Big flounder caught on Ratling Vudu shrimp
Fresh off winning the annual Capt. Rickey’s Trout Speck-tacular Tournament on Egret Baits’ new Rattling Vudu Shrimp, Clay Morphis of Shallotte, N.C., caught a big prize, a 13-pound, 30.5-inch flounder, with the same lure on Dec. 29.
“The fish lost one-and-a-half inches from the time it was caught until it was weighed. I bet it would have gone 14-plus pounds,” said Brandon Sauls, who was fishing with Morphis.
Morphis said earlier reports of his catch in the Charlotte Observer and on Facebook incorrectly said he pulled the fish from the Shallote River, but it was actually the North Santee, where big numbers of quality flounder have been reported by several anglers along the coastal region.
Sauls agrees.
“It was a crazy bite,” he said. “We caught 50 to 60 fish, including a couple of 4- to 5-pounders on top of the big fish.”
The rattling Vudu Shrimp is the same soft plastic lure anglers have been catching speckled trout and redfish on for the past few years, with the addition of a small rattle that is inserted inside the body of the shrimp. The rattle adds a sound factor to the lure, which many anglers believe is essential to drawing strikes from fish.
In the past several years, the inshore flounder bite has stayed hot later in the year than a lot of anglers realize. Capt. Justin Witten of Ambush Fishing in Murrells Inlet said the mild winter temperatures have kept man flounder around throughout the winter, and that he isn’t surprised to hear about Morphis’ catch.
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