were fishing about 400 yards from the lower hydro dam on the Saluda River,” Dylan Suber said. “It was pretty windy, so we were letting the boat drift with the wind. I was casting a crankbait to the edge of the water and bouncing it off the weeds when the fish hit.”
Suber’s fish headed out to deeper water, and the teen managed to wrangle it to the boat using an All-Star rod matched with a Quantum Nitrous reel spooled with 14-pound mono.
Suber was 15, but the crankbait he was using was roughly twice his age, amazing in today’s world of modern fishing technology.
“I caught the big bass on a GULP,” explained Suber. “It’s an old, handmade crankbait that was made back in the early 80s by a couple of men who lived in Greenville, Jim Harter and Dick Ridgeway. My dad has a whole bunch of them that he bought from a man in Anderson. This particular crankbait has a brown back with yellow sides and tiger stripes on it.”
The Saluda River stretches nearly 50 miles between Lake Saluda and Lake Greenwood and contains over a half-dozen pools created by old mill dams once used for hydro-electric power. Few of these power stations are still in operation, but the dams create pools that provide deep water along the river. The dams slow the current in each pool and tumble over various spillways and shoals to complete the course of the river.
“We caught two more bass and three crappie during the trip, but nothing to match the 10-pounder,” said Suber. “It was a great way to celebrate my birthday.”
The young angler and his father have delivered the boy’s trophy catch to Billy McCullough at Southern Taxidermy in Honea Path to have the fish mounted.
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