New state record scamp may take world record title

North Carolina’s latest state record for scamp is also a pending world record catch.

Teddy Wingfield, a 9-year-old from Lookout Mountain, Tenn., reeled in the fish on June 2 while fishing in waters off of Atlantic Beach.

The scamp weighed in at 32 pounds, topping the former state record by nearly 5 pounds and the world record by 2 pounds, 6 ounces.

Wingfield has applied for the all-tackle world record title through the International Game Fish Association. The application is pending approval.

The former state record, a 27-pound, 1-ounce fish, was also caught off Atlantic Beach in 2012. The current all-tackle world record scamp is 29 pounds, 10 ounces and was caught off Dauphin Island, Ala., in 2000.

Wingfield’s fish spanned 43 inches total length — tip of the nose to the tip of the tai — and measured 28 inches around the girth.

He caught the scamp using a Barefoot jig and 60-pound test line on a Penn Carnage jigging rod with a Canyon reel while fishing on the Sunrise II charter boat.

For more information, contact Carole Willis, with the North Carolina Saltwater Fishing Tournament, at 252-808-8081 or carole.y.willis@ncdenr.gov.