“We have a letter from a professor at the University of Southern Mississippi who writes that he did examine the fish and that it was a spotted bass,” said biologist Tom Holman, keeper of the records for the MDWFP. “We have an affidavit from a man at a store verifying the weight. We even have a Polaroid-type photo of Mr. Grantham and his fish.”

But adding to the mystery of the catch are a few other facts.

The biologist at USM, who also couldn’t be reached, was also named Grantham.

The picture of Ross Grantham with the spotted bass is of the angler and the bass after a taxidermist had already mounted the fish.

And, of course, there’s the fact that spotted bass are not considered pond fish and are rarely found in such waters.

It’s not that current MDWFP officials don’t believe the fish was truly a spotted bass, but the situation does create doubts.

In Ross Grantham’s letter to the state that accompanied the photo and report, he said he caught the fish on a purple Crème worm. He had caught some other big fish in recent trips to different farm ponds owned by family and friends.

But a spotted bass?

“We don’t know anything about the pond, like where it is for sure, and whether or not it could be close enough to a river or a creek that could have flooded,” Ron Garavelli said.

He went on to note that such an event could have put some spots into a pond.

Tom Holman said he didn’t know of any other explanation of how a spot could have gotten into a farm pond and gotten that big.

“Even in that era, no way could a hatchery or a biologist have mistakenly put spotted bass in a pond,” he said. “Just didn’t happen. People weren’t raising spotted bass in Mississippi hatcheries.”

But accept it we must, until it is broken.

“Don’t think for a minute that it won’t be,” Larry Pugh offered. “I’d say it was just a matter of time. Maybe this year. Who knows?

“All I can tell you is that I have personally put my hands on and weighed several spotted bass in the last few years that were well over 7 and even 7 1/2 pounds. They’re out there. They’ll get caught.”

Does he know where or when?

“The where is easy,” Pugh said. “It will come from the Tenn-Tom, either the connecting channel between Pickwick and Bay Springs, or from Bay Springs Lake, or from that same section of the river below Bay Springs where I told you the smallmouth could come from. I saw three from there this year. I hate to tell you that, because again, it’s such a small area and it could easily be overfished.

“As for the when? I’d like to think in a year or two, and probably in the spring, when they are at their biggest.”

One other river system could produce a record spot.