This photo does not do justice to Arkansas’ long-standing largemouth bass record, but it’s the only known picture of Aaron Mardis of Memphis and his 16-pound, 4-ounce Mallard Lake bass.

By Joe Mosby

When Aaron Mardis caught the big bass, the tumult was yet to come.

It was 33 years ago, plus a few days, when Memphis resident Mardis hooked and landed the 16-pound, 4-ounce largemouth bass that remains the Arkansas record.

Not long after that March 2, 1976, event, two other huge bass turned up in Arkansas – one from Lake Millwood weighing 16-1, caught in a commercial fisherman’s net, and one weighing 15-15, caught on Greers Ferry Lake by Bald Knob resident Billy Glaze.

But there have been no largemouths approaching these sizes caught in recent years. It makes a good conversation point. Are big bass out there? What about Mallard Lake, where Mardis caught his fish? What about Coal Pile, the lower Arkansas River backwater that produced so many double-digit bass?

What about Lake Monticello, designed from the get-go as a trophy bass fishery?

A minor talking point on those three big bass is that the 16-4 Mallard Lake fish and the 15-15 Greers Ferry fish were of the Florida strain of largemouth bass, both from stockings by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The 16-1 Lake Millwood fish was of the northern strain of largemouth bass, putting it near the top of all-time northern strain lists.

As the years pass, some of the highlights of the unusual Aaron Mardis state record fish become blurred and even are forgotten.

In capsule form here, the story begins in November 1975 when Mardis fished Mallard Lake, a 300-acre Game and Fish waterway near Manila in northeastern Arkansas. He hooked and lost an exceptionally big bass.

He later said he never got a good look at the fish.

The following March, Mardis and his brother, Troy, went back to Mallard Lake, which had something of a quiet reputation as home for some large largemouths. They launched a flatbottom boat by sliding it down a bank near the northwest corner of the lake. This was close to where Mardis had hooked and missed the big fish a few months earlier.

Mardis tied on a spinner bait and right away had a hit. He knew it was a good-sized fish, but he brought it in without much hassle. He and his brother looked at it, admired it and had no idea how much it weighed. They had never seen a bass of its size.

So they trolled back to where they had launched, tossed the bass into the back of their pickup truck and returned to fishing.

Yes, and the story is just beginning.

The two caught a few more bass, nothing remarkable, in the next several hours, then they loaded up and returned to Memphis, the big fish still in the back of the truck. They had stopped at a store in Osceola and weighed the bass – 16-8. They showed the fish to some buddies in Memphis, who said “that might be an Arkansas record” and suggested calling the state Game and Fish Commission the next day.

Mardis went home and put the bass in his freezer. The next morning after some phone calls, they met Paige Miller, AGFC wildlife officer stationed in Crittenden County, at West Memphis, and Miller filled out the state record application. He watched it as it was weighed on certified scales – 16 pounds, 4 ounces. This was more than 24 hours after the fish was caught, more than a full day out of the water.

Miller asked Mardis what he caught the bass on. Mardis replied, “Spinner bait.” What kind of spinner bait? Mardis couldn’t remember the name, but someone watching shouted out “Strike King.” That was a popular type of spinner bait made in Memphis. Mardis, in an interview three days later, said it was a Vibra-Queen spinner bait, made by Cotton Cordell in Arkansas, but he couldn’t think of that name when Miller asked the question.

Mardis was a commercial painter by trade, specializing in municipal water tanks. He had finished a job at Holly Grove just before catching the big bass.

A cassette tape of the interview with Mardis was made by an Arkansas newsman three days after the catch. The uproar was already in full swing, and Mardis was hurt by accusations of shenanigans with the catch.
“I wish I had never caught that fish,” he said on the tape.

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Joe Mosby is the retired news editor of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and Arkansas’ best known outdoor writer. His work is distributed by the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. He can be reached by e-mail at jhmosby@cyberback.com.