Fishing lure designed in Destin to be named world's largest (SLIDESHOW)

SANDESTIN — It’s official: The world’s largest fishing lure is hanging up at the Village of Baytowne Wharf marina.

Mark and Mary Ellen Davis, owners of the S.S. Spitfire Mercantile bait and tackle shop at the Baytowne marina, and a team of family and friends designed and built the massive lure over a 10-month period.

Dubbed the Flatliner, it measures in at 10 feet, 10 inches tall and a whopping 355.2 pounds.

• View a slideshow of the world's largest fishing lure.

Sandestin hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the lure Wednesday morning.

“(People) have flocked in for pictures,” said Mary Ellen Davis. “It’s been incredible. I really thought it was going to be kids, and it’s been grown men hanging on it, literally hugging it, taking pictures.

“It’s just very exciting,” she added. “It’s something we can look up to, something to show our kids.”

Amanda Mochan, an adjudicator for Guinness World Records, came in from New York to certify the lure as the world’s largest, which is a new category for Guinness.

“It’s amazing,” Mochan said. “The different record categories are always so interesting because every record, there’s always a background to it. There’s always a reason why people want to do it, so it’s great to come down and see the passion and enthusiasm and all the hard work that goes into it.”

Being a new category, there was not another lure on record that the S.S. Spitfire staff had to outdo. Instead, there were some minimum requirements that had to be met. Chief among them was the lure had to be at least 10 times the size of a standard fishing lure.

The Flatliner came in at 24 times the size of a standard lure.

“It didn’t just break the minimum requirements, it shattered the minimum requirements, and they put a lot of hard work into it,” Mochan said. “We’ll see, but I think it’s going to be a tough one to break.”

The record lure was based on a 5 ½-inch lure made by David Partridge, owner of Flatliner Lures. Partridge, who hand-makes all of his lures, plans to make smaller, usable replicas of the world-record Flatliner to be sold at S.S. Spitfire Mercantile in the near future.

The lure on display already has inspired a drink, also called the Flatliner. It’s made with orange juice, cranberry juice, lime juice, grenadine and coconut rum. It is available at the Marina Bar and Grill.

The Flatliner is sure to be big hit with visitors, said John Russell, president of Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort. 

“It’s such a family resort, a family destination, and I know when I was 8 or 9 years old and saw something like that I’d be fascinated with it,” Russell said. “It’s just another attraction to get people to come to Sandestin.”