The Spanish Mackerel have arrived off the beaches on the east side of Cape Fear and Wrightsville Beach, the fish are in full attack mode.
Spanish Mackerel fishing in the Wrightsville Beach area can vary throughout the year. The fish usually bite the most during high season which is typically between May and August. The season is open year around, with things slowing down from January to March each year.
With that said, its June and time to fish — we were lucky enough to be invited on a near shore fishing trip departing from Seapath Yacht Club to score some Spanish Mackerel. In fact, this fishing trip was so much more, it was a fishing tournament.
With numerous, easily accessible fishing spots and miles of beautiful coastline, we were sure to find something, and come back with the biggest catch to win the contest.
We departed Seapath around 8am and headed out the inlet, turned south and fished along Masonboro Island for a good 5hrs. Immediately we were into some action and hooked a few 2 pound mackerels, which set the mood for the day.
After trolling south for hours we reached the Carolina Beach inlet, where we were hoping to score. Unfortunately we didn’t. There were other boats in the area, but they didn’t seem to be catching anything either.
Being as far south as we were and the call time for the tournament at 2pm, we came about and headed north and trolled along Wrightsville Beach and Shell Island. As soon as we hit Mason Inlet and Figure Eight Island, we were back into the action and scored another couple of Mackerels.
The call came over the radio to “return to port”. So we turned around and cruised back to the Intracoastal and into Motts Channel to arrive at Seapath.
After nearly 7 hours of fishing we scored 12 mackerels, enjoyed an epic, no wind, glassy surface condition day with smoldering 95 degrees of heat beating down on us. No cloud in the sky and smiles on everyone’s faces. New friends were made and now it was the moment of truth. Time to weigh in.
After tying up at the fuel dock, we unloaded the cooler and the fish. The catch was weighed. After all that fun and time in the sun, including the success we had with all the fish we caught, another boat caught a fish that outweighed our largest. At this point we knew we were not going to win this tournament, so we sat back and watched the other fish being weighed.
Our captain was the (up until this point) the undefeated champion of this fishing tournament for the last three years. He was dethroned by his good friends and crew who decided to fish against him this year. Happy just to be out in the water and amongst the tight fishing community, we all celebrated with beers and a fish fry. All the fish that had been caught for the day were cooked and served along fried chicken, beans, mac n cheese, slaw and more.
We wrapped the day watching the sunset across Motts Channel and celebrated our friends and the fish we had been blessed to catch. After-all its not what you catch, its the whole experience: friends, boats, food, beer and the thrill of the hunt that makes Spanish Mackerel fishing off Wrightsville Beach the ultimate day adventure.