Rock Hill teen catches bass pushing 13 1/2 pounds from local pond

Austin Brock, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Rock Hill, caught this 13-pound, 5-ounce largemouth bass last Saturday.

Enormous fish hit small crankbait last Saturday

An 8th-grader from Rock Hill gave himself a great end-of-school present when caught an enormous largemouth bass last Saturday in a private pond in his hometown.

Austin Brock, a 14-year-old student at Castle Heights Middle School, was fishing with his father, Denny, and a family friend, when he landed a 27-inch bass with a 20-inch girth that tipped the scales at 13 pounds, 5 ounces.

Brock said the fish hit a small, gray and orange crankbait in about five feet of water around noon.

“The fish hit about 7 or 8 feet off the bank,” Brock said. “It probably took me about 2 or 3 minutes to get it in. It was too fat to jump.”

Brock said the fish’s strike felt “like a little bream” and he didn’t have any idea he was hooked into a leviathan until he reached down and grabbed the bass by the jaw – his previous biggest bass being “a 3- or 4-pounder.”

“I was surprised,” said Brock, who said the bass’s tail was “all cut up” and bleeding, probably from having recently spawned.

About Dan Kibler 887 Articles
Dan Kibler is the former managing editor of Carolina Sportsman Magazine. If every fish were a redfish and every big-game animal a wild turkey, he wouldn’t ever complain. His writing and photography skills have earned him numerous awards throughout his career.

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